History WesternAnimation / TheWildThornberrys

* ThermostatTantrum: A rare justified example. In one episode, the Thornberrys are in Africa during the warmer season (and possibly a heat wave). Debbie turns the A/C up to 10, only for Marianne to tell her "no". Marianne finally relents because it is hot, but instructs Debbie that it is ''never'' to go past 8. Sure enough, Debbie turns it up to 10 and takes a nap when Nigel&Marianne are out... and [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome drains the battery]].

* HateSink: Sloan and Bree Blackburn are a poaching couple who are conceived as evil, uncaring animal hunters who take bloodthirsty glee in their actions. Sloan boasts about their plan to force elephants into an electric fence and Bree taunts the cheetah cub Tally about taking his fur for a coat someday. They each express nothing but smugness and sadistic joy at every turn and are the absolute worst of the poachers faced by the Thornberrys.

* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: Nigel's father is mentioned to have been a Royal Air Force veteran and holds the rank of colonel. However, the RAF hasn't used army ranks since 1919. The equivalent rank is Group Captain.

* BigDamnHeroes / TheCavalry: Debbie in general. While she always bickers with Eliza and doesn't care for her interests, she's always the first person to jump in and save her sister's life once things look their worst, often diving headfirst into danger without much reservation for her own safety. Often Overlaps with AFriendInNeed, IGotYouCovered, and occasionally ChangedMyMindKid. The "Debbie goes looking for Eliza in the wilderness, finds her in jeopardy and saves her life" bit was used so often that they lampshaded it when it happened in the series finale.

--->'''Eliza:''' Um, maybe you shouldn't do that...I mean since you're so tired, you might not be able to get back up.\\

* OffModel: The series has a fair amount of coloring errors.

** One episode has Donnie and Debbie finding a girl in the jungle who is being raised by leopards.

** While in South America Donnie and Debbie meet a girl Donnie's age being raised by leopards.

* ThisIsNoTimeForKnitting: Marianne gets irritated with Nigel when they are supposed to filming a documentary on the bird-eating spider and he keeps being distracted by a series of seemingly unrelated activities. He eventually explains that everything he was doing was to actually help him locate the spider so they could start filming. (Except for spinning on the ropes; that was just for fun.)

* VolatileTasmanianDevil: The main antagonists of "Pal Joey" are a pair of Tasmanian Devils that are very eager to eat Eliza, Darwin and the kangaroo joey they are babysitting, but they are also prone to bickering and fighting each other. The PS1 video game, ''The Wild Thornberrys Animal Adventure'', also had Eliza getting menaced by Tasmanian Devils [[spoiler:who are enemies of a surviving population of thylacines]].

* VolatileTasmanianDevil: The main antagonists of "Pal Joey" are a pair of Tasmanian Devils that are very eager to eat Eliza, Darwin and the kangaroo joey they are babysitting, but they are also prone to bickering and fighting each other.

** Eliza claims in one episode that alligators are "the closest things we have to a living dinosaur". In reality, ostriches and cassowaries are much closer (to a prehistoric dinosaur anyways, since all birds are biologically dinosaurs).

''The Wild Thornberrys'' was a [[Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} Nicktoon]] that ran from 1998 to 2004, produced by Creator/KlaskyCsupo of ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' fame, (deep breath) created by Arlene Klasky, Gabor Csupo, Steve Pepoon, David Silverman[[note]]not to be confused with the [[Creator/DavidSilverman animator of the same name]] who is best known for his work on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''[[/note]] and Stephen Sustarsic, and developed by Mark Palmer, Jeff Astrof and Mike Sikowitz. The show centers around Eliza Thornberry, an adventurous young girl [[SpeaksFluentAnimal who can talk to animals]], an especially handy power when your parents travel the world to make Nature Documentaries. Naturally, there's a catch--she can't tell anyone she has this power, or else she loses it, and presumably, the shaman who gave it to her to begin with would be hard-pressed to give it back again. The cast is filled out by the aforementioned parents Nigel and Marianne Thornberry, the Nature Documentary's presenter and camerawoman respectively and Eliza's older sister, the [[DeadpanSnarker deadpan]] and [[CityMouse deeply-unenthusiastic- about-her-parents'-career]] Debbie. Also along for the ride was the deeply neurotic chimpanzee Darwin, and crazy wild jungle boy Donnie, Eliza's adopted younger brother.

** Coconut husks in "Thornberry Island" are hairy like coconut shells, rather than having glossy skin colored green, yellow, or yellowish-brown.

* BareYourMidriff: Debbie, in most of her outfits.

* NotSoExtinct: Two in the Playstation game ''The Wild Thornberrys Animal Adventure''. In Egypt, the family discovers and films a Barbary lion (thought to be regionally extinct) which befriends Eliza and offers to take her and Donnie to the Great Sphinx of Giza. And in Tasmania, Eliza goes off to find a thylacine [[spoiler: and succeeds in meeting a family of them after evading some Tasmanian devils which are enemies of the thylacines]].

''The Wild Thornberrys'' was a [[Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} Nicktoon]] that ran from 1998 to 2004, produced by Creator/KlaskyCsupo of ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' fame, (deep breath) created by Arlene Klasky, Gabor Csupo, Steve Pepoon, David Silverman[[note]]not to be confused with the animator of the same name who is best known for his work on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''[[/note]] and Stephen Sustarsic, and developed by Mark Palmer, Jeff Astrof and Mike Sikowitz. The show centers around Eliza Thornberry, an adventurous young girl [[SpeaksFluentAnimal who can talk to animals]], an especially handy power when your parents travel the world to make Nature Documentaries. Naturally, there's a catch--she can't tell anyone she has this power, or else she loses it, and presumably, the shaman who gave it to her to begin with would be hard-pressed to give it back again. The cast is filled out by the aforementioned parents Nigel and Marianne Thornberry, the Nature Documentary's presenter and camerawoman respectively and Eliza's older sister, the [[DeadpanSnarker deadpan]] and [[CityMouse deeply-unenthusiastic- about-her-parents'-career]] Debbie. Also along for the ride was the deeply neurotic chimpanzee Darwin, and crazy wild jungle boy Donnie, Eliza's adopted younger brother.

The series has three films to its name, the MadeForTVMovie ''The Wild Thornberrys: The Origin of Donnie'' (2001), and two [[TheMovie theatrical films]]: ''The Wild Thornberrys Movie'' (2002), and the {{Crossover}} movie ''WesternAnimation/RugratsGoWild'' (2003). This show has examples of some of the only non-villainous roles in Creator/TimCurry's career - Nigel Thornberry and his father.

* ArtisticLicenseSpace: In the movie, after the solar eclipse, the moon is shown as full that very night. Solar eclipses can only happen with a ''new'' moon.

* AwardBaitSong: From the movie, Music/PaulSimon's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COQPSoRFdwg "Father and Daughter"]], which was actually nominated for the UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestOriginalSong, but lost to [[Film/EightMile "Lose Yourself"]].
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Debbie and Eliza, as demonstrated numerous times in the series. Even in the movie, Debbie gave Eliza a goodbye hug before Eliza was sent to London, and Eliza [[spoiler:is willing to lose her power to save Debbie]].

* BigBad: Kip O'Donnell and Niel Biederman, a pair of poachers who occasionally antagonize the titular family, are the closest the show has to a main antagonist. Other than the pilot, they only appear in seven episodes before [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome disappearing completely after the second season]]. TheMovie gives us Sloan and Bree Blackburn.

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Nigel appears at first as a BumblingDad whose wife is the real brains behind the show, but it turns out he really is a lot like Creator/SteveIrwin in being a talented zoologist and outdoorsman. In the movie he, along with his dad, even end up doing some guerrilla sabotage strikes against some poachers.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: A minor example in the movie: Sloan and Bree Blackburn allow Eliza and her friends to stay for the night, but forbid them from going inside their trailer. [[spoiler: Thus hiding evidence of their true occupation as evil poachers]].

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* HeroicSacrifice:
** In the movie, Eliza [[spoiler: gives up her powers to save her sister]].
** In "Pal Joey", Eliza invokes this by giving herself up to a pair of Tasmanian devils in exchange for Joey whom they captured, with plans to escape later. It backfires when the T. devils ([[TruthInTelevision with their ravenous appetites]]) do not keep their end of the deal and attempt to eat both her ''and'' Joey.
* HoldingBothSidesOfTheConversation: Debbie does this with Boko, a native of East Africa. During the movie, he repeats certain words that Debbie says and he shows some understanding of what's going on. He even attacked a poacher because he knew very well that Debbie was in danger.

* KidsAreCruel: Subverted in the movie; Eliza gets gossiped about and snickered at for interacting with animals, but the kids end up being interested in her.

* ObviouslyEvil: Averted with the poacher couple Sloan and Bree Blackburn in the Movie. They're actually rather good at keeping their cover.

* OffToBoardingSchool: In the movie, Grandmumsy believes that Eliza should be in a “structured environment” like a boarding school, not considering it safe for her to play with animals.

* PartingWordsRegret: In the movie, Eliza feels this way when the [[spoiler:the last thing she said to Darwin in his language before losing her powers, was screaming at him to shut up for once.]]

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Darwin gives one to Eliza in the movie, when [[NiceJobBreakingItHero her actions end up causing all their problems in the film and putting their lives in danger]]. But since it wasn't the right time or place for it, Eliza reaches her own RageBreakingPoint and tells Darwin to shut up.
-->'''Eliza:''' ''(as Tally tries to untie her)'' Go Tally, go! That's it!\\
'''Darwin:''' [[SarcasmMode Yes. That's it. Get the cheetah involved again.]] If we hadn't gone out looking for [Sloan and Bree] that night, we wouldn't be in this mess.\\
'''Eliza:''' Don't you blame Tally.\\
'''Darwin:''' Oh, I'm ''not.'' Tally didn't sneak out without permission. Tally didn't run away from boarding school. Tally didn't trust [[EvilPoacher those awful people who]] ''[[CruellaToAnimals clearly don't like animals]]!''\\
'''Eliza:''' I thought they were like me.\\
'''Darwin:''' When are you going to see that ''no one's'' like you? What more do you need? The Shaman gave you a gift. Use it!\\
'''Eliza:''' Darwin, please!\\
'''Darwin:''' You know what I think? You don't know ''what'' to do with your powers.\\
'''Eliza:''' Darwin! For once in your life, [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Just! Be!]] '''[[BigShutUp QUIET!]]'''\\
(''Darwin recoils back with a hurt expression'')

* ShellShockedVeteran: Implied in the movie to be the case with Nigel's father Radcliffe, a former R.A.F. colonel and veteran of [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the Second World War]]. While sleeping he wakes up to the sound of a motor starting and thinks he is in the middle of "the Blitz", until his wife tells him he is dreaming. The sound is actually Debbie using the [=ComVee=]'s jungle bike to go look for Eliza and Donnie.

* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: Almost every trailer for the movie showcased [[spoiler: Sloan and Bree's true natures]] and [[spoiler: Eliza losing her powers]], both of which happen more than halfway through the movie.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: In the movie, after Eliza and Darwin escape from the boarding school, neither it or Eliza's new classmates are seen or mentioned again.

* YouDontLookLikeYou: In ''The Wild Thornberrys Movie'', the shaman who gave Eliza her power to talk to animals looks completely different from how he appeared in the show's opening and the episode "Gift of Gab".

''The Wild Thornberrys'' was a [[Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} Nicktoon]] that ran from 1998 to 2004, produced by Creator/KlaskyCsupo of ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' fame, (deep breath) created by Arlene Klasky, Gabor Csupo, Steve Pepoon, David Silverman[[note]][[NamesTheSame not to be confused with]] the animator of the same name who is best known for his work on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''[[/note]] and Stephen Sustarsic, and developed by Mark Palmer, Jeff Astrof and Mike Sikowitz. The show centers around Eliza Thornberry, an adventurous young girl [[SpeaksFluentAnimal who can talk to animals]], an especially handy power when your parents travel the world to make Nature Documentaries. Naturally, there's a catch--she can't tell anyone she has this power, or else she loses it, and presumably, the shaman who gave it to her to begin with would be hard-pressed to give it back again. The cast is filled out by the aforementioned parents Nigel and Marianne Thornberry, the Nature Documentary's presenter and camerawoman respectively and Eliza's older sister, the [[DeadpanSnarker deadpan]] and [[CityMouse deeply-unenthusiastic- about-her-parents'-career]] Debbie. Also along for the ride was the deeply neurotic chimpanzee Darwin, and crazy wild jungle boy Donnie, Eliza's adopted younger brother.

The series has three films to its name, the MadeForTVMovie ''The Wild Thornberrys: The Origin of Donnie'' (2001), and two [[TheMovie theatrical films]]: ''The Wild Thornberrys Movie'', and the {{Crossover}} movie ''WesternAnimation/RugratsGoWild''. This show has examples of some of the only non-villainous roles in Creator/TimCurry's career - Nigel Thornberry and his father.