Line #181 WesternAnimation/ArloTheAlligatorBoy


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/052e3bbe_9253_47a7_8f93_e1830392ce74.jpeg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''"If you see me, then you best believe that an alligator dressed like me is gonna make it all the way!"'']]
3
4	->''"I stand here now\
5	Thinking beyond these walls\
6	There's something beyond these walls\
7	And I'm tired of waitin'\
8	And when I rise\
9	I'll rise up beyond these walls\
10	I will make it beyond these walls\
11	And they'll all be sayin'..."''
12	-->-- "Beyond These Walls"
13
14	''Arlo the Alligator Boy'' is an [[AnimatedFilms animated movie]] that premiered on Creator/{{Netflix}} on April 16, 2021, with animation produced by Creator/{{Titmouse}}. It's the story of a musically inclined half-human, half-alligator boy named Arlo who leaves his home in the swamp lands of Louisiana in order to find his father in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. Along the way, he makes many new friends, all of which are outcasts just like him.
15
16	The movie serves as the pilot to the series ''WesternAnimation/IHeartArlo'', featuring Arlo's various adventures in New York with his friends, which premiered August 27 the same year.
17	----
18	!!Arlo the Alligator Tropes:
19	[[foldercontrol]]
20
21	[[folder:Tropes A-M]]
22	* TwoDVisualsThreeDEffects: The vehicles, as well as some other moving objects, are rendered in CG.
23	* AccentUponTheWrongSyllable:
24	** In "Beyond These Walls", Arlo says, "So what am I wai-TING for?"
25	** In "Wash the Hurt Away", Arlo says, "Now MY skin is thin, so let me in."
26	** In "Something's Missing", Ansel says, "Or would it be hol-LOW?"
27	* ActionGirl: Bertie is shown to be a capable fighter thanks to her strength and size.
28	* AllOfTheOtherReindeer:
29	** Arlo was this back in the swamp. The animals there weren't that very much into a human boy who's half alligator, and showed distain and annoyance towards him. The only ones who accepted him were Edmée and Jeromio.
30	** [[spoiler:Ansel was this back in his childhood, being teased and ridiculed by the children over his half-bird image. This resulted in him concealing himself and becoming a power hungry money tyrant.]]
31	* AlphabeticalThemeNaming: '''A'''rlo Beauregard and his father, '''A'''nsel. Also note the first and last names are listed alphabetically as well, the latter letters are reverse of each other, as well as the double vowels.
32	* AllThereInTheScript:
33	** The boyfriend of the couple Arlo scares away after leaving the swamp, while unnamed in the script, is named Bradley Alouicious in the end credits.
34	** The lackey Tony calls to get Ansel's address is named Little Bitty Louie.
35	** The bongo player whose shadow Arlo mistakes for his father's is named Gaspar.
36	** The black girl Arlo dances with during his ImagineSpot is named Shirley Ray.
37	* AmbiguouslyAbsentParent:
38	** When Ansel talks about his past growing up in Seaside by the Seashore, his parents were neither mentioned nor appear in the flashback. In fact he left by himself to become a success in the city with no adult supervision. It unknown if Ansel is an orphan or did he run away.
39	** It is also unknown where happened to Bertie and Alia's parents either. Both are teenagers living independently from parental supervision. Bertie mentions growing up that she used to be normal before she grew bigger and became different, did not mention any parents, or if she was an orphan. And nothing know about Alia past or if she had parents.
40	* AmbiguousGender: Furlecia is a [[PinkMeansFeminine pink]] furball with GirlishPigtails and high heels, but also a mustache and a masculine voice.
41	* AmbiguousTimePeriod: The movie has a field day with this. One of Arlo's first stops is the town of Willow Button, which looks unambiguously set in the 50s at most. But then they get to New York where 20th century aesthetics is liberally combined with more contemporary styles, such as the fashion and some of the architecture. In general, all the characters speak more or less like it's the 2020s.
42	* AndTheAdventureContinues: [[spoiler:The restoration of Seaside by the Seashore and Arlo and his friends officially taking up residence at the end of the movie marks the start of new adventures for them, which segues into ''WesternAnimation/IHeartArlo'' as pointed out in the CreditsGag.]]
43	* AnimalsHateHim: The animals of the swamp didn't take kindly to Arlo that much, given his alligator appearance. It is to the point he felt so clingy and lonely. The only animal who liked him was Jeromio.
44	* ArmorPiercingQuestion:
45	-->'''Stucky:''' Mister, if you want him back, I'm sure we can work out a price. But what would you want with a real, live alligator boy?
46	* ArtisticLicense: To get information on where Ansel is, Tony uses a phone booth in Times Square, all of which have since went obsolete since March 2020 and replaced with Wi-Fi hotspots. Only four remain on the Upper West Side.
47	* ArtisticLicenseBiology:
48	** Arlo can swim in fresh and salt water environments (the swamp water, aquariums, Central Park lake, etc.); in real life, alligators are more active in freshwater, as their salt glands aren't strong enough.
49	** The alligators of the swamp Arlo lived in have obviously the tooth lines of a crocodile, whose underbite can be seen sticking out of its jaw along with the overbite when its mouth is closed. In reality, only an overbite is visible on an alligator, which is seen on Arlo himself.
50	** Among the animals of the swamp is a pelican; in reality, the only pelican native to Louisiana is the brown pelican, which looks nothing like the one in the film.
51	** Alia is heard purring before she goes to sleep; tigers, like herself, cannot purr.
52	* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: Alia can be a little distracted sometimes. Justified, as she's a cat person and cats have short attention spans.
53	* AwardBaitSong: "Follow Me Home".
54	* BaitAndSwitchSilhouette: Arlo sees an image of a gator-man in a window and is upset when it turns out to be a man with a silly hairdo. The man in question seems to realize what's going on and does his best to cheer Arlo up.
55	* BallroomBlitz: Twice in a row at the Met Gala. First when Arlo confronts Ansel and demands the truth from him and official confirmation if he's his father. [[spoiler:Second when Ruff and Stucky show up and capture Arlo, and are close to hustling him back to their swamp shack before Ansel saves him.]]
56	* BarefootCartoonAnimal: Arlo wears a shirt and pants, but no shoes.
57	* BarefootLoon: Ruff has shades of this. He doesn't seem to mind walking without shoes to the point that his feet are perpetually dirty and he's also a bit more touched than his partner Stucky.
58	* BeautifulSingingVoice: Arlo's main skill. Bertie also has one, though it's not nearly as skilled as Arlo's.
59	* BetweenMyLegs: Bertie reveals herself this way, positioning her legs between Ruff and Stucky after letting Arlo escape.
60	* BigApplesauce: New York City is the target destination, complete with famed locales and almost every passerby yelling "[[Film/MidnightCowboy I'm walkin' here!]]".
61	* BigBadDuumvirate: Ruff and Stucky, who pursue Arlo throughout his journey in hopes of using him for a major tourist attraction.
62	* BigDamnHeroes:
63	** Bertie is first introduced saving Arlo from the poachers at the train station.
64	** [[spoiler:Ansel becomes this near the end when he rescues Arlo again at the Met Gala.]]
65	* BigDamnReunion: [[spoiler:Ansel admitting he truly is Arlo's father and forsook him, allowing both father and son to officially reunite and rekindle.]]
66	* BigSisterInstinct: Bertie is willing to protect Arlo from enemies that tried to harm him.
67	* BirthdayBeginning: The movie's main plot -- when Arlo discovers he lives in New York and sets off to reunite with his father while making friends -- begins on Arlo's fifteenth birthday.
68	* BlatantLies: After Arlo is disowned by Ansel and sent down the elevator, Ansel is visited by an offscreen butler and passes off Arlo's presence as "just another kid from the foundation."
69	* BlitheSpirit: No matter who it may be, Arlo seems to bring out the best in everyone he comes across. This includes the main cast, total strangers, and even the bad guys to a degree.
70	* BloodlessCarnage: No blood oozes out of Furlecia when she gets stabbed by a rake from her opponent.
71	* BodyWipe:
72	** Arlo's shirt fills up the camera as he steps off the bus after entering New York City.
73	** Done by Ansel in "Better Life" just after the line "I rose up into me." Arlo does the same just before Ansel hustles him back to the elevator.
74	** Arlo does it again in "Beautiful Together" just before the GoodTimesMontage.
75	** An early one done by Arlo's ImagineSpot in "More More More" as Arlo dances past and his hand fills up the camera which resolves into the trombone of one of the jazz band members.
76	* BookEnds: The prologue ends with baby Arlo's basket showing up on the porch of Edmée's shack; she thinks an intruder showed up, bursts out the door suspiciously, then sees Arlo and coos, "Well, rickety biscuit." [[spoiler: The same thing happens in the mid-credits scene when a mailman delivers something to her, she bursts out thinking the Feds have come, then she sees she got a postcard from Arlo and his friends in their new home, and says the same words.]]
77	* BorrowedCatchphrase: While Bertie is trying to blend in with the New Yorkers, she utters their oddly famous "I'm walkin' here!".
78	* BreakTheCutie: Arlo does not take Ansel's rejection that well, causing him to sink into a rather deep HeroicBSOD.
79	* BringMyBrownPants: The little boy on the fountain that Marcellus gives a fright to pees himself as he flees in terror.
80	* BrokenPedestal: After spending a batch of the movie to reach New York and finally reunite with his father, Arlo is devastated when Ansel cruelly disowns him.
81	* BrokenRecord: The New Yorkers have a habit of repeatedly saying "I'm walkin' here!" over and over.
82	%%* BSODSong: "Wash the Hurt Away".
83	* BuffySpeak: Arlo calls Sandra June and Bradley's car a "land boat", given his minimal outside world experience.
84	* BusbyBerkeleyNumber: Ansel's song "Better Life", complete with the butlers and maids as backup dancers.
85	* ButNowIMustGo: Bertie tells Arlo after she gets him to his dad, she has to move on. A more emotional one done when Arlo arrives at Ansel's penthouse and shares one last farewell with his friends before leaving them.
86	* ByTheLightsOfTheirEyes: This is how the Beast is introduced. Arlo is also seen with these briefly when inside the mouth of a non-anthropomorphic alligator during "More More More".
87	* CallToAdventure: Arlo learning about his father's whereabouts sends him on a trip to New York City.
88	* CampfireCharacterExploration: Once all the main characters have been assembled, they spend the night on a beach having a campfire where Marcellus tells of his time in the aquarium and everyone gets to bond with each other.
89	* CannotSpitItOut: When Arlo confronts Ansel at the Met Gala, increased nerves prevent him from getting one sentence out before Ansel goes on. Thanks to advice from Bertie, Arlo breaks into song and manages to reach out to Ansel with no trouble.
90	* CartoonCreature: Teeny Tiny Tony and Furlecia aren't exactly clear as to what they're supposed to be; the former being a little humanoid with pointy ears and a tail, and the latter being a walking talking pink furball.
91	* CatchPhrase: "Rickety biscuit!" for Arlo; "Ba-gooh-ma mia!" for Tony. "I'm walkin' here!" apparently serves as one for the New Yorkers.
92	* {{Catgirl}}: Alia, specifically a tiger.
93	* ChangeTheUncomfortableSubject: When Edmée shows Arlo his ID bracelet from when he was a baby, Arlo notes that it says his dad's name, [[MissingMom but not his mom's]], causing him to say that it's funny that he has a mom with no name. Cue a visibly uncomfortable Edmée grabbing her banjo and distracting Arlo with their birthday song.
94	* CharacterInTheLogo: The hole in the center of the "O" in the logo is shaped to look like Arlo's foot.
95	* ChekhovsGun: The scallop (or "best friend rock") that Arlo shares with Bertie allows her to detect his presence, as she notices Arlo's half of the shell on the beach at Seaside by the Seashore, which in turn clues her in to where Arlo has ended up.
96	* ChekhovsSkill: Crossed with LeaningOnTheFourthWall; singing one's feelings. Arlo encourages Bertie to break into song to tell more about her past as TheDrifter; Bertie gives the same advice to Arlo to help him gain the confidence to reach out to Ansel when he's nervous.
97	* ChildHater: Marcellus takes the opportunity to terrorize any kid he sees, as payback for having to deal with them back in the aquarium.
98	* ChorusGirls: Ansel's maids serve as these during "Better Life".
99	* CoinOnAStringTrick: Tony does one when using the payphone to get Ansel's address.
100	* ColorfulContrails: During "Wash the Hurt Away" as Arlo is swimming through the sewer tunnel at high speed, a yellow-green contrail is protruding from his backside.
101	* ComingOfAgeStory: The first portion of the film revolves around Arlo turning 15 and Edmée deciding he's old enough to learn the truth about his past, which in turn sends him on his journey.
102	* CommunityThreateningConstruction: Seaside by the Seashore, a boardwalk business in Brooklyn, was going to be demolished by Ansel and turned into an expansion. [[spoiler:Thanks to Arlo, the plans are cancelled and the boardwalk is restored instead.]]
103	* ConspicuousConsumption: All the elites at the Met Gala have exaggerated ways to blow their money, such as a drink garnished with shavings made from a Van Gogh painting.
104	%%* CoolOldLady: Edmée.
105	* CounterpointDuet:
106	** Portions of "Follow Me Home" are this, specifically Arlo singing in response to Bertie.
107	** The last chorus of "Something's Missing" becomes this.
108	* CreativeClosingCredits: The first part of the end credits are interspersed with various portions of the swamp and Edmée's shack. The crawl is interspersed with animated colored-pencil animations of various moments from the film.
109	* CreatorCameo: Jonathan Van Ness, the voice actor for Furlecia, appears as a hairdresser that Furlecia visits in New York City.
110	* CreditsGag:
111	** The credits end with the following message: "[[AndTheAdventureContinues The journey continues]] in the ''WesternAnimation/IHeartArlo'' series."
112	** Before that, there is a thank you message to the crew working on the film during the pandemic crisis taking place.
113	* CuttingBackToReality: Arlo's ImagineSpot ends with him striking a final pose with the jazz dancers and animals; the second Sansavelt spots him, we see him in reality striking the same exact pose before getting nervous.
114	* DancePartyEnding: The first part of the end finale song "Beautiful Together" has Arlo singing and dancing with his friends and Ansel at the Met Gala.
115	* DarkestHour: Arlo has been disowned and rejected by Ansel, having no place left to go, and his friends have gone, so he plunges into the sewer and lets it take him wherever it leads him to, as he succumbs to whatever fate awaits him.
116	* DarkReprise:
117	** "The Collage of Broken Dreams", which segues into the BSODSong, is an unhappy mashup of "Better Life", "Beyond These Walls", "More, More, More", and "Follow Me Home", with more cynical lyrics.
118	** And just between said moments as Arlo is floating in the lake in Central Park and plunging into the sewer grate, the background score is playing a lustful instrumental reprise of "New York, My Home".
119	* DeepSouth: Arlo spent most of his life in the Louisiana bayou, staying in the swamp and dining on local fare.
120	* DiegeticSwitch: Played with a few times. "Wash the Hurt Away" starts off with Arlo singing the song out of nowhere before transitioning to his internal thoughts from the point he flies out the tunnel. Arlo and Ansel are also shown playing instruments a few times (a box guitar and banjo for the former, a grand piano for the latter), but the music continues even when they stop. Specific songs also flip back and forth between onscreen singing and internal thoughts the same way.
121	* DisneyAcidSequence: "Beyond These Walls". Also "Wash the Hurt Away", a more tragic example.
122	* DistressedDude: [[spoiler:Arlo becomes this in the final third of the film, when Ruff and Stucky hold him hostage and nearly take him back to the swamp just before Ansel saves him.]]
123	* DoesNotLikeSpam: Arlo doesn't like snails, which is how Edmée figures out that Arlo has been looking at the steamboats again when he forgets to catch something for dinner and so he just bags a lot of random stuff, including his least favorite food.
124	* DramaticSpotlight: Prominently shown during "Something's Missing" as Arlo is trying to reach out to Ansel to see if he understands him. Ansel gets the same, and at one point, he keeps chasing it as it moves away from him.
125	* DyingTown: Seaside by the Seashore, Ansel's old neighborhood in Brooklyn. It's as run-down as they come, and Ansel plans on tearing it down for the sake of a small metropolis. [[spoiler: When he puts Arlo and company in charge of rejuvenating it instead, it heals significantly.]]
126	* EasingIntoTheAdventure: About 15-16 minutes of Arlo's childhood and life in the swamp pass by until leaving for New York.
127	* EatenAlive: PlayedForLaughs in the "More More More" sequence; Arlo briefly gets himself eaten by a miffed alligator, but comes out completely unharmed. He also does not get digested.
128	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Being the start of the franchise, there are a few aspects that differ from later installments:
129	** Jeromio's croaks sound deeper and more realistic, sounding almost like those of an actual bullfrog, and close to resembling fart noises. In the series, Jeromio's croaking is more cartoonish, sounding like a low-sounding utterance of the word "ribbit".
130	** In the movie, Alia's miniskirt is grey; from the series onward, it's changed to pink.
131	** Several for Seaside by the Seashore:
132	*** The town has a sign which appears mounted along the sides of the boardwalk, which does not appear at all in the series, having been replaced by a modern day billboard.
133	*** The beach appears very low, and the boardwalk is several stories up. From the series onward, the beach is now only a few feet below the boardwalk, which also lacks fencing.
134	*** In the movie, Ol' Bessie the Ferris wheel is to the right of Arlo and Bertie's house; in the series on, it has been transferred to the left and is farther away.
135	*** Alia's bus seems to have its own parking area in the open, with the addition of a license plate reading "Seaside". In the series, the bus is parked in an ally next to Arlo and Bertie's house, and the license plate is absent.
136	* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: After being chased by gator catchers, enduring general insanity across states, and hitting a major low point after getting rejected, Arlo finally manages to connect with his father, who realizes the error of his ways because of it. Not only that, but the kid and his new friends are given a home at Seaside by the Seashore, where they take steps to bring it back to its former glory.]]
137	* EasilyForgiven: [[spoiler:Arlo immediately forgives Ansel for disowning him and abandoning him.]]
138	* EccentricMillionaire:
139	** The guests at the Met Gala are all stereotyped as such. And the less said about their quirks, the better.
140	** Ansel has his weird qualities too [[spoiler: being part bird notwithstanding]], though it's implied that he only puts up the façade in order to fit in with their ilk.
141	* TheElevenOClockNumber: "Something's Missing", as Arlo tries one last time to reach out to Ansel, just before he gets kidnapped by the hunters and [[spoiler:Ansel reveals the truth.]]
142	* EmergingFromTheShadows:
143	** Stucky does this when first encountering Arlo.
144	** [[spoiler:Ansel does it when he reveals his bird-man identity to the crowd.]]
145	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: All the main characters have their moments of introduction which allude to their personalities.
146	** Arlo is first seen excitedly exiting Edmée's shack and exploring the swamp.
147	** Edmée was introduced slamming her door open suspiciously before cooing at the sight of baby Arlo.
148	** Ruff and Stucky were first seen intimidating a tourist at their museum.
149	** Bertie is introduced pushing Ruff and Stucky away and using her strength to rescue Arlo.
150	** Furlecia is introduced wrestling a farmer and showing sass.
151	** Tony was first seen bribing a farmer.
152	** Alia is introduced exiting her bus hyperactively.
153	** Marcellus was first seen having broken out by Arlo, though he shows his personality for the first time during the CampfireCharacterExploration.
154	** Ansel was first seen in an interview presenting his next big project.
155	* ExhaustedEyeBags: Most characters are deliberately drawn with small dimples under their eyes, despite not showing any signs of fatigue either way, possibly to keep up with the retro-aesthetic animation. Alia would be a permanent exception to this.
156	* ExtremelyShortTimespan: Excluding the prologue, TimeSkip and epilogue, the movie is set over a period of five whole days.
157	* EyeCam: Arlo does this as he is waking up on the beach for Seaside by the Seashore and Bertie finds him.
158	* EyeColorChange: Arlo's eyes turn deep pink for a few moments when he has a sugar rush.
159	* EyeContactAsProof: Arlo asking Ansel to look into his eyes during "Something's Missing" so he can tell him the truth he's his dad.
160	* EyeScream: During "More More More" as Arlo is getting resented by the animals, an angry egret pokes him in the eye. He is then seen with a black eye in the next scene with the turtle.
161	* EyesNeverLie: Invoked. [[FamilyEyeResemblance Both Arlo and Ansel have the exact same oval-shaped eyes]], bringing the StrongFamilyResemblance to a logical conclusion. During "Something's Missing" as Arlo is trying to reach out to Ansel and get the truth, he asks him to look into his eyes, allowing him to truly recognize him as his son.
162	* TheFaceless: Arlo's mother is presented this way during the scene in Ansel's DarkAndTroubledPast when he first meets her.
163	* FantasticRacism: {{Zig Zagging\|Trope}}. It seems that in smaller communities, the non-human characters are treated like oddities at best and wild animals at worst. [[spoiler: Ansel, who grew up in a poor seaside town, is bullied for this, leading him to hide his form as bird-man.]] In more cosmopolitan places, this prejudice seems to be less overt considering Arlo and his friends manage to walk around New York City without trouble.
164	* FeetFirstIntroduction: The first we see of the present-day Arlo are his feet as he exits Edmée's shack.
165	* FirstNameBasis: After Arlo is disowned by Ansel, he addresses him by name or "Mr. Beauregard" instead of "Dad".
166	* FirstTimeInTheSun: Arlo, after leaving the swamp. He is immediately taken in by his new outer world surroundings and explores all he's missed after fifteen long years in isolation.
167	* FisherKing: When Ansel is about to demolish Seaside by the Seashore, the buildings are old and worn, and the sky is pale and dark. [[spoiler:After Arlo moves there and he and his friends restore it and reopen it, all the buildings and sky are now bright and vibrant.]]
168	* FlippingTheTable: When Ansel brings up responsibility at the Met Gala, one of the guests flips over a table in anguish (complete with BigNo). It even causes the guest at the table to be flipped as well.
169	* FlowersOfFemininity: Bertie has a flower on her headband, and has the soft and gentle personality to match.
170	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
171	** The animals Arlo interacts with during "More More More" actually foreshadow the movie's plot:
172	*** He splashes water on an alligator, causing it to wake up disapproved, which foreshadows the introduction of the Beast. Arlo ending up in its mouth also foreshadows him getting captured by Ruff and Stucky at the Met Gala.
173	*** Arlo doing a little dance with a catfish foreshadows his roundabout in Bradley's car at Willow Button.
174	*** The possums yelling at Arlo, scaring him off the tree branch and into the alligator's mouth, foreshadows his first encounter with Ruff and Stucky.
175	*** Certain animals also give a hint toward the introduction of Arlo's friends. The grumpy manatees look almost like Marcellus, the boar looks similar to Bertie, and the snapping turtle looks almost like Teeny Tiny Tony. The baby bear whom Arlo accidentally makes cry is similar to Marcellus's hatred of children.
176	*** The snake that ties Arlo up and bites him in the head gives a hint toward the failing alligator museum Ruff and Stucky own, and hints at their plan to capture Arlo and turn him into their newest attraction. It also foreshadows him getting trapped and hypnotized by the Bog Lady in the show's Season 1 finale.
177	*** The biggest example would be the egrets pecking Arlo while he is in their nest, which foreshadow two things about Ansel: getting cruelly disowned by him, [[spoiler: and the reveal of his bird man identity.]]
178	*** A blink-and-you-miss right before Arlo starts to sing; a vine appears in front of him which he swings on when it wasn't there in the scene before. Also, the lily pads and the flowers on the turtle's island change. This could foreshadow the presence of the [[BigBad Bog Lady]] and that she's secretly protecting Arlo, as well as her [[GreenThumb plant manipulation.]]
179	*** One of the opening lines is, "Yeah, I'm hoppin' like a frog all around this funky bog." Turns out there ''is'' a funky bog in the form of a {{Planimal}}.
180	** There are several hints that [[spoiler:Ansel is a birdman. For instance]]:
181	*** Ansel's facial appearance looks rather avian, specifically he sports a GagNose which protrudes outward like a bird beak, and the way he has his hair coiffed backwards resembles that of a woodpecker or blue jay. It's even more obvious when seen in the shadows or as a silhouette.
182	*** In "Better Life", [[spoiler: Ansel sings about being on a perch and later puts a feather on Arlo's hat.]] "Wash The Hurt Away" is much more blatant, [[spoiler: with [[DisneyAcidSequence Ansel's image appearing in a wave with wings]].]]
183	*** During the same song, at one point, Ansel can be seen standing atop the giant chandelier in the library. It's rather hard to get to a height that high without a ladder present, [[spoiler: unless you can ''fly'' up.]]
184	*** The suit that Ansel wears to the Met Gala contains a cloak coated with feathers, giving the impression of wings.
185	*** When Arlo is chasing Ansel through the museum, at one point, [[spoiler:Ansel's shadow on the wall shows feathers flying off his body.]]
186	*** Specific aspects in Ansel's penthouse are associated with [[AnimalMotif birds]] and [[WingedHumanoid winged beings]], such as a cherub statue and a stained-glass window of a peacock. Even the grand piano in the library has the monogram of a bird etched above his surname in the headboard. [[spoiler:This is a clue toward what he really is.]]
187	*** While Ansel is backing away from Arlo during their first encounter, Ansel steps in front of the cherub statue -- both its physical form and its window reflection, which are right behind him.
188	*** During "More More More", Arlo says how the birds hardly miss him while being pecked by angry egrets; one egret in particular is also one of the animals he says goodbye to when leaving the swamp. Turns out, there ''is'' a bird out there who secretly misses him -- [[spoiler:it's Ansel.]]
189	*** After Arlo gets captured, a blink-and-you-miss shows Ansel standing between two shadowed sets of armor -- the one on the left being hidden behind a wall facing out to him -- and one of his shadows on the wall is missing his fur cape. [[spoiler:This is but mere moments before the big reveal.]]
190	*** Note that Ansel is the only other character to have Xs in his ears like Arlo's, and has sharp and pointed fingers like Arlo's as well. Sure this is a mild case of StrongFamilyResemblance, [[spoiler:but given the latter description, this could be a hint toward his bird feet given they resemble talons.]]
191	*** In the last verse of "Something's Missing", Arlo is lit from the front by a spotlight, while Ansel is lit from behind, leaving his front side darkly shadowed. [[spoiler:This shows he's become a shadow of his true self and feels it's too hard to conceal it any longer.]]
192	*** The final scene of the GoodTimesMontage of Arlo and the gang exploring Manhattan is Arlo seeing the shadow of whom he thinks is his dad in a door, but turns out to be a man with a funny hairstyle. [[spoiler:This vaguely foreshadows Ansel is a HalfHumanHybrid just like him.]]
193	*** During Ansel's interview scene, he rescues a deranged pigeon trapped inside a worn out boot, and surprisingly goes easy on it, looking nervous when it falls to the ground.
194	** During the LeaningOnTheFourthWall moment as mentioned below, Arlo tells Bertie he sings when in a bad mood, a sad mood, or even a happy mood to show his feelings. Eventually, later on, he shows those exact three feelings at once with "College of Broken Dreams", "Wash the Hurt Away" and "Beautiful Together", respectively.
195	** When the musician Arlo mistakes for his dad has him dance with him to cheer him up, they are next to a subway for Brooklyn. [[spoiler:This is where Seaside by the Seashore, Ansel's hometown, is located, and Arlo ends up moving there at the end of the movie.]]
196	** During "Better Life", Ansel says, "You gotta make yourself, or else you're gonna break yourself." [[spoiler:Ansel struggling to conceal himself during "Something's Missing" and seeing Arlo get kidnapped is what makes him finally break down.]]
197	** If you look closely during the scenes as Edmée is letting Arlo go and Arlo is leaving the swamp, there are multiple scenes that show mushrooms beginning to grow on the trees surrounding both the shack and swamp foliage when they weren't there the day before. While this is common with swamp trees in real life, it also foreshadows the existence of the Bog Lady, as she's trying to entice Arlo into not leaving her with her plant magic.
198	** In the last verse of "Better Life" as Ansel is putting a feather on Arlo's hat, the spotlights surrounding them are red. In some cultures, red symbolizes bad luck and danger, foreshadowing Ansel's response to Arlo after the song ends.
199	* ForbiddenFruit: Downplayed. During his life in the swamp, Arlo was not allowed to leave or mess around watching the various riverboats. But Arlo often defies Edmée's orders, but retreats if he gets spotted by someone. Nevertheless, Edmée is never mad at him for disobeying, and understands his loneliness.
200	* TheFourChordsOfPop: Used during the chorus of "Follow Me Home".
201	* FourFingeredHands: The characters are drawn this way; done deliberately with Arlo, Alia and Tony, like their species in real life. Marcellus, however, has three.
202	* FreezeFrameBonus:
203	** Just before Ansel's interview appears on one of the jumbotrons on One Times Square, a notice can be seen reading "Fish Flops Free", alongside a rather realistic drawing of Marcellus, a bus that looks like Alia's, and the aquarium Marcellus broke out of.
204	** [[spoiler:During Ansel's DarkAndTroubledPast, when we see the moment when he first sees Arlo as an infant, the remains of a hatched egg (presumably his) can be seen in the bed and chair off to the right, probably hinting his mother was abnormal like him.]]
205	** When Alia gets the flyer for the Met Gala, Arlo's clothes can be seen in the trash can she finds it in.
206	** Just before the campfire scene, Sandra June and Bradley, the couple Arlo scared off after leaving the swamp, can be seen driving their car past them.
207	** In the final scene with Arlo and Bertie on the beach, we get a glimpse of what will become their shared house in the show up on the boardwalk behind them.
208	* FullMoonSilhouette: During "Follow Me Home", Bertie tosses Arlo high into the sky so he's in front of the full moon.
209	* FunnyBackgroundEvent:
210	** [[spoiler:After Ansel reveals himself as half-bird, someone shouts "I love birds, man!" in the background.]]
211	** When Arlo is about to bring up the aquarium to Marcellus, Furlecia and Tony can be seen desperately telling him to stop before he does.
212	** While Arlo is talking about New York with Tony's gang on the bus, Alia can be seen batting at a squeaky hamburger toy hanging from her rearview mirror behind him.
213	* FurryConfusion: In this world, humans and regular, non-anthropomorphic animals coexist with half-human half-animal creatures, though the latter are very rare and are seen as oddities and ostracized. Early on in the movie, we see Arlo dance around in the swamp with some non-anthropomorphic alligators; [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent Marcellus]] is locked up in an aquarium with some regular fish; and in New York, [[CatGirl Alia]] tries to get some food from an old lady who is feeding her pet cats.
214	* FurryReminder: Half of Arlo's crew exhibit behaviors according to their real-life species; specifically Arlo can swim really fast, [[RunningOnAllFours run on all fours]] and has a big appetite, Marcellus SleepsWithBothEyesOpen, and Alia can get easily distracted by hanging and shiny objects, crawls in the dumpsters, curls up when sleeping, and hates getting wet.
215	* GainingConfidenceSong:
216	** "Beyond These Walls" starts out as a sultry ballad by Arlo over his anxiousness of thinking what would happen if he leaves the swamp, before transitioning to a powerful number where he gains the confidence and is determined to find his way home.
217	** "Follow Me Home" begins with Bertie solemnly voicing her background as TheDrifter and lamenting that no one seems to accept her and has no place to call her home, before it changes to a duet between her and Arlo where she feels brave again and becomes more accepting of herself.
218	* GenderEqualEnsemble: The group of abnormal friends. Arlo, Tony and Marcellus are male, while Bertie, Furlecia and Alia are female.
219	* GeneHunting: Arlo's main mission is to find his long-lost father.
220	* GentleGiant: Bertie. Not only does she have a huge size and height, but she also has a huge heart.
221	* GetOut: Ansel to Arlo when he discovers his plans to demolish the boardwalk and gets disowned by him.
222	* GilliganCut: When Arlo's friends vow to help him reconnect with Ansel at the Met Gala, Marcellus refuses to go if there are kids present; cut to the gala that night, where a three-person group made of kids are dancing on the front steps.
223	* GirlyBruiser: Bertie is typically soft spoken and is the type to avoid excitement, but her BigSisterInstinct indicates that she will not hesitate to use her strength and size against people who [[PickOnSomeoneYourOwnSize attempt to hurt those who cannot defend themselves]].
224	* GlowingEyesOfDoom: The Beast sports glowing gold eyes during the night scenes and when in places where it's dark, making it look totally intimidating and petrifying.
225	* GoodTimesMontage: One occurs when Arlo and the gang arrive in New York and enjoy its activities. Another done at the end of the movie as the friends restore Seaside by the Seashore, set to Arlo's song "Beautiful Together".
226	* GRatedDrug: Candy and sweets in Arlo's case; the moment he wolfs down a whole bunch, he's hooked on them.
227	* HalfHumanHybrid: The titular Arlo, who's half-human and half alligator. [[spoiler: Ansel, his father, is part bird.]] It's not explicitly said, but Marcellus, Alia and the Beast may be part human and part fish, cat/tiger, and dog respectively.
228	* HappyBirthdayToYou: Edmée sings her own version of the song to Arlo at his 42-day-late birthday.
229	* HayseedName: Arlo's surname, Beauregard, evokes the Cajun French type. Subverted that his father (Ansel) is actually from New York where the name itself is less significant in a melting pot region.
230	* HappilyAdopted: Edmée adopts Arlo after she found him as a baby.
231	* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: Almost every antagonistic character turns over a new leaf by the end, thanks to Arlo. These include Ruff and Stucky, the Beast, and Ansel.]]
232	* HeroicBSOD: Arlo sinks into a rather deep one when Ansel disowns him and he believes his trip was all for nothing, for the sake of abandoning his friends for a man whom he believed wanted nothing to do with him.
233	* AHeroIsBorn: The first we see of Arlo is him as a newborn baby in the sewers on the night of his birth.
234	* HopeSpot:
235	** When Arlo is being cornered by the angry barn folk, he meekly says his name and he's from the swamp, and the opponent proudly accepts him as one of them. But then Arlo says he's really from New York, and the farmers turn against him again.
236	** Arlo finally reaches the residence of his birth father Ansel, only to be rejected and turned away by him.
237	** Ansel is ready to reveal the truth to Arlo that he is indeed his father, but then Ruff and Stucky ruin the moment.
238	* HugeSchoolgirl: Bertie is described as a teenage giantess with the insecurity it entails. To her credit, she utilizes her unique size and strength to help those who are incapable of fighting back, and that's way before her CharacterDevelopment even sets in.
239	* HypocriticalHumor: Ruff and Stucky shoo away a guy selling Broadway show tickets because, as Stucky puts, Ruff can't read. But then Ruff spots Ansel's name on the jumbotron and reads it perfectly.
240	* IAmSong: Ansel's song "Better Life" is about him being a successful and high-honored businessman and how much he's risen to the top, [[spoiler:which also provides a foreshadowing to who he really is.]]
241	* IAteWhat: When Arlo lived in the swamp, his meals were not very ordinary, mostly bugs in particular, with snails being the worst.
242	* IChooseToStay: [[spoiler:In the end, Arlo chooses to stay in New York with his father and friends, and they reopen Seaside by the Seashore together. On a more selfless variant, Arlo decides to stay with his friends and live in a house of their own by the boardwalk rather than Ansel's penthouse, but the two will visit each other often.]]
243	* IdiosyncraticWipes: Twice in succession during the "Beautiful Together" sequence. First when Arlo dances past the screen before the song begins when Ansel allows he and his friends to rebuild and live at Seaside by the Seashore, and again by Furlecia during the song when the group is marching down the boardwalk.
244	* IJustWantToHaveFriends: The swamp animals weren't very acceptable of Arlo, leaving him lonely. Best exemplified in his song "More More More".
245	* ImagineSpot: Arlo imagining himself partying with the guests on the steamboat during "More More More".
246	* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Furlecia gets stabbed in her "love handles" by her opponent's rake during her introduction scene.
247	* ImpracticallyFancyOutfit: Multiple guests at the Met Gala are seen wearing these, some of which are impossible to even move around in.
248	* IncrediblyLongNote:
249	** Ansel lets out one during "Better Life":
250	--->'''Ansel:''' And if you hear me, let me know you understaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand!
251	** Arlo draws out "What am I waiiiiitiiiiiiiiin'?!" during "Beyond These Walls".
252	** During "Wash the Hurt Away", Arlo sustains the word "me" multiple times during the final chorus.
253	** Ansel holds down "inside" for quite some time as he ends his verse in "Something's Missing". Both he and Arlo then hold down the same word together at the end of the song.
254	* InkSuitActor: Some of the characters tend to share specific details of their voice actors. For instance, Arlo shares Michael J. Woodard's chin hairs, wide cheekbones and lower hairline on his back, and Furlecia has the same "furstache" and pointed fingernails like Jonathan Van Ness. Bertie and Edmée also seem to resemble Mary Lambert and Annie Potts by appearance, whereas Ansel looks a lot like Vincent Rodriguez III dead-on.
255	* IWantSong:
256	** "More More More", where Arlo sings about how he wants tons of friends.
257	** "Beyond These Walls" is another, more emotional example.
258	* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Ruff and Stucky pull this on the tough farmer who wrestled Furlecia, demanding information on where Arlo went as well as his name, otherwise the Beast will eat him.
259	* JobSong: Ansel's song "Better Life" is about his job as a famous businessman in New York.
260	* KiddieKid:
261	** Arlo is actually 15 years old, yet acts and behaves more like an excitable 10 year old. His isolation in the swamp which prevented him from interacting with and/or being influenced by peers of his age is the most likely reason for this.
262	** Alia acts this way as well, with the only hint of her true age is that she's eligible for a learner's permit. [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny Her being a catgirl might have something to do with it]].
263	* KidsAreCruel:
264	** Marcellus believes this to be the case during his stretch in the aquarium, even though according to his story, all they did was push their faces against the glass to stare at him and/or eat. It's subverted when the children he ''does'' encounter don't even mistreat him, and he instead scares them just for the fun of it, [[ChildHater making him look more cruel than he claims the children could ever be]].
265	** [[spoiler: During Ansel's flashback, the kids who bully young Ansel for being a bird boy, even going so far as to force feed him bird seeds.]]
266	* LastDayOfNormalcy: Following AMinorKidroduction showing how Arlo arrived in the swamp as a newborn infant, the movie opens with the now 15-year-old Arlo going through his usual day in the swamp, being disliked by the animals and hoping he'd explore the outside world and have a lot of friends. After this, he receives the ID tag from his birth from Edmée as a birthday gift, causing him to realize his true identity which kickstarts his journey from the swamp to New York City the very next day.
267	* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: The "randomly bursting into song" notion is brought up a few times, usually as Arlo mentions he often sings how he feels.
268	* LetsDuet: "Follow Me Home" starts out with Bertie lamenting to herself as TheDrifter, then it turns into a duet between herself and Arlo who sees her as better than she thinks she is.
269	* LocationSong: "New York, My Home", a brief song performed in the prologue just before Arlo is introduced, which sets the mood and tone of the city.
270	* LongLastLook: Arlo says one last goodbye to Edmée, Jeromio, and the swamp animals and foliage as he is leaving the swamp he grew up in before he sets off to New York.
271	* LoudGulp: Arlo does one when he first encounters Stucky.
272	* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:After rescuing Arlo and revealing his identity as half-bird, Ansel concludes Arlo was right all along and he's indeed his father.]]
273	* LuminescentBlush: Much of the characters have a little tinge of blush in their cheeks, in keeping up with the faux-retro aesthetic. Specific characters also have a blush somewhere else; Tony in particular has the blush on his ear points, Ansel has his coating the end of his nose and his entire earlobe, and Edmée has a combination of all three positions.
274	* LyricalDissonance:
275	** "Better Life", when you listen to the lyrics, is a song about abandoning your individuality in order to get by in the world. Arlo is so distracted by the upbeat nature of the song that it takes a while for him to realize how sketchy the message actually is. "[[BrokenAesop Break yourself]]" indeed.
276	** Downplayed with "More More More". It is indeed an upbeat song about Arlo wanting to be loved by everyone, but at one point he briefly lapses into a verse where the animals resent him in various ways before being left alone with Jeromio, just before the riverboat appears.
277	* TheManInTheMirrorTalksBack: Done during the DarkReprise with thanks to the reflections of Arlo in the various antiques in a shop window.
278	* MatchCut:
279	** When the Beast tracks down Arlo's footprints, the view dissolves from an ExtremeCloseUp of its eye to a similar reflection of the full moon in the river Arlo and Bertie run through upon escaping.
280	** While Bertie is admiring the shell Arlo gave her, the background behind her changes from the beach to the bus interior with her in the same exact position and pose.
281	* MeaningfulEcho:
282	** "Sing it," which in turn cues the respective song number. Arlo says it to Bertie to get her to tell how she feels, which segues into "Follow Me Home". Later on, Bertie says the same thing to Arlo to get Ansel to hear him out, just before "Something's Missing" begins.
283	** "No squirming," for Bertie. She first says it out of determination to help Arlo escape from Ruff and Stucky during their first encounter; she says it again when they share one last hug before Arlo departs for Ansel's penthouse.
284	* MickeyMousing:
285	** During "More More More", Arlo bounces across an alligator's back in time with the music, splashing and bothering it in return.
286	** During "Better Life", Ansel's maids are shown working in perfect sync with the music.
287	* AMinorKidroduction: The movie begins with the newborn Arlo abandoned in the sewers and floating all the way to the Louisiana swamp where Edmée adopts him.
288	* MirrorReveal: Arlo does this with a miniature mirror in the window of an antique shop, which allows him to see himself in the frumpy business suit Ansel gave him and realized he tried to turn him power-hungry just like him, which segues into the DarkReprise.
289	* MissingMom: Arlo's birth tag has no name for his mother, and her identity remains unknown. [[spoiler: The only thing we know about her from Ansel's flashback is she had red hair like Arlo.]]
290	* MoodWhiplash:
291	** PlayedForLaughs during the GoodTimesMontage. Arlo spots a shadow of what he believes to be Ansel and gets excited, but it turns out to be a man with a funny hairstyle, and he's about to break down. Almost immediately, the man quickly cheers Arlo up by entertaining people together near a subway.
292	** Immediately following the humorous "Better Life", Arlo discovers Ansel is trying to reinvent his personality like what happened to him, when really he came all this way to reunite with him after fifteen long years. Then Ansel promptly disowns him and sends him away, leaving Arlo to enter a HeroicBSOD.
293	** During the dance party on the bus after Marcellus is rescued and the main cast is completely assembled, Arlo suddenly asks about the aquarium, causing the fish man to go catatonic.
294	* MusicalWorldHypotheses: The Alternate Universe Type; it's even lampshaded a few times by Arlo. The sole exception would be the very much diegetic birthday song Edmée sings for Arlo.
295	* MushroomSamba: A G-rated version. Instead of drugs, it's ice cream.
296	* MyGreatestFailure: [[spoiler:Ansel considers letting Arlo go the night he was born the biggest mistake of his life.]]
297	[[/folder]]
298
299	[[folder:Tropes N-Z]]
300	* NearVillainVictory: Ruff and Stucky have caught up with Arlo at the museum, the latter giving Ansel an ultimatum of what he would do with an alligator boy for a son, leaving Arlo to surrender himself and get dragged out. [[spoiler:If Ansel hadn't realized what he had done, and hadn't revealed his bird self to the crowd and rescued Arlo, Ruff and Stucky would've won.]]
301	* NeverLearnedToRead: Stucky yells at a man handing out flyers to them to get lost since Ruff can't even read. Subverted when it turns out that Ruff ''can'' read since he could make out Arlo's father's name (Beauregard) in the jumbotron.
302	* NiceMeanAndInBetween: Arlo and his gang are split half-and-half:
303	** Boys: Arlo (nice), Marcellus (mean), and Tony (in-between)
304	** Girls: Bertie (nice), Furlecia (mean), and Alia (in-between)
305	* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: When Tony's bus takes off but leaves Bertie running after it with Arlo in tow, Furlecia immediately reaches out a hand for Bertie to grab on so she can pull the two aboard.
306	* NoSocialSkills: Arlo, due to being raised all alone in a swamp with his eccentric caretaker, but downplayed in that he managed to make friends quite easily by just running into them (as is the case with Bertie and Tony's crew). It helps that he's just so nice, and is rather empathetic towards others.
307	* NoodleIncident:
308	** Edmée refuses to accompany Arlo to New York because she has arrest warrants against her and she doesn't want to go back to prison ''again''. They are both left intentionally vague.
309	** It was mentioned by Arlo that Edmée would put a bowl on his head for some reason whenever he needed a haircut.
310	* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Arlo breaking Marcellus out of the aquarium.
311	* OffstageWaitingRoom: The looter who falls off a building and gets a waterfall of sewage dumped on him during the news report about Ansel's plans for Seaside by the Seashore is in the exact same position when Arlo ends up there after the BSODSong.
312	* OhCrap:
313	** Arlo is clearly petrified when he encounters Ruff and Stucky for the first time. He gets it again when they capture him at the museum.
314	** Arlo has a mild reaction when Edmée forces him to taste the underbelly of a snail.
315	** Edmée when Arlo brings up the mention of his MissingMom.
316	** Tony when Arlo manages to impress the doorman.
317	** Ansel when he nearly exposes [[spoiler:his bird-man identity]] to the crowd during "Something's Missing", followed by Arlo getting the same reaction in the next shot.
318	** Ruff and Stucky when [[spoiler:Ansel flies in to save Arlo.]]
319	* OneEyedShot: The Beast gets this when it tracks down Arlo's footprints after the train stops.
320	* OnlyFriend: Arlo's only friend back in the swamp was a frog named Jeromio.
321	* OnlySaneMan: Bertie is easily the most normal in the entire cast in terms of quirky behavior. Since Arlo and Tony's crew had come into her life, she finds herself being the voice of reason most of the time. She's quite graceful about the situation, though.
322	* OrbitalShot:
323	** Done when Arlo is seeing New York City for the first time after getting off the bus.
324	** Just after Ansel ends his verse in "Something's Missing", the camera does a rotation around him as he [[spoiler:almost exposes his bird side to the crowd.]]
325	** A more epic one is done when [[spoiler:Arlo happily embraces Ansel onstage.]]
326	* OpenSaysMe: Bertie rips off the back door at the Metropolitan Museum so Arlo and the gang can sneak into the Met Gala undetected.
327	* OpenTheIris: Arlo does this a few times when he gets astounded over something. Most exemplified when he is under a sugar rush in Willow Button.
328	* TheOutsideWorld: The rest of the world to Arlo, during his fifteen years in the swamp.
329	* OverlyLongGag: Arlo saying "Land boat, go!" while trying to use a car.
330	* ParasolParachute: In the final verse of "Beyond These Walls", Arlo uses a parasol to parachute through various floating landmarks of New York.
331	* PassingTheTorch: [[spoiler:In the end, Arlo now resides in Ansel's old Brooklyn home, Seaside by the Seashore, along with his friends, who help him restore it back to its former glory.]]
332	* PepTalkSong:
333	** Arlo's part of "Follow Me Home" is this, as he encourages Bertie to accept her image and believe in herself.
334	** Ansel's number "Better Life" seems to be this at first, given how Arlo is taking advice to "change himself" and embrace his life better, but it soon takes on a whole new meaning when he realizes Ansel was trying to distract him from what's important, and gets turned away from him in return.
335	* PictorialLetterSubstitution: In the title logo, the hollow in the "O" in Arlo is replaced with the titular main character's footprint.
336	* PieEyed: All the characters have these type of eyes derived from 20s to 30s cartoons as part of its [[{{Retraux}} faux retro aesthetic]].
337	* PilotMovie: The movie serves as the pilot which precedes ''WesternAnimation/IHeartArlo''.
338	* PreppyName:
339	** Ansel T. Beauregard, complete with a MysteriousMiddleInitial. Even before figuring out he's a rich real estate mogul, it's almost expected that he's going to be an affluent type. Somewhat subverted in that he didn't come from old money (starting out quite poor, by his own admission), but he uses his SelfMadeMan image to persuade the public in his gentrification efforts.
340	** Another subversion is the title character who is given the slightly fancy name of Arlo, but spent most of his life being raised in the swamp. [[ItRunsInTheFamily It seems to run in the family]].
341	** There is a quick example of this at the start when a mother scolds her son for "making up tales" after claiming to have seen a little green boy (Arlo). And what does she call him? ''Sansabelt''. That's right, he's named after a brand of men's trousers.
342	* PunctuatedForEmphasis:
343	** When Tony is making a deal with Arlo while toying with his webbed feet, Arlo's reply is, "I. Love. Swimming."
344	** When the DJ at the Met Gala is scattering money at the start of Ansel's presentation, Ansel declares, "You... Are... My... People!"
345	* PuppyDogEyes: Seen on someone, Arlo usually, during the more emotional moments.
346	* RaginCajun:
347	** Edmée to a tee. Ironically, this is averted by Arlo despite being raised by her his whole life and instead, comes off as incredibly friendly to everyone he meets in contrast to Edmée's indiscriminate animosity at anyone knocking on her door.
348	** Arlo encounters a group of them who got cheated out of their money by Tony. When Arlo ends up with the bag of cash and introduces himself that he came from the swamp, they warm up to him since they thought he was one of them... until Arlo points out that he originated from New York and they go back to being angry again.
349	* RagsToRiches: Ansel Beauregard, whose main draw is that he was born into poverty and then became a wealthy real estate investor.
350	* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The main cast as a whole. Mentally, they're actually quite well-adjusted by the standards of this trope. That is, depending on how you judge a cast consisting of a WideEyedIdealist gator boy, a positively huge teenager [[TheDrifter with attachment issues]], a small rat-man with [[TheNapoleon a Napoleon complex]], a [[CampGay flamboyant]] pink fuzzball with arms and legs, a tiger girl who DrivesLikeCrazy, and a merman with a [[ChildHater serious irrational hatred of children.]]
351	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure:
352	** Edmée in the opening, when she has Arlo learn of his past and releases him from her care so he can finally leave the swamp after fifteen years and begin his journey.
353	** [[spoiler:Ansel becomes this in the finale following his redemption, when he lets Arlo and the gang restore and reopen Seaside by the Seashore and has Arlo move there so he can permenently live in his birth home.]]
354	* RecycledInSpace: The movie is basically an animated version of ''Film/{{Elf}}'' WITH AN ALLIGATOR BOY!
355	* ReflectiveEyes: When Arlo first catches notices of Marcellus sleeping with his eyes open, the smoke from the fire is reflected in them.
356	* {{Retraux}}: The movie is set in the modern day, but specific locations Arlo visits resemble those from the '50s, '60s and '70s. Willow Button, for example, is stuck in the '50s with no modern day technology, and Arlo at one point tries to use a vintage '50s style car.
357	* RetroUniverse: InUniverse, there is the town of Willow Button which seems to have stayed in the 1950s. This was done on purpose, according to WordOfGod.
358	* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: ''Arlo.'' InUniverse, a lot of people find him off-putting, but at the same time, there are people who take pity on him [[PuppyDogEyes just from seeing how sad he looks]], such as the bongo player he mistook for his dad, and the doorman who is so moved by Arlo's story that he allows him to see Ansel.
359	* RockersSmashGuitars: At the end of her birthday song to Arlo, Edmée smashes her banjo to bits.
360	* RoundaboutShot: Done briefly when Arlo dances with a catfish during "More More More".
361	* SceneryCensor: Zig-zagged. When Arlo strips himself nude after Ansel disowns him, the lower part of his body is usually exposed, but in the scene where Bertie reassures him on the beach, the lower part of his body is mostly covered up by his legs or pieces of trash, or blocked off by the camera. Then again, he wouldn't have anything serious, hence being half-alligator.
362	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere:
363	** The second "More More More" ends, so does Arlo's ImagineSpot as he gets spotted by a boy named Sansavelt; Arlo's response is to flee back into the swamp in fear.
364	** Just after Ansel's part in "Something's Missing" [[spoiler:which nearly exposes his birdman identity to the crowd]], he promptly flees the gala as Arlo chases him.
365	* SelfMadeMan: One of Ansel's gimmicks is to appeal to the masses with his poor and humble beginnings from Seaside by the Seashore. [[spoiler: The reveal of him being a bird-man and how he has to hide that part of himself in order to make it to the top not only shows that he had to work really hard to get to where he's standing, but also a more literal take on the trope by passing himself as a regular man to avoid discrimination]].
366	* SidekickSong: "Follow Me Home" for Bertie, with Arlo joining in later.
367	* ShamefulStrip: A more emotional example done alone. After Arlo gets rejected by Ansel, he strips himself of his clothes and flows away in the sewer he got abandoned in.
368	* ShapedLikeItself:
369	** The neighborhood of Seaside by the Seashore; "seaside" and "seashore" essentially mean the same thing.
370	** Tony says Ansel's penthouse is "Uptown, way uptown," as the camera shows a subway sign reading "Subway Uptown", with another above it reading "Way Uptown".
371	* ShooOutTheClowns: Arlo's friends disappear during the scenes where he first meets Ansel and when he chases him through the museum, to make their interactions more serious and plot-driven.
372	* ShortTeensTallAdults:
373	** Played straight with Arlo, but averted with Bertie. This is rather jarring with Arlo since he's an alligator, and yet is rather tiny for a 15 year old, human or gator wise. In contrast, Bertie's massive growth spurt has caused her to tower over everyone making her pass for a grown adult, but she's really just Arlo's age and is wholly insecure about her stature... [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre at least until Arlo convinces her otherwise]].
374	** Then again, Alia, who's presumably Arlo's age, is about the same height as him. It's stands to reason that most teens here have this trope applied to them.
375	* SleepsWithBothEyesOpen: Marcellus' way of sleeping. Arlo is promptly perplexed by this.
376	* SmallRoleBigImpact:
377	** Lawrence, the man from the auto shop who informs Ruff and Stucky about Arlo kicks off the entire conflict of the movie, despite appearing in just one scene and then never again.
378	** Relatedly, the little boy who says that he'll pay good money to see an alligator boy spurs Ruff and Stucky to go along with capturing Arlo.
379	* SomewhereSong: "Beyond These Walls", doubling as an IWantSong, as Arlo sings about life in his true home of New York City and how he longs to see what it's like there.
380	* TheSongBeforeTheStorm: Ansel's Broadway-esque number "Better Life", which is just before Arlo discovers he was trying to reinvent his personality rather than reunite with him, and right before Ansel disowns him, which initiates his HeroicBSOD.
381	* StalkerShot: While Ansel is preparing for his presentation backstage at the Met Gala, as he walks out, he is being spied on from the shadows by Ruff, Stucky and the Beast.
382	* TheStinger: As the credits are beginning, Edmée gets a postcard from Arlo and learns about his new life.
383	* StrongFamilyResemblance: Arlo only got his red hair from his late mother, but most of his features were heavily handed down from Ansel. Specifically he shares the same jagged hair strands on the back of his head from when Ansel was a young adult, he got his puffy cheeks with LuminescentBlush and YouthfulFreckles from Ansel's childhood, and both have the same X-detailed earlobes, chin hairs, and pointed fingertips. The feature that stands out the most is their eyes, which are oval-shaped instead of the traditional SphereEyes and Alia's almond-shaped ones, which is invoked as shown above.
384	* SuddenlySpeaking: Arlo's OnlyFriend Jeromio the frog usually speaks in croaks, but once Arlo leaves for New York, Jeromio somehow utters a deep-voiced "Yup," surprising Edmée.
385	* SweetAndSourGrapes: [[spoiler:Arlo decides not to move in with Ansel and instead decides to live with his friends wherever they want to, even if it's not New York, calling them a FamilyOfChoice. But then Ansel changes his mind of destroying the boardwalk and instead has them restore it and live there, thus giving Arlo a permanent place in New York, his one true home.]]
386	* SweetTooth: Edmée apparently has to keep a birthday cake in the fridge at all times due to Arlo's enjoyment of it. After devouring more than a gallon of ice cream in one bite he still desires more sugary snacks.
387	* TeamHandStack: Arlo and the gang do one as they promise to help him get answers from Ansel once and for all.
388	* TearsOfJoy: Both Arlo and Ansel when they officially reunite.
389	* TearsOfRemorse:
390	** Arlo starts shedding tears at the end of the DarkReprise as he is looking at his reflection in the water from a bridge in Central Park.
391	** Bertie sheds them just before Arlo leaves for Ansel's apartment.
392	** Ansel begins breaking down during his part of "Something's Missing" when he feels [[spoiler:hiding his birdman image is finally tested.]]
393	** [[spoiler:Twice in Ansel's DarkAndTroubledPast. First when Ansel is being ridiculed by the four child bullies, and again when he sees Arlo born which threatens to expose him, prompting him to abandon him in the sewers.]]
394	* TimeSkip: The prologue ends with baby Arlo being adopted by Edmée and skips ahead fifteen years to when Arlo learns the truth of his past.
395	* ThatRemindsMeOfASong: Crossed with LeaningOnTheFourthWall; Arlo mentions with Bertie he likes to sing how he feels, whether excited, sad, worried, afraid, or just plain ol' happy.
396	* TinyGuyHugeGirl: Arlo and Bertie, though their relationship is more LikeBrotherAndSister.
397	* TownGirls: Furlecia (Femme), Bertie (neither), and Alia (Butch).
398	* TragicKeepsake: Arlo's birth bracelet, which Edmée keeps in secret until Arlo is 15, allowing him to know the truth of his life.
399	* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The teasers and official trailer spoil scenes from the final third of the movie, specifically the Met Gala, [[spoiler:the reveal that Ansel is a bird-man, and Seaside by the Seashore being rebuilt. The first teaser even spoils the very last shot of the movie.]]
400	* TriumphantReprise: Arlo bursts into a hyperactive reprise of "More More More" as he undergoes a sugar rush in Willow Button. An instrumental version is also played during the credits, followed by a reprise of "Beyond These Walls".
401	* TruckDriversGearChange: The last chorus of "Beyond These Walls" modulates up one whole step.
402	* TrustPassword: When Edmée gives Arlo the chest containing the ID bracelet from when he was born, he refuses to open it unless it's his birthday; to prove him right, this causes Edmée to bring out the cake, slap the special hat on his head, and launches into her birthday song.
403	* TheUnmasking: [[spoiler:Ansel when he reveals he's a harpy.]]
404	* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Arlo and his friends crash the Met Gala without anyone batting an eye at their presence. This is justified in that ''everyone'' is dressed in such garish (and even outright ridiculous) clothes that it either makes the entire gang look tame in comparison or the attendees merely saw them as one of their own.
405	* VertigoEffect: In the close-up of Arlo when he is spotted by Sansavelt, this happens.
406	* WaterWakeUp: When Arlo starts singing "More More More", he splashes water over a sleeping alligator, causing it to wake up with an annoyed expression on its face.
407	* WatchingTheSunset: The final scene of the movie is Arlo and Bertie on the beach at the renovated Seaside by the Seashore looking out to the sunset.
408	* WhamShot: [[spoiler:Just before Ruff and Stucky have hustled Arlo out the door, Ansel appears in the shadows, spreading bird wings, and flies down to save him. Once back onstage, he rips off his pants, revealing bird legs on perches attached to fake feet, and steps into the full light, revealing himself to be a birdman.]]
409	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: After Arlo leaves the swamp, Jeromio is not seen again for the rest of the movie outside of visions. Edmée also disappears the same way, aside from TheStinger.
410	* WhatHaveIBecome: [[spoiler:Ansel says this word-per-word after Arlo is captured by Ruff and Stucky, allowing him to realize the error of his ways and reveal his true self to save his son.]]
411	* WhiteAndGreyMorality: While's there's an occasional {{Jerkass}}, no one in this movie is outright ''evil''. That being said, Ruff and Stucky are the closest thing to a BigBad, with how willing they are to hurt and kill for the sake of bagging Arlo.
412	* WhoIsDriving?: Alia keeps forgetting that she's supposed to drive the bus.
413	* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Marcellus has a hatred of children due to what they did staring at him and making fun of him during his time in the aquarium.
414	* WideEyesAndShrunkenIrises: Normally seen whenever a character gets shocked or overexcited about something.
415	* WingdingEyes: When Arlo is undergoing a sugar rush in Willow Button, his eyes have fireworks in them.
416	* WouldHurtAChild:
417	** PlayedForLaughs. Marcellus [[ProducePelting throws a lobster thermidor]] at one of the boys dancing on stage, giving him a black eye. His friends mildly call him out for this. Considering Marcellus is an unabashed ChildHater since his days in the aquarium, it comes off as no surprise.
418	** Ruff and Stucky are more blatant examples, as they seem to be more than willing to harm Arlo in their efforts to capture him.
419	* WoundedGazelleGambit: Furlecia, upon getting stabbed in her "love handles" by the rake, pretends to be terminally in danger to let her opponent's guard down and beat him up. It's so realistic that Arlo feels genuinely worried for her condition.
420	* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre:
421	** Arlo to Bertie about her drifter status and she's better than she thought.
422	** Bertie to Arlo after Ansel disowns him and recognizes him as the first person who appreciated her for who she is. Later Tony and his gang when they admit he changed their ways and accept him as one of the group.
423	* YouCantThwartStageOne:
424	** A non-villainous example; Arlo is unable to stop Ansel's plans to demolish Seaside by the Seashore. [[spoiler:It's only through LoveRedeems does he finally get his father to change his mind.]]
425	** Played straight with Ruff and Stucky, as Arlo cannot do anything to stop them from pursuing him.
426	* ZanyScheme: To fulfil the promise to Tony's gang they will take him to New York, Arlo has to break out Marcellus from an aquarium in North Carolina which Tony has planned himself. Though not seen, we do hear the results of such.
427	[[/folder]]
428
429	----
430	-->''Well, I know that I'm different, I wanna get out of here''\
431	''Say my fate isn't written, don't even listen''\

Context WesternAnimation / ArloTheAlligatorBoy