Angelo Rules is a French animated TV show. It shows Angelo, a 11-year old boy, coming up with strategies to battle situations he runs into at school, home, or even his favorite skating park. With the help of his best friends, Sherwood and Lola, nothing can go wrong, and even when it does, Angelo will always find a backup plan, no matter how extreme it may be.
With four already finished seasons, a fifth one was been announced in 2021, and began premiering in France by the end of August 2022.
Angelo Rules contains the following tropes:
- Abnormal Allergy: One episode reveals that Sherwood only eats muffins that don't contain flour because he's allergic to... carbohydrates (rather than gluten). This is not referenced in other episodes, where he's seen eating normal cakes.
- Absurdly High-Stakes Game: Angelo and his friends often find theirselves in difficult situations which require a not-so-connected challenge to extricate theirselves from. Many examples emerge, among them planning and designing a small radio-controlled car to win a race in town in order to take back something dropped in the neighbor's garden.
- Academic Alpha Bitch: Tracy. Overlaps with Teacher's Pet, since the main teacher is her uncle.
- Ambiguously Brown: Sherwood has a rather dark complexion, but is never explicitly stated to be foreign.
- Athletically Challenged: Butter Fingers is very clumsy and not very good at sports. He has trouble coordinating his movements, which means he is always Picked Last at volleyball. He never managed to score at basketball except once due to pure luck.
- Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: Lola is the beauty, Sherwood is the brains, and Angelo is the brawn.
- Beneath Suspicion: In one episode, the one who tore up Peter’s stuffed rabbit Ralphie is Peter himself, banking on the fact that everyone would assume it had been done while Angelo was the only one in the house.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Angelo often talks directly to the audience about his strategies.
- The Bully: In the series, Manetti is portrayed as this due to being brutal towards the characters. However, he has a nice side.
- Canis Latinicus: In the short "Little Brothers" from "Angelo's Tips", Angelo calls little brothers Siblingus horribilis. Case in point, only the latter is an actual Latin word.
- Characterization Marches On:
- In the first season, the characters were more rude and antagonistic to each other. Afterwards, they are written to be more polite and friendly towards each other.
- Hunter was originally written as a Big Brother Bully to Butterfingers and a jerk to everyone. He even had moments of cheating on his girlfriend Elena. Later seasons have him written as a laid-back, but ditzy guy who gets along with everyone and he's completely devoted to Elena.
- Brandy, Alonzo, and Clyde were Jerks With A Heart Of Gold in the first season, as they had moments of looking down on the younger kids and were more negative, but showed Pet the Dog moments on occasion. Alonzo and Clyde are now Lovable Jocks with no signs of meanness and Brandy is a Lovable Alpha Bitch.
- Cheerful Child: Peter is a very sweet and plucky kid.
- Costume Evolution:
- Elena originally had long hair and wore sneakers in the first season. From the second season onward, she wears flats and her hair is shorter.
- To a lesser extent, Cooper's shirt was changed from long-sleeved to short-sleeved.
- Dance-Off: One occurs between Butterfingers and Tracy in an episode. Butterfingers realizes that he's good at dancing, and Tracy challenges him just to embarrass him in front of everyone.
- Depending on the Writer: The characters' personalities would vary in the first season. Sometimes they would be rude and mischievous and other times they can be very supportive. This got subverted in the later seasons where everyone got a stable personality.
- Dumb Muscle: Manetti is really not the sharpest tool in the shed.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Tracy is one of the main antagonists of the show and Angelo's arch-rival, but a couple of moments from the show (such as Tracy's dream where she and Angelo almost kissed) implies that she may be secretly in love with Angelo and the antagonistic behaviour she expresses towards him is just a way for her to repress her true feelings for him.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Is Geezer's real name Geezer or is it an Affectionate Nickname the townspeople address him with?
- Foil: Monica and Tracy are both perfectionists. However, Tracy is an Academic Alpha Bitch who likes to manipulate everyone just to get what she wants, and Monica, while snotty and arrogant, is nice to her friends and will have no problems bending rules just to help them.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: If a classmate were to make the class harder by gaining them more work to do in certain episodes, then everyone would be mad at them, even the soft-spoken ones like Butterfingers and Candy. This happened in "Sherwood's Fault" and "Brownie Points."
- Gilligan Cut: In one episode, Angelo says, "You cannot make me go to sleep." Cut to Angelo laying in bed. Angelo says, "However, you can make me get in bed. But that's it." Then Angelo goes to sleep.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Candy has a collection of stuffed teddy bears in her locker, and she tenderly cares for each of them, much to the amusement of her friends.
- Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Although she's typically girly, Brandy isn't above skateboarding and playing sports.
- Godlike Gamer: Ethan is a gaming freak. His eyes never leave his screen, and whatever's happening around him doesn't distract him once.
- Gone Horribly Right: In one episode, Angelo tries to make his mother stop playing loud music at night by bombarding her with louder sounds. The next morning, she refuses to allow any sounds at all.Angelo: When did my house become a library?
- Grumpy Old Man: Geezer, quite fittingly. But by Season 2, he loses all of his grumpiness and is happier.
- Hated by All: Tracy is disliked by her peers because she's a tattletale who goes out of her way to ruin everyone's day.
- Hates Reading: Angelo doesn't seem to like reading. When he pretends to be sick to stay at home the whole day, he finds out he has nothing to do but considers reading not an option.
- Jerkass Ball:
- Geezer has Sherwood, Lola, and Angelo hang out with his nephew Donald in an episode, knowing full well that Donald is horrible and will get the three in trouble.
- Surprisingly, Peter has been portrayed as manipulative and a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing in "Adorable, Horrible Peter" and "Who Killed the Rabbit." He uses his cuteness to get what he wants in the former and frames Angelo for destroying his pet rabbit despite being the one who did it just to get a new toy.
- Jerk Jock: Downplayed. Clyde and Alonzo never beat anyone up, but they do act insulting and condescending towards the younger students. This was removed after the first season and they get along with the students more without belittlement.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Manetti can show a Gentle Giant side to him when he's not bullying.
- The Klutz: Butterfingers is always getting into accidents as part of his characterization.
- Last-Name Basis: Among the kids, Manett is always called by his surname.
- Limited Wardrobe: The show has a low budget, so characters wearing a different attire is rare. Season 5 does have them wear coats due to the cold weather.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Elena and Peter. Elena has a temperamental attitude and can be grumpy and negative. Peter is extremely hyperactive, sweet-natured, and loves to watch Cuddle Farm.
- Mission Control: For any task requiring action from Lola and Angelo, whether alone or together, Sherwood will be behind the screen relaying intel and orders.
- Nice Guy:
- Butterfingers is a soft, gentle, and tender boy who doesn't have a mean bone in his body.
- As a Meaningful Name, Candy is a sweet girl. She's a Shrinking Violet that loves stuffed animals and it's rare for her to hold the Jerkass Ball.
- Angelo can get annoyed with him on occasion, but Peter is pretty nice to everyone and is mostly Innocently Insensitive about his actions.
- Schmitty, the school's lunch man, gets along with everybody and has a laidback approach to life.
- Nice, Mean, and In-Between: Of the three children, Peter is the Cheerful Child, Elena can be a Bratty Teenage Daughter, and Angelo is calm, but not above dirty tricks.
- Picked Last: Butterfingers always gets picked last at volleyball due to his poor athletic skills. In one episode, Angelo tries to help him getting picked first for once. After trying to teach him to play better to prove himself worthy fails, Angelo bribes the team captains Alonzo and Clyde with tickets to Adventure Park in exchange of picking Butterfingers first. It works.
- The Plan: Every single episode will feature a plan of some sort, from a carefully-executed Batman Gambit to outright reckless improvisation when things go wrong.
- Rage Quit: When Monica learns about Tracy's plans to "improve" the school, Monica doesn't go ballistic, but she gets angry enough to leave the meeting and announce that she won't be working with the school.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man:
- Peter (clueless little brother) to Angelo (crafty older brother).
- Peter (cheerful and energetic) to Cooper (rough and rude).
- Peter (sweet and kind) to Manetti (hostile and dull).
- Butterfingers (In Touch with His Feminine Side) to Hunter (cool-headed big brother).
- Butterfingers (meek and weak) to Manetti (dumb and strong).
- Shout-Out: One episode is titled "A Fish Called Mr. Bubbles".
- Shrinking Violet: Candy is very timid and soft. Though it can be subverted since she has no problem speaking to people and enthusiastically did a Happy Dance in one episode over getting to hang out with Angelo.
- Slice of Life: The series explores Angelo's day-to-day life, and most of the episodes take place in the protagonist's school.
- Stern Teacher: Mr. Foot is a strict and no-nonsense man, but he does want his students to do well.
- Super Gullible: In "The Great Wait," Ajay mentions that he'll believe anything by just seeing or reading it. Angelo tried to use this to his advantage, but failed.
- Swear Word Plot: One episode has Angelo inadvertently teaching Peter a swear word when he trips over his brother's toys. Throughout the episode, he's trying to prevent Peter from saying the word in front of anyone. Angelo tries to scare his brother by saying that if his mother hears the word, she'll turn into a space monster, but instead he thinks it's awesome. His final solution is to teach Peter a new word he never heard about via a "swear" contest. It works for a while since Peter ends up liking the word "gastropod" more than the swear he heard from Angelo... but after their father trips over the toys, Peter learns another swear word which he ends up liking more.
- Teacher's Pet: Tracy is this this to Mr. Foot as she is his niece, but it's downplayed as Mr. Foot does punish her if she does something wrong and doesn't seem to favor her over his students.
- Those Two Guys: Clyde and Alonzo, two of the school jocks, are best bros and are often seen together.
- Three Shorts: The show originally went with this format for Season 1. It switched to a "Two Shorts" format starting from Season 2.
- Teens Are Monsters: Downplayed. The teenagers can be sarcastic, but they're nicer than most tropes.
- Two-Teacher School: The school staff is composed of only three teachers: Miss Pearla, the art teacher, Coach Zonka, the sports coach, and Mr. Foot, who teaches anything else and is also the principal.
- Tsundere: Tracy is implied to be one towards Angelo, as she's generally acting antagonistic towards him and wanting to foil his plans, but the show hinted a couple of times that she may be secretly harboring feelings for him.
- Vocal Dissonance: In the earlier episodes, the characters' voices would be inconsistent. Alonzo once had Sherwood's 1st season voice and Monica had the voice of an adult in "Sandman Cometh."
- Vocal Evolution: Starting in Season 2, Sherwood's voice has gotten deeper.
- What Does She See in Him?: Ms. Pearla and Mr. Foot have a crush on each other. In "Pop Quiz," Angelo explains the difference between them, as Pearla's interesting while Foot's boring.
- World of Technicolor Hair: Several characters have exotic hair colors. Angelo's sister Elena and their mother have blue hair, his friend Lola has pink hair, Ethan, Ms. Pearla and Damien Burst sport different shades of purple, and the two members of Slobbers have purple and green hair, respectively.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: The main premise of "Wanna Piece of Me?" Angelo unintentionally makes Cooper, Manetti's younger brother, want to fight him, and Angelo refuses as he's Peter's age.
