Globehunters: An Around The World In 80 Days Adventure is a Made-for-TV Animated Musical by John Eng.
In an animal testing lab filled with a wide variety of animals, only one thought ever goes through their minds: escape. Easier said than done, though, since they're all pretty much still there. However, soon they get word that the lab's funding has been pulled, and is closing down in a week. They get word that they'll be taken care of, but some are convinced that that has a whole other meaning to it.
Three animals in particular, Sasha the Cheetah (Kenna Ramsey), Eddie the Gorilla (Lee Cherry), and Trevor the Parrot (Brian Beacock), are determined to seek out a better life than what they have in the lab, to a place they heard of in India known as "Himilaya Yu-Assa", where they'll be free and happy. So, finding a way out, they begin their quest to find Himilaya Yu-assa. On their tail, however, is a hunter (Willem Dafoe) who is tasked with tracking them down within 80 days, before the tracking devices implanted into them stop functioning.
The movie aired on Nickelodeon on December 15th, 2002.
Globehunters: An Around The World In 80 Days Adventure contains examples of:
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: Eddie wears a cap and sneakers, and Trevor wears eyeglasses.
- Air-Vent Passageway: Eddie, Sasha, and Trevor use an air vent to sneak into the lab locker room.
- Barefoot Cartoon Animal: The four Rastafarian Cat Girls that the trio encounter on the ship are fully dressed except for their feet (barring one).
- Black Bead Eyes: Some of the characters, such as Eddie, have their eyes like this.
- Curse Cut Short: Sasha yells at Trevor who wouldn't stop panicking. They happen to be in the docks.Sasha: If you don't cool it, I'm gonna kick your—! (loud foghorn shuts them up)
- Cutting the Knot: In the locker room, Eddie is trying to pick the lock to Wilkins' locker using one of his own hairs. Sasha, growing impatient with the wait, simply breaks the padlock in two.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The Hunter. Because of his name, imposing stature, large physique, dark clothing, as well as being shown in Sinister Silhouette throughout the majority of the film, the trio believes the doctor left him in-charge to take care of the animals, and sicced the Hunter on them when they ran away from the lab. They later find out he's actually working for Himalaya U.S.A., a nature preserve, after they rescue him from a fallen jeep.
- Deadly Euphemism: Trevor overhears Dr. Burke leaving Hunter to "dispose of the animals", which Trevor, Eddie, and Sasha assume they're all going to be killed when the lab shuts down in a week. Subverted when it only meant they're going to be transferred to a nature preserve. It's a mystery then why Dr. Burke had to choose such ominous vocabulary ("to dispose of" is another way of saying "kill"), so it's hard to blame the animals for the misunderstanding.
- Disembodied Eyebrows: Trevor's eyebrows are atop his glasses and serve to illustrate emotion.
- Eye Glasses:
- Trevor's eyes looks as if they're on his glasses. Downplayed in that his expressions are provided by his Disembodied Eyebrows instead of changing the shape of the frames.
- Played straight with Dr. Wilkins, whose glasses change shape depending on his emotion.
- Furry Reminder: Trevor the parrot who, not only squawks and mimics humans, but is capable of human speech and understanding humans. In one scene, it's shown that he can speak to them if he so chooses. Near the end, he fluently talks to the Hunter.
- Good All Along: Hunter, as it turns out. He looks like a stereotypical poacher who chases the animals once they make a break for it, but he actually works for the nature preserve where he plans to bring the animals.
- Inevitable Waterfall: The animals escape an angry mob of Hollywood Natives by taking a canoe to row it on a river. Surprise surprise, they go over a large waterfall where the chase finally ends.
- It's All About Me: Eddie is an all around nice guy, but he's a little full of himself.
- Minimalism: This being a John Eng cartoon, the art style is incredibly streamlined and colors often bleed into each other. For reference, see his other works in Oh Yeah! Cartoons.
- Nature Is Not Nice: When the trio finally get to a mountainous region, they encounter a terrified gazelle, and the vicious cheetah she's running from. Actually, all the animals they meet are VERY unwelcoming to them.
- Sassy Black Woman: Sasha's way of talking invokes this, perhaps due to being based on a native African animal.
- Spell My Name with a "The": The Hunter. Notably, when the humans talk to him, he's simply called "Hunter". That's because his full name is Jack Hunter and the animals misheard it as him being an actual hunter.
- Talking Animal: All the animals in the film can talk. To each other, that is. Justified with Trevor, who can mimic human speech.
- Top-Heavy Guy: The Hunter has a large upper body on small legs, exaggerated by the movie's minimalist art style.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Once the animals runaway from the lab and assign Hunter the task to bring them back, Dr. Burke and Dr. Wilkins disappear from the story completely despite having prominent roles in the first act.
