A great monkey of an adventure!
Spark (Known as Spark: A Space Tail in the U.S.) is a 2016 3D animated film about a monkey named Spark, whose home planet of Bana was destroyed by his evil uncle who stole the throne from his father. Spark goes on an adventure to defeat his evil Uncle with the help of his guardians Vix and Chunk.
Tropes:
- Action Girl: Vix is the team's main fighter (and a lieutenant of the Royal Guard). Koko's an evil version. The Queen has her moment once the counter-revolution gets underway as well.
- Ancestral Weapon: Spark's family has a staff that was passed down for generations.
- Batman Can Breathe in Space: Nobody needs a space suit to survive in the universal vacuum of the universe!
- Big Bad: Spark's Uncle General Zhong.
- Brawn Hilda: General Zhong's right hand woman, Koko.
- Creative Closing Credits: The credits show what happens after Spark becomes prince.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: General Zhong proves quite difficult to defeat.
- Empathy Pet: Spark has a bug companion who is one of these.
- Gentle Giant: The Kraken turns out to be this unless angered by someone like Zhong.
- Grease Monkey: Chunk is one of these.
- Harmless Electrocution: This happens a couple of times to the general Spark discovers due to the lightning storms on the planet fragment they're on. Though, as some reviewers have noted the king apparently died from the same sort of lightning strike.
- Heroic Lineage: Spark finds out he's the son of a King and Queen of Planet Bana.
- A Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy Far, Far Away...: A space setting with a bunch of Funny Animals (their Earth species is stated, but not how they evolved and got into space) but no humans or Earth.
- Lost Orphaned Royalty: In the beginning exposition of the movie, Spark's parents are shown to have died during a cataclysm that tore his homeworld apart - it's later revealed that Spark's parents were actually the King and Queen. However, it's subverted in that the Queen is well and alive; she had Chunk, Vix and Bananny hide this from him to protect him from Zhong.
- Mama Bear: The Queen. She's been pretending to be on Zhong's side for 13 years not only to restore the kingdom, but to also see Spark again. She did everything she could to protect him, like entrusting him to Vix's, Chunk's and Bananny's care until he came of age. When Zhong attempts to kill Spark, she is angry as all hell and she doesn't go down without a fight.
- The Mentor: Vix is this for Spark.
- Mischief-Making Monkey: Spark
- Mooks: General Zhong has PLENTY of these since he's a dictator.
- Only Six Faces: Zhong's guards all have the exact same model, the Royal Guard are more varied but one is an obvious Palette Swap of Vix.
- Parental Substitute: Vix, Chunk, and the robot nanny Bananny to Spark. Charged with him by the Queen when Zhong took over it turns out.
- Percussive Maintenance: Chunk's wormhole machine only works after he bangs his head into the control panel repeatedly. The second time Vix explicitly tells him to hit it.
- Really Royalty Reveal: While he was raised to believe he was just a common citizen of what was once Bana, Spark is actually the son of the Queen and now-deceased King, as well as the nephew of General Zhong, the King's brother.
- Retractable Weapon: Before Spark gets his ancestral weapon he uses a collapsible staff made from scrap.
- Shout-Out: "Time to kick some asteroid!"
- Slow Motion: This is seen when Spark and Vix are training with each other.
- Small Name, Big Ego: General Zhong certainly qualifies always thinking he's so great as a king.
- Space Opera: This movie qualifies.
- Space Battle: Spark, Vix, Chunk, and the rebels launch one of these after General Zhong. Of the Standard Starship Scuffle with Old-School Dogfighting variety with what look like two 20th century battleships supported by speeder bikes and giant bugs acting as fighters.
- Space Is Noisy: Spark uses "sonar" to find the kraken, and the ship's horn to communicate with it.
- Space Whale: The space "kraken" looks more like a giant sperm whale with half a dozen long flippers.
- Spiteful Spit: The rebels Spark discovers do this a couple times at the ground when General Zhong is mentioned.
- Stock Animal Diet: Zhong's guards are shown taking bananas from the monkey populace.
- Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: Bananny is rebuilt with a lot of concealable weaponry.
- The Napoleon: Zhong. He's even shorter than Spark and has a wild temper.
- Toppled Statue: The rebels do this to a statue of General Zhong after he's been defeated though they are off screen and only the statue is seen when this happens.
- Trailers Always Spoil: Quite a few trailers reveal Spark is the prince.
- Villainous Crush: Zhong has a very uncomfortable, one-sided relationship with the Queen, one which she only agreed to for the sake of being The Mole so she could eventually restore her kingdom to its former glory. The last interaction she ever has with him is punching him in the face after he tries to kiss her.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Despite wanting to stop Zhong, Vix gets very angry at Spark for recklessly going in alone.
- World of Funny Animals: Everyone in this movie is an anthropomorphic animal save for any wild creatures.
- You Have Failed Me: General Zhong, being a very hard king to please does this to many of his minions.
