The Adventures of Brer Rabbit is a 2006 direct-to-video animated film from Universal Studios Home Entertainment, based on the Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris and directed by Byron Vaughns. The film features the voice talents of Nick Cannon as Brer Rabbit, D.L. Hughley as Brer Fox, Wayne Brady as Brer Wolf, and Danny Glover as Brer Turtle, who acts as the film's narrator.
Despite the common source material, this isn't related to Disney's Song of the South or the Splash Mountain rides at the Disney Theme Parks.
Tropes featured in this movie include:
- Affably Evil: Brer Wolf. He'd greedy, selfish, untrustworthy, and even vengeful, but he's just so dang friendly and polite. He's also so dim-witted that it's hard to see him as all that malicious.
- Alien Animals: According to the first story Brer Turtle tells Janey, "How the Animals Came to Earth", most nonhuman animals used to live in space before Brer Rabbit convinced them to move to Earth. This trope seems to only apply to wild vertebrates, though, as butterflies are shown fluttering about when Brer Rabbit first lands on Earth, and when Brer Fox lands on Earth, he lands in a chicken coop, causing the residents to scatter.
- Asshole Victim: Brer Fox is the clearest example, though it has to be said that several of the animals' grievances with Brer Rabbit wouldn't never have come to pass if they hadn't tried to eat him first.
- Beary Friendly: Brer Bear.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Brer Fox and Brer Wolf form of these near the end of the movie after being tricked by Brer Rabbit one time too many.
- The Big Bad Wolf: Brer Wolf.
- Box-and-Stick Trap: Brer Fox uses one of these, baited with honey, in an attempt to trap Brer Bear in order to serve him for dinner for his visiting in-laws. Fortunately, Brer Rabbit catches wind of this and warns Brer Bear, and Brer Fox ends up trapping Brer Lion instead.
- Briar Patching: Natch. The famous "briar patch" scene happens towards the end of the movie.
- Cunning Like a Fox: Brer Fox tries to live up to this trope, but he is just no match for the much more cunning Brer Rabbit.
- Didn't Think This Through: Brer Rabbit escapes the clutches of Sister Buzzard by pulling out some of her feathers, making her laugh and causing her to let go of him. This sends him into a free-fall, and he admits that maybe this wasn't such a good idea.
- The Ditz: Brer Wolf and Brer Bear.
- Dogs Are Dumb: Brer Wolf clearly isn’t the brightest mutt, given how effortlessly Brer Rabbit fools him on three occasions with increasingly cockamamie ploys. The third time, after escaping from Brer Fox, Rabbit convinces Wolf to untie him and then tie himself up so Wolf can more easily squeeze himself into a log with “buried treasure”.
- Don't Tell Mama: When Brer Rabbit tricks Brer Wolf into saying grace before eating him (giving him time to escape), Brer Wolf asks him not to tell his mama that he forgot about it.
- Expy: Brer Wolf is one of Disney's Brer Bear in Song of the South, being the larger Dumb Muscle antagonist to Brer Fox's Too Clever by Half, which is evident in the final segment, where they team up to get payback on Brer Rabbit.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Brer Rabbit becomes this at the mid-point of the movie after having tricked the other animals one time too many. Only Brer Turtle still likes and defends him, but then Brer Turtle is the one animal Brer Rabbit has helped rather than harmed with his tricks.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: According to Brer Turtle, this is part of the animals’ culture. When they aren’t trying to eat the prey animals, Brer Fox, Brer Wolf, and Brer Gator will join in on parties and other activities such as fishing like regular neighbors, though Brer Fox will still act as a Sitcom Archenemy to Brer Rabbit. Janey, the human girl, is naturally confused by this.
- Good Is Dumb: Brer Bear.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Brer Rabbit and Brer Turtle.
- Jerkass: Brer Fox. The other predators are usually quite amiable and friendly when not trying to eat Brer Rabbit, but the fox is a pretty nasty piece of work with very few redeeming qualities.
- Jerkass Realization: Brer Rabbit realizes about halfway through the movie that maybe he's too much of a jerkass after he overhears the other animals talking about how much they dislike him, with Brer Turtle being the only one willing to say anything good about him at all. He manages to become a MUCH nicer fellow, though he's just as clever as ever — which comes in handy when Brer Fox and Brer Wolf come after him.
- Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: Just like in the original stories, Brer Rabbit and the other Civilized Animals share their world and communicate freely with Mr. Man and other humans.
- Looking a Miffed Animal in the Mouth: Brer Rabbit asks Brer Gator for passage across a river. However, due to his nature, Brer Gator reneges on his deal, claiming "my momma didn't raise me to be no taxicab", flipping Brer Rabbit up into the air with his tail, causing him to bounce on the alligator's belly and onto his snout, where Rabbit gets a good look at the inside of Brer Gator's mouth and his real intentions.
- The Man in the Moon: Sister Moon, a Canon Foreigner voiced by Wanda Sykes. She is actually the Gender Flip to a similar character, "Unk Moon", in the story "Brer Rabbit Has Trouble with the Moon".
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: Brer Gator, who has a craving for "rabbit gizzards".
- Nice Guy: Brer Turtle is pretty much the nicest character in the movie. He almost functions as a sort of Morality Pet for Brer Rabbit in the first half of the movie, as he is the one character Brer Rabbit never tries to trick or tease.
- Rascally Rabbit: It's Brer Rabbit, what did you expect?
- Revenge Ballad: The aptly named "Payback Time" where Brer Fox and Brer Wolf plan their revenge against Brer Rabbit which leads to the tar baby.
- Smelly Skunk: Brer Skunk, who dislikes Brer Rabbit because one time he said that he smelled like a skunk.
- Smug Snake: Brer Fox is a haugty Jerkass who fancies himself as a cunning predator, but is nowhere near as clever as he likes to think he is, as evident by him being repeatedly fooled by Brer Rabbit. He also dresses like a Southern Gentleman in contrast to the other animals' more low-class, rural clothes, though he's Wicked Pretentious at best.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Brer Rabbit, after his Jerkass Realization halfway through the story. After realizing his habit of tricking and humiliating the other animals and only looking out for himself has left him with absolutely no friends (except for Brer Turtle), he turns over a new leaf and changes for the better.
