Western Animation / Two Buddies and a Badger

"Tootson and Ludiwood, Tootson and Ludiwood,
We are cheerful fellows who like to trolley 'round..."

We have a badger in our roof, hey badgeree-badgero,
We have a badger in our roof, hey badgero!
Nowhere any hippodiles or crocopotamuses,
Just a badgeree-badgero!

A....VERY strange Norwegian animated film from 2015 about two silly, but musically gifted friends named Tootson and Ludiwood (Knutsen & Ludvigsen in the original Norwegian), and their badger roommate Badgero, who live in a tunnel. The film describes their meeting with a pretty woman named Amanda, and the adventure they embark on to help save her scientist father from the diminutive but dangerous Rasputin and his henchmen, who want to... you guessed it... Take Over the World. Tootson and Ludiwood aren't exactly what you'd call traditional heroes, though, and so the rescue mission quickly turns out to be more of a series of goofy shenanigans.

2020 saw an even stranger sequel, Two Buddies and a Badger 2 — The Great Big Beast, in which Tootson and Ludiwood (and Badgero) have to deal not only with the fact that a mysterious, big and potentially dangerous beast has taken up living in their tunnel, but they also face the threat of being evicted from that tunnel when a strange female conductor shows up and tells them the government has decreed living in tunnels is illegal. In desperation, they set out to look for Tootson's grandfather, an old retired pirate named Captain Tootson, to ask for his help. What follows is a series of absurd and surreal adventures that takes them to such diverse places as the North Pole and Fluffy Cloud Heaven.

The universe of the movies is based on the caricatures of Øystein Dolmen and Gustav Lorentzen, a real-life duo of children's songwriters and comedians who got their start in the 1970s, and who over the next couple of decades released seven music albums, starred in a couple of radio dramas for children, been in sketch shows and books and featured in a stage play (which was later made into a live-action movie which disappointingly enough did not feature Dolmen and Lorentzen as the titular characters). The second movie is very loosely based on this stage play, while the first movie is very loosely based on on the novel Knutsen & Ludvigsen og den gale bergenser ("Tootson & Ludiwood and the Madman from Bergen.")

The duo were popular enough in Norway to be awarded two Spellemannprisen — the Norwegian equivalent of a Grammy — and several of their songs are known to pretty much all Norwegians. In recent years they've gained something of a Cult Classic following, which spawned these movies, which could best be described as Ren & Stimpy-very Lite, mixed in with some catchy tunes.

Trailer for the first movie can be seen here.
Trailer for the second movie can be seen here.

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Two Buddies and a Badger provides examples of:

• Animal Talk: About halfway through the movie, Badgero is separated from Tootson and Ludiwood and encounters a group of rats, and though he's been a silent character up until this point, he now has a conversation with them.
• Ascended Extra: People who aren't familiar with the original Knutsen & Ludvigsen songs and stories (i.e. most people who aren't Norwegian) might be surprised to learn that Badgero isn't really a character in any of them. He's not even mentioned in the audio dramas or the original stage play, and he only appears in one song — the song "Badger in Our Roof," which starts off this movie. However, since "Badger in Our Roof" was one of the most successful and well-known songs Øystein Dolmen and Gustav Lorentzen ever did, the idea of a badger living in the tunnel ceiling was already quite established (to the point where, when Dolmen and Lorentzen did in-character interviews as their characters, a pretty common question was "how's the badger doing?"). This movie has turned him into a full-fledged character and even makes him the big hero in the end.
• Bad Ol' Badger: Averted, Badgero is a friendly, intelligent creature who is only vicious towards the villains, to the point of ripping a guys nose off his face
• Black Comedy: There a surprising amount sprinkled here in there, one of the most blatant being a pig landing on live electrical lines, and landing as nothing more than a few cuts of pork and a (still-living) head.
• Bloodless Carnage: One of Rasputin's Henchmen gets their weird nose ripped off by Badgero after they capture him by mistake, which is almost lampshaded by the fact that he shows more annoyance at being inconvenienced after recovering it.
• Book Ends: The movie both begins and ends with Tootson and Ludiwood Breaking the Fourth Wall, acknowledging the audience and singing one of their most famous songs ("Badger In Our Roof" at the beginning, "Perhaps The King Is Coming" at the end).
• Casanova Wannabe: Ludiwood tries so very hard to be charming and suave towards the ladies in general and Amanda in particular. It doesn't work.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Between Amanda and Ludiwood as they fall off a really high cliff.
  Amanda: Is this really bad luck or is this a normal day for the two of you?
  Ludiwood: No, this is a bit worse than usual! ...Romantic view, though, eh?
• Cloudcuckoolander: Both Tootson and Ludiwood qualify. Though Ludiwood thinks he's the Only Sane Man, largely because he's slightly more with it than Tootson.
• Composite Character: Amanda is actually based on two separate characters from the novel; Amandus (the titular "madman from Bergen") and his fiancee Zenith. Her role in the story is more Amandus but her personality is more Zenith.
• Deranged Animation: Particularly when the heroes stumble into a TRUELY bizarre neon funhouse, populated by strange technicolor sealife floating around.
• Gonk: Pizza Face and the citizens of Bergen, the latter of whom have mouths that wrap all the way around their heads as well as bulgy eyes.
• The Napoleon: Rasputin.
• Lighter and Softer: Believe it or not, the weirdness and surrealism has been notably toned down from the novel. The novel, while still mainly a wacky comedy, was also a good deal Darker and Edgier with some genuinely creepy and unsettling moments; the villains were scarier and more competent, and the perils were a lot more serious. The movie takes on a much more lighthearted tone with goofier villains and more cartoony perils.
• Lost in Translation: The joke of Bergen being depicted as an eternally-gloomy city with non-stop rain and citizens that only speak in harsh, guttural sounds... is probably not that funny to anyone outside Norway.
• Manchild: Tootson and Ludiwood are at least nominally adults, but they are severely lacking in any kind of maturity. Tootson is the more blatantly childish of the two, but though Ludiwood thinks he's suave and mature, he really isn't that much better.
• Mood Whiplash: Downplayed. if one doesn't mind spoilers, see Not-So-Harmless Villain down below.
• Noodle Incident: Ludiwood admits to somehow locking Tootson in a breadbox as they float through space near the end.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Rasputin, He's constantly falling over, screeching like a child, and has a...weird bit of performing armpit farts when he's excited, however , once he demonstrates the kid of control his zombie serum will have on its victims by forcing a sentient mind-controlled rat to kill himself with a trap, the movie doesn't necessarily lose its humor, but for the rest of the time the heroes begin to take the whole deal much more seriously.
• Stealth Pun: Rasputin drinks his own zombie serum and turns into to a little poo that can only say "World Domination" over and over, ultimately becoming a figurative and now literal "Little Shit".
• The Stinger: Parodied, then played straight. As the Closing Credits begin winding down, Tootson and Ludiwood appear in voice-over, wondering if there's going to be a stinger or a "fun bit" after the credits.
  Ludiwood: Tootson?
  Tootson: Mmm?
  Ludiwood: You know, sometimes they save a fun bit for the very last.
  Tootson: What do you mean?
  Ludiwood: Well, you know, just an extra set of outtakes...
  Tootson: Oh!
  Ludiwood: Just something to show after the credits.
  Tootson: Hey, ho! Let's check it out!
  *pause*
  Tootson: These credits are really long.
  Ludiwood: Don't you think?
  Tootson: Ugh! Waiting is really, really tedious!
  Ludiwood: Now the credits are ending, Tootson!
  Tootson: Oh, this is so exciting!
  *pause*
  Tootson: Now it's nearly over...Oooh, now the credits are ending...
  *pause*
  Tootson: ..Are we there yet?!
  *screen fades to black*
  Ludiwood: There, that's it!
  Tootson: Yesss!
  Ludiwood: Now we'll see...!
  *screen remains black*
  Ludiwood: Oh.
  Tootson: There's nothing.
  Ludiwood: What a let-down.
  Tootson: Aw, this is rubbish!
  Ludiwood: Come on, let's just leave. Waste of money.
  Tootson: Yeah, come on, let's get out of here...
  Ludiwood: I mean, that's just really cheap, isn't it? *voice fades* Where'd the budget go? Hmm? Catering?
  *door slams*
  *scene fades back to a wiew of the interor of Tootson and Ludiwood's tunnel home. Footsteps approach, then the shadow of the Great Big Beast appears on the wall. The Beast starts laughing, and the movie ends*
• The Stoic: Badgero takes most things in calm stride.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: This has been the dynamic between Tootson and Ludiwood since their very first appearances on the Norwegian Children's Hour program in 1970. They bicker and argue almost constantly, they prank and tease each other and drive each other insane... but they're also the best of buddies and completely inseparable.
• Zombie Gait: The Citizens of Bergen even before the zombie serum is worked on them, just because they're all that depressed before Ludiwood and Tootson come to town and cheer them up tremendously.

The Great Big Beast provides examples of:

• Adaptation Dye-Job: The Great Big Beast. In the original radio dramas from the 1970s, Ludiwood described it as being red. When the Beast appeared on the covers of the music albums, it was coloured green. In this movie, Ludiwood still describes it as red, but it's really more a crimson pink.
• Adaptational Wimp: Kind of, with Captain Tootson. Elsewhere in the franchise it's usually at least hinted that he's a bit of a Small Name, Big Ego and that at least some of his tall tales of his youth are made up, but when things get tough he generally stands his ground and sees things through. Here, he outright admits that all his tall tales were made up and that he's really a bit of a wimp and a coward. Leads to a bit of a Broken Pedestal for Tootson, but he redeems himself during the climax.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: The Conductor — kind of, and after a rather long and complicated character history. In the original radio drama and the initial albums, the Conductor was portrayed as a friend of Tootson and Ludiwood, who chanced to meet them after falling off the train, and afterwards came by the tunnel for the occasional visit. However, for the stage musical which this movie loosely adapts, he underwent Adaptational Villainy and became a False Friend and The Mole (though also a bit of a Punch-Clock Villain who was Just Following Orders). In this movie, the Gender Flipped Conductor has lost the False Friend vibes and is openly on the side of the bad guy, but turns out to have quite a bit of sympathy for Tootson and Ludiwood and is really working against them because her older sister is bullying her into it. At the end of the movie she doesn't quite undergo a Heel–Face Turn, but she does get enough of her sister's bullying at the very end and pulls a Screw This, I'm Outta Here, upon which her role in the movie is essentially over.
• Advertised Extra: The Great Big Beast. It's definitely there, and plays an important part in the climax of the movie, but even though it's the titular character it's the most minor of the main characters.
• Anachronism Stew: To a bigger degree than the first movie, which just kind of took place in a vague time period. Here we get a lot more mixing and matching of various time periods, played for laughs and surrealism. For example, mobile phones with cameras exist, but they're rotary phones and the cameras attached are polaroids. That's not to mention the heavy involvement of pirates in the plot despite the movie taking place long after The Golden Age of Piracy.
• Art Evolution: The animation and character design has had a notable face-lift since the last movie. It's especially noticable with Badgero, whose design and animation is drastically improved.
• Art Shift: In some parts of the movie the visuals briefly change.
  • In the "Great Big Beast" song, we get a Disney Acid Sequence where a 3D-animated Tootson and Ludiwood interact with 2D-animated backgrounds and surroundings.
  • When Tootson is chased by a polar bear at the North Pole, the visuals briefly take on the look of a 2D Platform Game, complete with video game sound effects.
  • In one sequence, Tootson, Ludiwood and Captain Tootson are teleported through several animation styles, and complain about how cheap it looks.
• Bears Are Bad News: Tootson encounters an angry polar bear on the North Pole.
• Characterization Marches On: Badgero is far less stoic and more lively in this movie. He's also become far more of a Hypercompetent Sidekick, and has picked up some Evil-Detecting Dog traits, as he can instantly sniff out when people have ill intentions.
• Deranged Animation: Even more than the previous movie. Disney Acid Sequences where people trip on bad liqourice, teleporting to the North Pole to find out that it's made out of ice cream, tropical bars manned by fish who only serve cod liver oil, and casual visits to Fluffy Cloud Heaven to break out dead relatives is just the start. One online reviewer described it as "the most 'yes, and' movie you'll ever see this year."
• Fluffy Cloud Heaven: Tootson and Ludiwood visit Heaven and it's pretty much a bunch of naked people sitting on clouds and sigh about how disapponting the food is while naked baby angels sing about how packed lunches aren't any fun. Oh, and it's forbidden to talk loudly.
• Gender Flip: In the rest of the franchise, like in the radio dramas, the songs and stage play which this movie is loosely based on, the character of the Conductor is a man. Here, the Conductor is a woman.
• Gentle Giant: The Great Big Beast is huge (so huge, in fact, that we never get a full-body shot of it), but far less fierce than Tootson and Ludiwood think. It's in fact not fierce at all; just sweet and helpful but with a slight tendency to play The Gadfly towards Badgero.
• G-Rated Drug: At one point, Tootson and Ludiwood eat some 40 year old licorice, and afterwards act like they're totally stoned; complete with hallucinations and a Disney Acid Sequence where they sing a song about a dog and a cow which barely makes sense in context. (Interestingly enough, the part about the licorice is cut from the English dub of the movie.. but the song isn't, meaning it comes totally out of left field with no explanation.)
• Homoerotic Subtext: Played for laughs between Tootson and Ludiwood in the Multiple Endings parody's "good ending," there there's Weddings for Everyone — including Tootson and Ludiwood getting married to each other. The two characters are really too childish and bizarre for this to come across as actual Ship Tease; it's more just an off-the-wall Sure, Let's Go with That moment.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Let's face it. If it hadn't been for Badgero in this movie, Tootson and Ludiwood wouldn't have lasted twenty minutes.
• Interspecies Romance: Between Badgero and the Great Big Beast in the Multiple Endings parody's "good ending." In the actual story there's not much between them, though the Great Big Beast does rush to Badgero's rescue when he's captured by the bad guy.
• Lighter and Softer: Compared to the first film. The stakes are lower, the villain is less deranged, and Tootson and Ludiwood take the entire thing even less seriously than they did the first time around. The movie is, however, much, much Denser and Wackier, and given how absurd the first movie was that's saying something.
• Mood Dissonance: The "Great Big Beast" song is built on this trope. The song is about how scared Tootson and Ludiwood are of the Great Big Beast and how they're sure it's going to eat them both... but the tune is bouncy and cheerful, and Tootson and Ludiwood are clearly having great fun singing it, not looking scared of anything.
• Multiple Head Case: The Great Big Beast has a hundred heads (some of which are male, others are female, and one is a little baby head) and is constantly chattering with itself.
• Multiple Endings: Parodied. Right in the middle of the climax the movie stops in order for Ludiwood to break the fourth wall and tell the viewer that from here there are three endings to choose from: One good ending, one bad ending and one plausible ending. In the good ending, everyone gets married, in the bad ending The Bad Guy Wins, and in the plausible ending this movie never makes back its budget because people download it illegally instead of paying for seeing it. At this point Tootson has had enough and starts up the movie again to play the real ending, while Ludiwood protests that this is an extremely plausible ending.
• A Pirate 400 Years Too Late: Captain Tootson, who's a classic type pirate with a saber and a peg leg and everything, in a movie that takes place in what's at least approximately the modern day. Of course, with a movie as surreal as this he doesn't really feel terribly out of place.
• Vulgar Humor: There's been a notable increase of this compared to the previous movie; there's farting, burping, stinky feet, boogers and naked people... though the presentation is still pretty mild.
• Weddings for Everyone: The "good ending" imagined by Ludiwood has everyone getting married... including Tootson and Ludiwood to each other.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Tootson crossdresses in two scenes, though both are imaginary. In the opening scene he wears a dress and pretends to be a famous female singer, though it turns out he's just dreaming. In the Multiple Endings parody, in the Weddings for Everyone "good ending" Tootson and Ludiwood are shown getting married, with Tootson wearing the bride's dress, but this is just a joke.
• The Unintelligible: One of the Great Big Beast's heads is a little baby head which mainly speaks in incomprehensible baby babbles. The other heads understand it perfectly, though, and occasionally it does say some comprehensible words.

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