Billy the Krill (full title: Billy the Krill, la Leyenda de la Antártida) is a short (four-episode) 2017 Uruguayan animated series produced by Coyote Sociedad Animada.
Set in the Antarctic, the series stars two underdog protagonists who are at odds with each other, even though one doesn’t even know the other exists- Billy, a little krill with big ideas who routinely sabotages the researcher’s efforts, and Washington Garcia, a railway worker who was transferred to the Uruguayan Antarctic research base for reasons unknown to him. The series is narrated by Achilles, Washington’s pet hamster (technically in violation of a statute against introducing foreign species to Antarctica), who was paralyzed in a freezing accident in the first episode but possesses an uncanny ability to know what’s going on when he’s not around.
Although short, the series contains quite a number of strange and unusual sights, such as a tiny crustacean searching the Web, and inter-researcher hockey fight, and Jacques Cousteau getting it down on the deck of his boat.
Tropes in the series include:
- Black Comedy Predation: The series is rife with jokes about how many things eat krill- including the researchers at the Antarctic base, who make protein shakes out of them.
- Built with LEGO: Washington Garcia is often seen in a research station that appears to be made of giant LEGO bricks.
- Creative Closing Credits: The end credits play over a title-less version of the episode’s title card.
- Ending Theme: The end credits are accompanied by an instrumental reprise of the theme tune.
- Every Episode Ending: Downplayed; two of the four episodes use the same ending, where Billy walks back to his hole in the ice and jumps in, with an Iris Out following on the hole.
- Gratuitous English: The title is English even though the series is in Spanish.
- Mock Cousteau: Jacques Cousteau himself appears in the second episode… getting into a song-and-dance number with a Jamaican stereotype.
- Musical Episode: “Calypso Antártico”, where a stereotypical Jamaican man signs up for an Antarctic research voyage without understanding what it really entails, and starts up a Steel Drums and Sunshine-style number where it’s really too cold for one. Episodes of the series are short enough that the song took up nearly the entirety of the episode.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Billy might be just a tiny krill, but he has no problems moving around objects much larger than he is in his attempt to get back at the researchers.
- Protagonist Title: The series has one.
- Rhyming Names: Well, “Billy the Krill” almost rhymes.
- Rhyming Title: What you get when you combine a Character Title with (almost-)Rhyming Names.
- Terrestrial Sea Life: Billy seems to have no problems breathing and walking around on land. Lampshaded in the first episode:Narrator: If you’ve read somewhere that krill are a social species that lives in the open ocean, you’re going to have some questions that I won’t be able to answer.
- Title Theme Tune: Exaggerated; the title is the only thing said during the theme song.