Western Animation / El Arca

8 Following

×

WHERE TO WATCH

PURCHASE

Amazon Video

RentBuy

Powered by JustWatch

El Arca is an 2007 animated film by Patagonik Animation retelling the story of Noah's Ark, and released by Patagonik Film Group (who did the Patoruzito movies and Mi Familia es un Dibujo), which is now since owned by Disney via Buena Vista International.

God feels like The Bible isn't interesting enough compared to Buddhist and Confucian books, so He decides to flood the world in order to create a more compelling story. Two separate storylines run in the film, one focusing on Noah and one on the animals, depicted here as anthropomorphic.

A letter gets sent out to all the animals saying that a pair will be needed to come on the ark in order to survive the flood. The lion prince Xiro volunteers to go after reading half of a torn letter, and picks Bruma, a lioness with vaguely referenced past indiscretions, over Kairel, an apparently fat lioness who helps plan the ark from the animals' side.

Before they board the ark, there is a dispute between the carnivores and herbivores over whether the herbivores would be eaten, which Xiro badly tries to mediate. It starts to rain and in the ensuing rush, a freak accident occurs, resulting in Bruma getting hit by a hippo and crushed to death or drowning.

On the ship, the predators plot a takeover, while Xiro struggles with Kairel to take responsibility. Their plan is to use Panthy, a panthress and nightclub singer, to quasi-seduce Xiro and make him think that he killed a herbivore. It works well enough to convince Kairel, and she runs off.

Meanwhile, Noah gets knocked down a shaft, and his sons fight over who gets the helm of the ship, which ends up running them aground at the north pole. Xiro hears a speech Noah gives to a penguin, thinks that it's God talking to him, and leads the animals out onto the ice to break the ark free. Kairel sees him finally taking responsibility, they drop off the appropriate arctic animals, and God gets the story He wanted for His Bible.

Notable for being a decidedly secular retelling of the story of Noah's Ark, as well as for its copious amounts of raunchy humor and sexual innuendo in many of the scenes with the animals. It's also notable for being one of the final animated movies Patagonik Film Group has made before shifting focus to live action films.

Despite having an English dub, it didn't get an American release until 2014, when Shout! Factory issued a Bowdlerized, family-friendly version under the Market-Based Title Noah's Ark.

Tropes:

• Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: The Shout Factory censored version cuts out the scene where Xiro gets the letter to come to the ark, which shows his letter was torn in half and what he did read caused him to misinterpret the trip as a pleasure cruise. This causes him to come off as much more irresponsible in the censored version, and his change of heart to be more responsible from finally reading the full letter (a scene also cut out) to be out of nowhere.
• Alpha Bitch: Bruma. As she's boarding the ark, she makes jab after jab towards Kairel, gloating about her fate. Bruma is then crushed by a hippo and killed.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: Farfan, one of the two human antagonists, inexplicably has yellowish-green skin.
• Ambiguously Bi: Bombay. He goes on the ark, traveling with a large female orangutan as the ark is meant for couples. However, he also has a falsetto voice, and has no problems touching Xiro’s buttocks.
• Anachronism Stew:
  • In one scene, Pity the parrot tells jokes about the fable tellers Aesop and Jean de la Fontaine, who wouldn't be born for centuries after the Genesis flood.
  • When Noah visits Farfan and Esther, the prices written on the signs are written with dollar signs and the banknotes Farfan places on his counter also have dollar signs on them. The dollar was invented on April 2, 1792, many centuries after the story's timeline.
  • In one scene, Bombay's mate Lilly goes to use the bathroom, and Bombay asks her if she has a newspaper, the first of which was published in 1609.
• Animal Disguise: Farfan and Esther, the two human antagonists, disguise themselves as a pair of animals named "Grasswhoppers" to sneak onto Noah's Ark.
• Animal Species Accent: A sheep that appears in one scene has a very shaky voice that mimics a sheep's bleating, which is especially pronounced when the sheep laughs and says "Ohh..".
• Art Shift: While most of the movie is done in a Disneyesque style, a demonstration of Dagnino's plan as he describes it to his gang in done in a different animation style that's cruder and has flatter coloring.
• Ass Shove: The dove delivering Noah's message at one point flies into an elephant's bottom, and is implied to go inside although all we see is the elephant's Reaction Shot. He's quickly pushed out and flies away from him.
• Assurance Backfire: When the Ark crashes onto the North Pole, Xiro tries to calm down the panicking animals with some positive words. His choice of words instead leaves something to be desired:
  Xiro: Some trip, isn't it?
  (Beat as all the animals stare at him)
  Xiro: (chuckles nervously) At least we haven't sunk yet!
  (all the animals panic once again)
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: The female characters are designed with defined breasts, but no nipples.
• Bare-Bottomed Monkey: The prologue features a baboon with a shot focusing on his hairless butt, which is pricked by the spikes of a pineapple-like creature.
• Betty and Veronica: Xiro considers himself to be in one between Kairel and Panthy. The way he describes it, he considers Panthy to be more 'fun' than Kairel, but appreciates Kairel for her kindness.
• Big Eater: The carnivorous animals plot to eat the other animals. Panthy's song emphasizes how she is one, singing about how she wants to eat them.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: A Sasquatch was among the mythical creatures depicted in the film.
• A Bloody Mess: One of the tricks used by Dagnino's gang to frame Xiro for eating one of the animals aboard the ark is to drench him in tomato sauce and have Panthy smear some on herself, giving off the impression of blood stains. A panda and mole who witness the scene sample some of the "blood" and smell and taste it, finding out the truth.
• Bullying a Dragon: While Farfan and Esther attempt to takeover Noah's ark, the former boasts their superiority as humans over all the other animals, shoving or kicking some of them away to prove his point before punching Dagnino from behind. He realizes his mistake just as the tiger turns around to attack him and Esther, and the two of them run away in fear.
• Butt-Monkey: Pepe the dove spends much of his screentime crashing into walls or other animals while flying.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: Panthy's well-endowed figure seems to be the reason why Xiro falls for her when he first sees her. Earlier in the film, most of Xiro's choices for a travel partner (i.e. him not realizing he's supposed to be choosing a mate for after the flood) that are reviewed by Kairel are also described as having "big boobs, no brains".
• Calling Me a Logarithm: When Bruma mocks Kairel, the latter states that she won't reply to her mocking out of respect for Xiro, calling her "a wholly unimpeachable woman". While Kairel's description is sarcastic, Bruma doesn't understand what the word "unimpeachable" means and thinks she's using it to insult her.
  • This is actually a case of a very adult joke that was Lost in Translation. In the original Spanish dub Kairel calls Bruma an "inimputable" (which is what "unimpeachable" was directly translated from) and since Bruma clearly heard that the word had "puta" (which is Spanish for "whore") in it, she took it as an insult. Also counts as a Parental Bonus.
• Camp Straight: Bombay, Xiro's assistant. He wears a lavender handkerchief around his neck, has a falsetto voice, and is the only one on the boat who has a lavishly decorated room in pastels. He boards the ship with a large female orangutan who has a deep voice and looks very masculine, so unless he's either bi or lying through his teeth to survive the flood, he's presumably this.
• Carnivore Confusion: Much of the movie's plot hinges on a gang of predators planning to enslave all the other animals and eat them when the Ark lands, and eventually even Noah's family has enough and attempts to eat some of the animals.
• Cartoon Creature:
  • The opening scene shows a creature that looks like a pineapple and a hedgehog.
  • Farfan and Esther disguise themselves as animals they call "Grasswhoppers". Their costumes include a pig-like snout, fluffy white fur on the ears and neck, a marsupial pouch on the stomach, paws on the front legs and hooves on the hind legs, and a long tail with a white tuft at the end.
• Cats Are Mean:
  • Dagnino the tiger is the leader of a gang of predators intending to eat all the herbivores when they reach land.
  • Panthy the panther and Cachito the puma are members of Dagnino's gang.
  • Bruma the lioness is an Alpha Bitch who doesn't hesitate to mock Kairel and gloat about her eventual fate.
• Chocolate Baby: One of Noah's sons is black even though he and his wife are white—which is a clever inside joke for anyone who's familiar with the old theory that Ham was the ancestor of African peoples.
• Comically Missing the Point: While Kairel is confronting Xiro about his flippant attitude to his situation, she expresses other animals' doubt in his possession of what it takes to be the king. Xiro takes this to mean he should wash his mane with a different shampoo, to Kairel's astonishment and frustration.
• Crossover Cosmology: God looks fondly upon the holy texts of Buddhism and Confucianism, offhandedly mentioning Buddha to be just as real as he is.
• Dance Party Ending: The film ends on all the characters (even the bad guys, who have their heads stuck in a wood plank) having a party and singing about their second chance to be on Earth.
• Death by Irony: Among other things, Bruma insults Kairel for being fat. A while later, she's crushed and sent into the waters below by a hippopotamus.
• Didn't Think This Through: As soon as Farfan and Esther find the exit, they resolve to start a new market and take advantage of the lack of competition caused by the flood. Apparently it doesn't occur to them that they have no materials to set it up or products to sell, and even if they can find any on the Ark, their potential customers will also have perished in the flood, and they end up stranded in the Arctic and pursued by two polar bears as a result of their short-sighted greed.
• Disaster Dominoes: As the animals aboard the ark, a frustrated sheep accidentally steps on a skunk's foot. As she snickers, she's promptly urinated on by the skunk, and bumps into a bull as she backs away. The bull rams a leopard in front of him upwards, the leopard rams on an elephant's butt, the elephant's shocked trumpet startles a monkey, the monkey holds tight on a goat's head, and the running goat bumps one of the hippopotami, who falls on Bruma.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The film isn't even remotely subtle with the sexual overtones.
  • Panthy's line towards Xiro emphasizes such: "The door to my heart, and room, are wide open."
  • In the Dance Party Ending, Panthy is dancing in a suspended cage like a stripper.
• Dope Slap: When the Ark leaves, we see the unicorn, dragon, and Sasquatch who earlier scoffed at the idea of the Ark being real watching it depart. The unicorn expresses his hope that their decision was right, which earns him a smack from the Sasquatch.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Bruma's crushed by a hippopotamus in a freak accident, and Xiro's reaction is to say "Well, there goes the sweet and tender future mother of my children".
• Dub Name Change: Panty and Ludo are renamed to Panthy and Wolfgang in the English dub.
• Evil Poacher: One appears in the start of the film to capture the animals and man representing the Seven Deadly Sins, thus seguing into the movie's first glance at the decadence of humanity.
• Exit, Pursued by a Bear: Implied at the end of the film, where human antagonists Farfan and Esther get stranded in the Arctic and exit pursued by a couple of hungry polar bears that disembarked the Ark.
• Expy: Xiro, Kairel and Bombay seem to be based on Kovu, Kiara and King Louie respectively, at least design-wise.
• Eyes Out of Sight: The Sasquatch's eyes are obscured by his hair.
• Family-Unfriendly Death:
  • Bruma gets a really nasty one: she is crushed to death by a hippopotamus and drowns in the flood.
  • Several other characters (like Xiro's parents, a unicorn, a dragon and a Sasquatch) drown in the flood, though in their case it happens off-screen.
  • Dagnino's plan's demonstration shows a pig falling in a boiling pot and being boiled alive, screaming in agony.
• Fan Disservice: If you look really closely, the chicken stripper has boobs before she takes off her top, but they disappear in the next shots. Please note she does not even have a humanlike body type unlike Panthy.
• Feathered Fiend: There is a vulture named Patricio in Dagnino's gang.
• Fluffy Cloud Heaven: God and His assistant both live in a mass of clouds in the sky.
• Frame-Up: Dagnino's gang frames Xiro for eating a herbivore using tomato juice, a piece of a grasswhopper costume used by Farfan and Panthy's acting skills.
• Furry Confusion: One of the crowd scenes shows an anthropomorphic bull standing next to a quadrupedal, more mundane bull.
• God: God appears as a big, blond, dark man with slanted blue eyes.
• God Is Evil: If you actually apply logic to his reasons why he flooded the Earth. While he mainly did it because he was disgusted with how humanity turned out, he also did so because he thought it would make The Bible a more interesting read, treating the destruction of the entire world and all of its people as an interesting plot twist.
• Go Seduce My Archnemesis: Panthy's role in the story is pretty much to seduce Xiro, so that Dagnino can frame him and take over leadership.
• Hartman Hips: All the females in this movie, with Kairel's considerably large butt taking the cake.
• Hate Sink: Bruma, Xiro's choice for a mate to board the ark, spends her screentime as a petty Alpha Bitch constantly insulting Kairel. After she gets killed in a freak accident, no one except Xiro seems to care, and even he gets over it pretty quickly.
• Heel–Face Turn: Dagnino and his gang seem to become good at the end, judging by the way some of them approve of Xiro's speech about unity and they all join the Dance Party Ending without attacking the heroes.
• Hero of Another Story: Noah and Xiro function as this towards one another.
• Humanoid Female Animal: Most female characters look way more humanoid than the male characters.
• Idiot Hero: Xiro. It takes him until he's already on the Ark after the world has been flooded to realise that he's not simply on a fancy cruise vacation, and that the world he knew is over. Half of that was because of the message being delivered to the lions was accidentally ripped in two, giving him only the details about the boat. The other half is down to him being clueless. Then there's how easily it takes to sway his attention with a certain female body-type, overtaking any such instincts as common sense. He does manage to mature over the course of the story, however.
• Ignored Enamored Underling: Kairel towards Xiro who doesn't notice her and rejects her in favor of more sexually attractive mates much to her chagrin. She also doubles as his Hyper-Competent Sidekick and does all the leadership and technical work he's too lazy to do.
• Impossible Hourglass Figure: Whilst all the prominent female characters in this film have big hips, Panthy's the one who most fits this trope, having big hips and a thin waist, but also a very prominent bust. Of course, given what she's in the film for this isn't too surprising.
• Informed Species: Wolfgang resembles a lynx or bobcat more than he does resembles an actual wolf while Coco has a head that resembles more like that of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
• Interspecies Romance: There's an antelope and a donkey that can be seen fooling around more than once. Panthy is a black panther (a melanistic version of any one of the Panthera genus) and Xiro the lion having the hots for her is a major plot point, though unlike the antelope and donkey, it's actually possible for them to "multiply."
• Karmic Butt-Monkey: During Farfan and Esther's trip on the ark Dagnino and his gang intimidate them, they all in a pot of soup and are almost cooked alive, a pile of animal dung falls on them, Noah's family hunts them down with the intention of eating them thinking they're animals, and they get stranded in the Arctic with polar bears chasing them. With their earlier misdeeds, such as conning Noah into selling them his house and knocking him out in order to take over his ship, the misfortunes that befall them are quite well-deserved.
• Karmic Death: Bruma gets one as a direct result of acting like an Alpha Bitch towards Kairel as Xiro's chosen Baby Factory and goes out of her way to give Kairel some Last Disrespects when she thinks the flood will kill her. As punishment she gets crushed and killed by a falling hippopotamus.
• Karmic Jackpot: God decides to give humanity a second chance by granting Noah and his family survival from the Genesis flood after a slave runs by, thanking Noah for freeing him.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: Dagnino comically does this to Xiro when he fights him after he gets Punched Across the Room.
  Kairel: Are you so cruel as to kick him while he's down?
  Dagnino: Yes. I am.
  Xiro: Can you stop giving him ideas?
• King of Beasts: King Sabu and every other member of his royal family are lions.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: The mythical creatures decline boarding the ark because they don't think the storm is anything serious and believe Noah's invitation to the Ark is just a ruse to hunt all the animals down. They're left stranded on a small floating rock for their error in judgment, with the dragon and Sasquatch both furious at the unicorn for his attempt to rationalize their decision.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • The wrathful baboon in the opening scene is put on a target for people to throw eggs at in the marketplace.
  • Farfan and Esther con Noah into selling them his house, sneak onto his ark and later knock him out, planning to take over his ship. Upon arriving in the Arctic, the two leave the ark and are accidentally left behind. They are last seen being pursued by two hungry polar bears.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: A character that resembles Heathcliff, apart from a purple nose, briefly appears in a crowd scene.
• Looking a Miffed Animal in the Mouth: While trying to deliver his message, Pepe the dove lands at a lake, noticing how odd it is no animals are around. He takes a sip and, when he looks up, is staring down the throat of an alligator.
• Lovable Sex Maniac: Xiro is one of these to the point he only tried to go on the Ark because he thought it would be a love cruise where he could fornicate as much as he liked. He grows out of it when he settles down with Kairel.
• Lured into a Trap: Discussed in the animals' meeting, where a unicorn states his belief that Noah's invitation to the Ark is little more than a ruse to hunt all of the animals down.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Bombay is a Camp Straight orangutan who wears a lavender handkerchief around his neck and speaks with a falsetto voice, while his mate Lily is bigger and heftier, speaks with a contralto voice, and does the fighting on Bombay's behalf during the climax.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": The animals do this thrice during the climax; first when Dagnino's gang chases them down, then when the Ark crashes into the Arctic, and finally when Xiro's attempt to calm them down fails, leading them to try fleeing into the wilderness before Xiro rallies them.
• Match Cut: After the animals and man representing the Seven Deadly Sins are captured by a poacher, the pineapple that gets caught with them falls to the ground, and the scene fades to a marketplace with pineapples being sold in crates.
• Monkey Morality Pose: Parodied in the scene where King Sabu announces that the time to board the Ark has come, where three monkeys do the pose and a fourth one puts his hands over his groin.
• Ms. Fanservice: Panthy for her breasts. Kairel and Bruma for their butts.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Noah's words of support to the dove he sends out with the olive branch are interpreted by Xiro in the brig as a message from God to take action.
• Prayer Is a Last Resort: After Noah's sons break the rudder and leave the ark unable to turn, their mother Naama urges them to pray. Their prayer wakes up a sleeping God, who remarks to himself, "Of course. When they’re in trouble, they remember I exist.".
• Predators Are Mean: The antagonists are a gang of predators led by the tiger Dagnino who plan to take charge before the Ark reaches land, enslave and fatten the herbivores, and forcibly make them into an assembly line of meals for themselves. Rules are established by Xiro early in the film specifically against them so they don't eat anyone, and the predators try to take advantage framing Xiro as having broken those rules. To add to the evil, Dagnino repeatedly implies he's going to use Kairel as a personal Sex Slave after he gets rid of Xiro.
• Reactive Continuous Scream: In one scene, Xiro checks his reflection in his cabin window, but instead sees the face of Farfan as the latter is sneaking onto the ark. The sight of each other makes the two characters scream in terror, Xiro because he mistakes Farfan for his reflection and thinks he's ugly and Farfan from seeing a lion inside the ship.
• Really Gets Around: The unnamed donkey is sleeping with at least two different animals of a different species on the Ark. Guy's having a great vacation.
• Replacement Goldfish: Zig-zagged. First Xiro is with Bruma, then when she's killed by a hippopotamus he gets with Kairel just because she's the only lioness around, then he gets with Panthy who turned out to be using him, then he ends up with Kairel for good.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: After a scuffle with his family gets out of hand, Noah is accidentally knocked into the depths of the ark, with his family presuming him dead. Fortunately, he survives and contributes to the end of the ark's journey.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: There is a crocodile named Coco in Dagnino's gang.
• Rousing Speech: After Xiro decides to pursue his destiny as king, he stops the panicking animals' attempt to flee into the Arctic wilderness with a speech about how the only way to survive is to put their differences aside and co-operate. The speech is so powerful that even Dagnino's henchmen express their approval for it.
• Royal Brat: Prince Xiro starts out as this before Character Development, throwing a fit about wanting to board Noah's Ark and his chosen mates being rejected. This is partially Justified by the fact that he assumes the Ark is just a cruise, and he grows out of it with Kairel's help.
• Savage Wolves: There is a wolf named Wolfgang (Ludo in the original Spanish dub) in Dagnino's gang.
• Seven Deadly Sins: The film opens with a montage of a vain peacock, an envious snake, a greedy Tarzan-esque man, a sloth who can barely wake up, a pineapple-like Cartoon Creature that falls in love with a pineapple thinking it's the same species as itself, a frog that tries to eat the pineapple animal, and a baboon that goes berserk on the other characters after being pricked in the behind by said pineapple animal. They're eventually captured by an Evil Poacher and sold/displayed at a marketplace, thus seguing into the movie's first glance at the decadence of humanity.
• Sexy Cat Person: Panthy is a hot Femme Fatale panther with an Impossible Hourglass Figure and enormous breasts.
• Shout-Out: Panthy's song is a homage to "I Will Survive" from Gloria Gaynor.
• Slave Liberation: In the marketplace, the Tarzan-esque man from the opening scene can be seen being sold as a slave. A couple of scenes later, he's running across the marketplace and shouting his freedom, thanking Noah for granting it to him. This convinces God that humanity is still worth preserving.
• Talking Animal: Obviously, but only among themselves. They are forbidden to talk to humans by an unnamed law.
• Terrestrial Sea Life: Played for Laughs. Several scenes, primarily at the climax, show fish, sharks, and even a whale aboard the ark, and it's clear that they're there because of the Rule of Funny.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Bombay is half Xiro's height, while his mate Lily is much heftier and taller, as well as strong enough to knock Xiro over with a friendly pat in the back and send Cachito the puma flying with a slap.
• Toilet Humor:
  • After the animals find out the two "grasswhoppers" (actually Farfan and Esther in disguise) have fallen in their soup, they all get indigestion and run to the toilets, with at least two detailed shots of a massive pile of animal crap afterward.
  • The freak accident that leads to Bruma's death is initiated when a skunk urinates on a sheep.
• Too Important to Walk: Xiro is transported to the place of Noah's ark on a palanquin borne by a gorilla and a polar bear... and takes the opportunity to get busy with his chosen partner, Bruma, in the meantime.
• Two Lines, No Waiting: The storyline focusing on Xiro and the animals rarely intersects with that of Noah's family, if only briefly and indirectly.
• Unicorns Missed The Ark: The unicorn, dragon, and sasquatch delegations scoff at the idea of the Ark and so their species are not spared.
• Unwanted Assistance: When Xiro and Dagnino have their fight, Kairel unwittingly helps Dagnino get the upper hand twice: once when asking if he's brave enough clobber the real king, and once when she asks if he's willing to kick Xiro when he's down (Xiro even asks her to stop giving Dagnino ideas).
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Farfan and Esther's failed attempt to take over Noah's ark ends with them walking into Dagnino and Farfan's grasswhopper costume tearing apart as they try to escape, providing the tiger with a tool with which to frame Xiro for eating an animal and consequently take the other animals hostage.
• The Vamp: Panthy, who uses her charms to seduce and frame Xiro while also being in a sexual relationship with Dagnino.
• Villainous Crush: Played with. Dagnino makes quite a few creepy comments about Kairel that would imply he somewhat lusts after her… although, he could also just be trying to get under Xiro’s skin.
• Villain Song: Panthy sings a version of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive"... that talks about her desire to eat the other animals to ensure her survival.
• Visual Pun: The chicken stripper who briefly appears at the beginning of the movie. Chicken strips, anyone?
• Weight Woe: Kairel is somewhat self-conscious about her weight, in no small part due to other characters calling her out over it (Bruma and later Dagnino). She even straight up asks Xiro if he has a problem with her because she's 'fat'.
• You Are Fat: From Bruma to Kairel before she boards the ark:
  Now that you're going to die from drowning, I'd love to tell you a few things. First of all, I've always hated your efficiency and intelligence, and in case you don't know what a mirror is, You. Are. Fat.