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Really Wild Animals

 Really Wild Animals
type
TVTItem
 Really Wild Animals
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Really Wild Animals
 Really Wild Animals
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ReallyWildAnimals
 Really Wild Animals
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Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_1'); })In the early 1990s, the National Geographic Society produced Really Wild Animals, an edutainment show for kids starring a talking globe called Spin, voiced by Dudley Moore. This show was before Zoboomafoo; heck, this show was before Kratts' Creatures! Its first six videos focused on the various animal habitats of the world, starting with Africa ("Swinging Safari"), Australia ("Wonders Down Under"), and the oceans ("Deep Sea Dive"). The next four in the series (where Spin receives a character redesign that sticks with him for the rest of the series) are focused on South America's Amazon ("Totally Tropical Rain Forest"), North America ("Amazing North America"), Asia ("Adventures in Asia"), plus the Arctic and Antarctic circles ("Polar Prowl"). After covering all the main animal stomping grounds of the world, the series starts focusing on different kinds of animals, starting with "Dinosaurs and Other Creature Features", which focuses on dinosaurs and creepy creatures, like bats and insects. At this point, the format has changed to essentially a double feature, focusing on two subjects, each of which gets two songs.Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_2'); })Oh right, the songs. Every video had at least four songs per episode. National Geographic got Allen O'Day, one of the best songwriters of the 1970s, to produce some songs for the series. The first three videos had five songs each. Starting with the next three, there were no more than four songs per episode, but most kids probably didn't mind, as the songs were were really very good—good enough that most of those kids, now grown up, still think the songs rock.All in all, this was a very sophisticated edutainment program for children, one that is overlooked far too often.Not to be confused with The Really Wild Show, a very similar and equally obscure BBC series from the early 1990s.
 Really Wild Animals
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2023-02-03T05:43:42Z
 Really Wild Animals
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2023-02-03T05:43:42Z
 Really Wild Animals
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DBTropes
 Really Wild Animals / int_1e8681db
type
Noble Bird of Prey
 Really Wild Animals / int_1e8681db
comment
Noble Bird of Prey: Frequently appears, and is always played for awesomeness, also some lesser known species appear like the African crowned eagle and white-bellied sea eagle from Southeast Asia.
 Really Wild Animals / int_1e8681db
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 Really Wild Animals / int_1e8681db
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Really Wild Animals / int_1e8681db
 Really Wild Animals / int_35b241c0
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Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping
 Really Wild Animals / int_35b241c0
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Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Every time Dudley Moore does an imitation of an American accent, his British inflections still sneak through.
 Really Wild Animals / int_35b241c0
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Really Wild Animals / int_35b241c0
 Really Wild Animals / int_41a48472
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Bat Out of Hell
 Really Wild Animals / int_41a48472
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Bat Out of Hell: In the episode "Dinosaurs and Other Creature Features", Spin disproves a whole bunch of myths about bats, telling viewers how they are not evil or monstrous creatures at all.
 Really Wild Animals / int_41a48472
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 Really Wild Animals / int_41a48472
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Really Wild Animals / int_41a48472
 Really Wild Animals / int_4856ac40
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Stock Footage
 Really Wild Animals / int_4856ac40
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Stock Footage: Used occasionally from old movies such as The Lost World or White Pongo. In-series, some footage from earlier videos would get reused for later installments. Recycled Animation: This applies to the use of Spin's animation footage in Season 2. Animation from "Amazing North America", "Adventures in Asia", and especially "Polar Prowl" saw heavy use in the later double-feature episodes.
 Really Wild Animals / int_4856ac40
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 Really Wild Animals / int_4f4372e9
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Early-Installment Weirdness
 Really Wild Animals / int_4f4372e9
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Early-Installment Weirdness: The first three episodes featured a different animation model for Spin, the background was the sky until the third episode of the second season and the entire first season consisted of hour-long episodes.
 Really Wild Animals / int_4f4372e9
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Really Wild Animals / int_4f4372e9
 Really Wild Animals / int_56b53152
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Green Aesop
 Really Wild Animals / int_56b53152
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Green Aesop: Kind of unavoidable considering what kind of series this is. Every episode has a quick plug about protecting endangered species and/or the environment, especially the first three.
 Really Wild Animals / int_56b53152
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 Really Wild Animals / int_58e43f17
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Cats Are Mean
 Really Wild Animals / int_58e43f17
comment
Cats Are Mean: Played for Laughs in one segment of "Hot Dogs and Cool Cats," where the tale of cat domestication is portrayed through a parody trailer for a horror movie, with cats "enslaving" humanity to care for all their needs. "And what do cats do for humans? Well, they might let you pet them... OR THEY MIGHT NOT!! HA HA!!"
 Really Wild Animals / int_58e43f17
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 Really Wild Animals / int_695efde3
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Raptor Attack
 Really Wild Animals / int_695efde3
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Raptor Attack: Dromaeosaurus (reusing the Deinonychus footage from Dinosaur! (1985)) and Utahraptor both appear in "Dinosaurs and Other Creature Features".
 Really Wild Animals / int_695efde3
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 Really Wild Animals / int_86daf505
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Parental Bonus
 Really Wild Animals / int_86daf505
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Parental Bonus: Some segments are set up as spoofs or ShoutOuts of adult-friendly material. One example is a Twilight Zone Shout-Out, The Alien Zone in Deep Sea Dive.
 Really Wild Animals / int_86daf505
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Really Wild Animals / int_86daf505
 Really Wild Animals / int_88ebc539
type
Always a Bigger Fish
 Really Wild Animals / int_88ebc539
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Always a Bigger Fish: The format of a segment explaining the food chain in Swinging Safari—bugs get eaten by frogs, frogs get eaten by bigger frogs, and so forth.
 Really Wild Animals / int_88ebc539
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Really Wild Animals / int_88ebc539
 Really Wild Animals / int_8a07e085
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Denser and Wackier
 Really Wild Animals / int_8a07e085
comment
Denser and Wackier: Spin became considerably more silly after his redesign whereas his original was still funny but somewhat more restrained during the first three episodes.
 Really Wild Animals / int_8a07e085
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 Really Wild Animals / int_8a07e085
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Really Wild Animals / int_8a07e085
 Really Wild Animals / int_ab497c22
type
Predators Are Mean
 Really Wild Animals / int_ab497c22
comment
Predators Are Mean: The show plays with this, being a show intended for all ages, not really ever showing a predator killing anything. (Other than insects and fish, most of the time.) And whenever there is a conflict between predator and prey, as between the mother ground squirrel and the rattlesnake, the prey is treated like the hero and the predator the villain. While the show tries to assure us that that there are no evil animals, it still does give the feel of this trope.
 Really Wild Animals / int_ab497c22
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Really Wild Animals / int_ab497c22
 Really Wild Animals / int_b0b8970e
type
Recycled Animation
 Really Wild Animals / int_b0b8970e
comment
Recycled Animation: This applies to the use of Spin's animation footage in Season 2. Animation from "Amazing North America", "Adventures in Asia", and especially "Polar Prowl" saw heavy use in the later double-feature episodes.
 Really Wild Animals / int_b0b8970e
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1.0
 Really Wild Animals / int_b0b8970e
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Really Wild Animals / int_b0b8970e
 Really Wild Animals / int_eeb2d092
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Killer Gorilla
 Really Wild Animals / int_eeb2d092
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Killer Gorilla: Thoroughly debunked in "Monkey Business."
 Really Wild Animals / int_eeb2d092
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 Really Wild Animals / int_eeb2d092
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 Really Wild Animals
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Really Wild Animals / int_eeb2d092
 Really Wild Animals / int_f48540c7
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King of Beasts
 Really Wild Animals / int_f48540c7
comment
King of Beasts: The lions in "Swinging Safari". The song about them even calls them as such.
 Really Wild Animals / int_f48540c7
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Really Wild Animals / int_f48540c7
 Really Wild Animals / int_name
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ItemName
 Really Wild Animals / int_name
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 Really Wild Animals / int_name
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Really Wild Animals / int_name
 Really Wild Animals / int_name
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Really Wild Animals

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 Really Wild Animals
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Signing-Off Catchphrase / int_c7a2dbdb