Alpha and Omega (film)

For the series of urban fantasy books named Alpha and Omega by Patricia Briggs, see Mercy Thompson Universe.

A computer-animated movie released by Lionsgate, in Fall 2010.

Alpha And Omega focuses on two wolves on opposite ends of their pack's social order. Kate is an Alpha, who takes her job seriously, and Humphrey is an Omega, who spends his days joking around with his friends. Kate is to be married to Garth, an Alpha wolf from another pack - not for love, but to preserve peace. However, the marriage is put on hold when Kate and Humphrey are sedated and taken a thousand miles away from home, to... repopulate. They must work together to get back home, but falling in love with each other complicates everything. To make matters worse, it's a race against time - back home, conflict is brewing among rival packs...

Tropes present in Alpha And Omega include:
"Humphrey: (Upon seeing the slobber on his face and a very pissed-off bear) "Oh, poo...""
 * Action Girl: Kate.
 * All Men Are Perverts: Humphrey's expression after realizing about repopulating the park, and how it sounds good to him.
 * Ambiguously Gay: Shakey (The little wolf who wears a flower necklace.)
 * Anime Hair: For some reason the wolves have it.
 * Arranged Marriage: Kate to Garth, in order to prevent war.
 * Aside Glance: After Kate's mother gives her a 'talk' about what to do if Garth gets out of line on their date (being Eve, it involved a violent murder), Kate gives a wide eyed glance to the camera.
 * Ass Shove: No, there's another reason for the moose's facial expression.
 * Ax Crazy: Kate's mother tells her that if Garth tries to pressure her she should "take those beautiful teeth of hers, go for the throat and don't let go until the body stops shaking."
 * Beta Couple: Garth and Lilly.
 * Big Bad: Tony serves as the main antagonist of the film. It's his treat to declare war on Kate and Humphrey's pack if the Arranged Marriage doesn't happen on account of his stubborn Appeal to Tradition as the only way the packs could merge. . He's also treated with a very ominous air whenever he appears and his pack is overall the more aggressive of the two. That said, he's not really evil, just an extremely large Jerkass.
 * Big Badass Wolf: The alpha wolves. More so than the omega wolves, who leave out the big and the badass.
 * Truth in Television: That's more or less how the pecking order is established by real wolves. Bear in mind that even a pathetic little omega is still plenty able to ruin the day of a squishy human if you mess with it.
 * Big Eater: Mooch.
 * Big, Thin, Short Trio: Shakey, Salty and Mooch.
 * Bishonen: Garth. Yes, Garth.
 * Blue Eyes: Humphrey and Winston.
 * Which is odd, since wolves loose the blue color of their eyes by the time they reach adolescence.
 * Bring My Brown Pants: Humphrey when a store owner points a shotgun at him. Justified since he was suffering from a severe Potty Emergency minutes earlier.
 * The trailer made it seem like it would happen when he and Kate ran into the bears. Guess they lied.
 * Butt Monkey / Chew Toy: Humphrey.
 * Canada, Eh?: The wolves live in Jasper, a national park in Canada.
 * A French Canada Goose.
 * Casanova Wannabe: Salty with his best pickup line being "hey".
 * Chekhov's Gunman: Eve's Ax Crazy motives actually served a purpose by
 * Chekhov's Skill: Humphrey's tree-trunk sledding skills, twice.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Eve, who switches from caring Mama Bear to threatening Ax Crazy whenever a serious situation tends to happen, such as Kate's disappearance.
 * Clumsy Girl: Lilly.
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience: Notice the western pack (excluding the alpha females) are grayish in fur color and the eastern pack are brownish in fur color.
 * Cool and Unusual Punishment: Eve is a real goldmine of these.
 * "Aww, Kate, you look so beautiful. Now, if Garth gets out of line, take those beautiful teeth of yours, go for the throat and don't let go until the body stops shaking."
 * "Rip his tail off and shove it down his throat".
 * "If any of you wolves have hurt my daughter, I will personally RIP out your eyes, and SHOVE them down your throat so you can see my claws TEAR YOUR CARCASS OPEN! "
 * Cool Big Sis: Kate to Lilly.
 * Cub Cues Protective Parent: Humphrey plays with a bear cub and accidentally makes it cry. The cub's mama and two of her friends come along to make Humphrey pay for it.
 * Cute Little Fangs: Salty's trademark.
 * The Cutie: Lilly. Also, Shakey counts as a male version.
 * Dance Party Ending: However, justified as this is how group howls are treated throughout the movie anyway.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Kate, especially if you are considered mostly normal and you have a loopy friend, a crazy mother, a ditzy sister, and a terrible howling future mate in your life.
 * Disney Death:
 * Earlier,
 * Disproportionate Retribution: Tony threatens Winston by telling him if Kate doesn't marry Garth, his tribe will declare war and take over his land.
 * Dreadful Musician: Garth. Even Kate, Lilly, and himself agree.
 * Drool Hello: Bear slobber on Humphrey after he accidentally hurts the bear's child.
 * Earn Your Happy Ending: gets this after
 * Everything's Worse With Bears: Trailers depict Kate and Humphrey being cornered by a group of bears, subverted as they are apparently weak enough to be beaten up by wolves.
 * Actually, it's yet another case of Never Trust a Trailer.
 * Also, according to The Other Wiki, evidently wolves can sometimes win against Bears, "Depending on context". 'Course, given the situation shown in the film: yeah, they'd be in trouble.
 * Eyes of Gold: Kate and Eve.
 * Eye Take: Eve's death threats tend to get this response.
 * Feather Fingers: All the animals seem to be able to use their wings/paws like hands.
 * Five-Man Band: Humphrey and his omega buddies.
 * The Hero: Humphrey.
 * The Lancer: Shakey (the little brown wolf).
 * The Smart Guy: Salty (the skinny wolf with the really long snout and the fangs).
 * The Big Guy: Mooch (the fat wolf).
 * The Chick(s): Reba and Janice.
 * Foil: Kate and Humphrey, Lilly and Garth, the title of the movie says it all.
 * Foreshadowing: Early on in the film, Humphrey and Kate hitch a ride with a vacationing couple, a huge biker and his small, librarian wife, who Marcel and comment where a case of Opposites Attract.
 * Kate's nightmare actually came true later on once the war started, and everything that was shown in her nightmare became accurate in action.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Some moments from this movie.
 * "She's an Alpha. And you're... an Omega. We can eat together but we can't... ya know... howl together."
 * Humphrey practically telling Garth in his face he'd mate with Kate anyway. Upon first meeting him.
 * Garth used to have small vocal cords.
 * The whole "repopulation" thing, especially the way Humphrey takes it.
 * Also the way Kate is disgusted by it.
 * The "ida-who?" joke they slipped in.
 * Two gossiping females: "Let me tell you, it totally relaxes the knot."
 * Garth: "Let me show you what an Alpha can really do." Lilly: "Uuuh, would my mother approve?"
 * Gosh Dang It to Heck

"Humphrey: "Two bears are eating a clown and one of them asks 'Does it taste funny to you?'"
 * Granola Girl: Two vegetarian she-wolves. Don't worry, they only get a single bit of dialogue, and it's really more of a Brick Joke.
 * G-Rated Drug: Kate and Humphrey acting trippy after sedation, complete with a background acid sequence.
 * Groin Attack: While flying hanging from a goose, poor Humphrey gets slammed groin-first into a rock...ouch...
 * Heroic Sociopath: Once again, Kate's mom.
 * I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship: It's implied that Kate said this to Humphry off-screen after their howling session.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: Humphrey and Kate are surrounded by 3 bears, Humphrey tries to get them out of trouble with a joke.

Humphrey: "A simple boo would have sufficed.""

"Eve: "If any of you wolves have hurt my daughter, I will personally RIP out your eyes, and SHOVE them down your throat so you can see my claws TEAR YOUR CARCASS OPEN! ""
 * Instant Sedation: Subverted. Never Trust a Trailer.
 * Jerk Jock: Garth to Humphrey.
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: Tony suggests this near the end of the film.
 * Mama Bear: Eve is usually a nice, sweet Mom with an unusually violent preference of solutions, but so much as hint that one of her daughters is "In Trouble" or heaven forbid dead... Nice knowing you.
 * Eve's death threats are Played for Laughs the first two times and she's in her normal calm, smiling personality. However, the last time when this trope is evoked, she gets absolutely furious and looks it.


 * There is also an actual Mama Bear at one point.
 * Missing Mom: Garth doesn't have a mom. This could say a lot about his father, considering his nature.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Kate, especially during the "hair-flipping" scene.
 * My God, What Have I Done?: Tony gets a silent one after . The look on his face lets you know this is what's going through his head.
 * My Name Is Not Durwood: Humphrey does this with Garth a couple times, calling him "Barf".
 * Never Trust a Trailer: The trailer's editors had a field day.
 * The Bear fight. ...What fight?
 * A close up of Kate's eyes in the caribou hunt. That's not the same wolf.
 * "Again with the butts" on the moose.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Humphrey causing them to lose their ride because of his Potty Emergency.
 * Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Eve is this, specifically her death threats.
 * Odd Friendship: Kate and Humphrey's polar opposite personalities count as one for their friendship.
 * Only Sane Man: Kate is most likely the most normal character in the entire movie. She even points out how ridiculous Humphrey's actions are.
 * Peek-a-Bangs: Kate's sister, Lilly.
 * Plucky Comic Relief: In universe, this is the Omega's actual job. Humphrey and his fellow Omegas tend to break up fights and generally keep everyone's spirits up. Kate's father even tells Humphrey when he's a pup that this is his responsibility and holds him in high reguard for being good at it.
 * Possibly a case of Did Do the Research as this troper recalls reading a documented study of one wolf pack where it first appeared to researchers that the omega was "bullied" into his position, but it became apparent that the male omega wolf purposefully distracted and engaged others in play to diffuse tense situations; when he grew too old, this "responsibility" was passed to a younger female wolf.
 * Potty Emergency: Humphrey suffers from this while he and Kate are in a trailer heading back to their home.
 * Purple Eyes: Lilly's trademark eye color.
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter: Lilly.
 * Rule of Cool:
 * Wolves with Anime Hair? Check. Wolves that can do triple flips in the air? Check. Wolves that can howl at the moon as if they are singing? Oh, double check.
 * Actually, since real howling for wolves has meaning, the singing might not be completely Rule of Cool and have some Fridge Brilliance.
 * Running Gag: Birds repeatedly dropping to the ground after Garth's... less than ideal howling attempts.
 * Came to an end when his howl improved. Instead they flew around him.
 * Humphrey and issues concerning his behind.
 * The French-Canadian argument between Paddy and Marcel.
 * Eve's Ax Crazy threats.
 * She Is Not My Girlfriend: While Kate's asleep on the train, Marcel inquires to Humphrey about Kate, referring to her as his girlfriend. Humphrey replies with this trope, almost verbatim.
 * Shown Their Work: Sort of, mixing in with Fridge Brilliance: The flower Kate wears in her hair in the first part of the film is on her right ear, where later on, as she's, it's on her left. Many islander cultures' women wear them in a very similar way; right ear single, left ear taken.
 * The Idaho relocation and repopulation is accurate. Source here.
 * Standard Hero Reward: Never stated explicitly, though it would've been a nice touch, Winston most likely finally agreed to the match because of this. Since Humphrey
 * Stepford Smiler: Kate's mom is a lovely Type C mixed with a Mama Bear.
 * Surfer Dude: Salty is basically a wolf version of this.
 * That Makes Me Feel Angry: After Kate disappears, Eve goes into full Mama Bear mode and threatens the entire Eastern Pack in a murderous fury. Lilly then gets this reaction from her by trying to get her attention: "Not now, dear, mommy's in a rage."
 * Theres No Place Like Home: The entire plot.
 * Tuck and Cover:
 * Unusual Euphemism: For wolves, "pup" seems to replace the word "babe".
 * Makes sense when you think about it.
 * Coyote is also considered an insult, though this also has reasons. Mainly because coyotes are known to be the weaker of the two canines, so this insult towards a wolf means the wolf is apparently weak.
 * Unlucky Childhood Friend: Humphrey starts off as this, though Kate's feelings prior to are never really explored, like Humphrey's are. Of course, he pretty much laid them out on a silver platter.
 * Victorious Childhood Friend: While trailers gave the impression that Humphrey had a secret crush on Kate and that Kate didn't even know he existed until their adventure, it turned out that they were very close friends when they were cubs,
 * Wolves Always Howl At the Moon: Double-subverted. Howling is just a wolf version of dating; however, their version involves howling at the moon together. The wolves also howl as a form of communication or greeting.
 * Which is actually more realistic than it's normally portrayed.
 * Which is actually more realistic than it's normally portrayed.