Animal Games

Animal Games is a BBC special that aired in 2004. It presents the Olympic Games where all the contestants are non-human animals, using footage of real animals modified digitally to set them in the same scenes. The contestants are divided into five teams, Herptiles, Insects, Fish, Mammals, and Birds. Due to the massive spectrum of sizes covered by the contestants, they are all resized to be the same size as humans. (Of course, Square-Cube Law is ignored.) The teams compete in various competitions just like in the real life Olympics, with often impressive (and sometimes hilarious) results. Amidst all the fun and games, the commentators (John Motson and Jonathan Pearce) discuss how each contestant accomplishes its feats.

It was followed up in 2006 by Animal Winter Olympics. Aside from the seasonal setting and the different competitions featured, this one had several differences from the original Animal Games. For one thing, it added a new team to the competition, one specifically for Humans that included Real Life athletes, allowing a comparison between human record breakers and other animals, while there was no Insect team. For another, the contestants were not resized this time around, so their performances reflected their actual capabilities in real life.


 * Big Badass Bird of Prey: Not only does a golden eagle bring in the Olympic torch and serve as a judge during the games.
 * Big Creepy-Crawlies: Due to all the contestants, including insects, being resized to human size.
 * Brought Down to Normal: Once everyone's the same size,
 * Camera Abuse: The skipper butterfly caterpillar bumps into the camera, causing it to lose connection. The camera is fixed by a gorilla.
 * Carnivore Confusion: In spite of all the animals competing alongside one another regardless of diet, no problems of this sort occur. The dragonfly holding the shooting target for the archerfish does get a little nervous though.
 * In addition, there are signs saying "Please refrain from eating your neighbors" in the audience stands.
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
 * Determinator: The walking catfish in the 100 meter dash.
 * Everything's Better with Penguins: The emperor penguin in long jump and the gentoo penguin in freestyle swimming.
 * Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: Averted, the great white shark in weightlifting and mako shark in freestyle swimming don't really make anything worse for anyone.
 * Frogs and Toads: The rocket frog in long jump.
 * I Am Not Left-Handed:
 * Improbable Aiming Skills: Most of the contestants in the shooting competition.
 * Never Smile At a Crocodile: The Nile crocodile in weightlifting
 * No Sense of Direction:
 * Not Quite Flight:
 * The Owl-Knowing One: An owl supervises some of the events.
 * Pint-Sized Powerhouse: At its original size, the rhinoceros beetle.
 * Ravens and Crows: A raven is seen supervising the events.
 * Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Averted. Not only do all the reptiles (and amphibians) gain their awards fair and square.
 * Smelly Skunk: The skunk uses its musk in the shooting competition.
 * Super Speed: The resized animals in the 100-meter dash and freestyle swimming all have this.
 * Super Strength:
 * Weaksauce Weakness: See No Sense of Direction.
 * Weaksauce Weakness: See No Sense of Direction.

Animal Winter Olympics provides examples of the following tropes:

 * Big Badass Bird of Prey: A snowy owl brings in the Olympic torch.
 * Carnivore Confusion: In spite of all the animals competing alongside one another regardless of diet, no problems of this sort occur.
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
 * Curb Stomp Battle:
 * Determinator:
 * Everything's Better with Penguins: Emperor and gentoo penguins enter several competitions.
 * Everythings Nuttier With Squirrels: The Siberian squirrel in ski jump and the Arctic ground squirrel in cold endurance.
 * Everything's Worse with Bears: Averted by the polar bears.
 * Foregone Conclusion: Considering that there's only one contestant each for the Fish and Herptile teams throughout the entire event, it's fairly obvious that the place for top three in total awards would be between the Mammals, Humans, and Birds.
 * I Am Not Left-Handed: The penguins start out at a slow waddle in cross country, but then decide to get in the water and soon make up for lost ground.
 * Panthera Awesome: The tiger that serves as a judge during the event and the snow leopard in the ski jump.
 * Playful Otter: The river otter puts its play behavior of sliding down slopes to good use in the grand slalom. Its friends nearly get it disqualified for messing up the terrain afterwards though.
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter: The Siberian squirrel.
 * Swans-a-Swimming: The whooper swan in ice skating.
 * Turtle Power: The young painted turtle in cold endurance.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: The salmon in cross country.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: The salmon in cross country.