Belly Mouth



A classic but underused trope, the belly of a creature/character/machine actually has a mouth directly outside from its place in the body. Sometimes it's disguised and well hidden, other times it's used as an intimidation tool, or sign to state that the character in question is a Villainous Glutton, a Big Eater or somewhere in between when regarding the consumption of vast quantities in (usually) organic material, even going so far as to make it out to be a horrifying monster, or from time to time, a comical character.

Note: In some cases, the belly mouth is actually a symbiotic creature, or has a mind of its own, that uses the host's body to get about, while adding an additional passage to the stomach via which more consumables can enter.

Subtrope of Too Many Mouths.

Advertising

 * A recurring character in the Pop-Tarts commercials for some reason has a mouth on his abdomen.
 * Terry Crews has, among other features, an mouth with a mind of its own if Old Spice is to be believed.
 * Levis did it as well. Though in this case its a talking belly button and not an actual mouth.

Anime and Manga

 * Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: the Gurren Lagann, although this is because the chest and abdomen areas of the combined mech are Gurren's "face" when separated.
 * Gluttony from Fullmetal Alchemist develops one of these in the manga when he gets angry enough.
 * Deidara from Naruto has mouths on his hands and stomach, which he uses to produce an explosive clay in various shapes such as spiders and birds.
 * In Gintama, one member of Shinpachi's fan club is an amanto that forms a mouth on its stomach and devours things when it gets excited.
 * Yu-Gi-Oh: Taken to new levels with Zork, who not only has a mouth, but an entire dragon head and neck protruding from his...crotch.
 * Some of the phantoms in Tokko have this.
 * Wyald of the Berserk manga has one at the level of his shoulders when he takes on his Apostle form.
 * In one manga chapter and anime episode of Urusei Yatsura, a bunch of fossils, put together into the approximative shape of a weird bird by Ataru, are animated by Lum using another piece of Oni tech. The resulting creature appears to have a belly mouth, as its "body" was the skull of some ceratopsian.
 * No Face from Spirited Away.

Comic Books

 * The demon "Satannish" in the Marvel Universe, pictured above.
 * Gronks in Strontium Dog eat metal through mouths in their bellies. They are cute little blighters (almost bordering on Small Annoying Creature or Alien Scrappy territory) and are very embarrassed by other races' horror at their physiology.
 * In Marvel's adaptation of The Pilgrims Progress, Christian slices open the demon Apollyon's belly, which causes the gaping wound to transform into a giant mouth.
 * The White Martians from Grant Morrison's Justice League of America comics had large mouths in their stomachs when they assumed their natural form.

Films -- Animation

 * One of the crew members on the ship in Treasure Planet appears to be a normal-looking human at first... Before it's revealed that his (large) face and mouth are on his (large) stomach, and that what looked like his head was another spider-ish crew memeber with dreadlocks for legs.
 * The Snapping Turks in Yellow Submarine.

Films -- Live-Action

 * One of the cases of Devil Woman Doctor, a film of the infamous Guinea Pig series of Japan, is a man who has grown a face-shaped "tumor" on his belly. The "tumor" can talk, sing, bite, and seems to be a cool dude.
 * One of the many ways in which the eponymous being in 1982 version of The Thing surprises the humans.
 * Professor Ragnar gets one at the climax of Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go to College!
 * One of the vampires in From Dusk till Dawn has it. This vampire is briefly seen before it gets killed, but the scene in which it actually uses its Belly Mouth was cut.

Literature

 * Giota in Catherynne M Valente's The Orphans Tales.

Live-Action TV

 * One episode of Doctor Who involves a time paradox caused by, the creatures sent to deal with the paradox, who were never named on screen but called "Reapers" only had mouths on their stomachs, and claws which they used to shove victims down their throats.
 * Power Rangers
 * The Two-Headed Parrot from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers combines this trope with Multiple Head Case.
 * A second monster, based on a chimera, had this with a Lion head, a Goat stomach, and a snake tail.
 * Also Mandilok, from Power Rangers Wild Force.

Music Videos

 * Madonna in the video for Genesis' "Land of Confusion".

Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends

 * Blemmyae and Anthropophagi lacked heads and had their faces on their torsos instead. They were supposed to be cannibals.
 * Kabandha of Hindu Mythology was cursed to become similar to these.
 * Also Xing Tian in Chinese Mythology, after his head was lost in battle.

Tabletop Games

 * Dungeons & Dragons
 * In 3.5 Edition, the Klurichir demon is a massive monster with more mouth than stomach for a belly, even though it has a boar head just above it.
 * Monsters of Faerun describes the Tomb Tapper, a humanoid giant made of stone, which has the mouth on its belly too.
 * Pathfinder introduces the scanderig forgefiend.
 * Early models for the Great Unclean One, Greater Daemon of Nurgle from Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000 were giant diseased hulks that had a grinning mouth in their belly.

Gamebooks

 * From the Lone Wolf series, Darklord Zagarna is described in the novelization as having a fanged maw in the belly, which is constantly feed some Giak or human flesh.

Video Games

 * In Kirby's Dream Land 3 and Kirby 64 The Crystal Shards, when Dark Matter possesses King Dedede, the King gains a huge gaping belly-mouth that shoots Dark Matter pellets at you.
 * Tekken 5 boss Jinpachi Mishima, in his Devil mode.
 * The Outland version of Doomguard demons in World of Warcraft, such as Omor the Unscarred, have a face with a gaping mouth on their chest. Some of them can breathe fire from it.
 * The Zodiac Demon Cuchulainn in Final Fantasy Tactics.
 * Dusknoir in the Pokémon games. According to its Pokédex entry, the mouth leads to Hell the Underworld.
 * The One-Winged Angel form of Necrosaro/Death Psaro, the final boss in Dragon Quest IV, which looks a bit similar to Satannish above.
 * Elvis' One-Winged Angel form in God Hand.
 * Bishamon of Darkstalkers series fits.
 * Nightmare from the Soul Calibur series has a mid-section completely compromised of a mouth and teeth.
 * Super Ghouls 'n' Ghosts: In stage 6, bosses Asutaroto, Nebiroth, and Sardius(the final boss) all have belly mouths. The former two spit out fire while the latter spits out platforms for arthur to stand on in order to attack Sardius. Mid-boss Lucifer in Ghouls 'n Ghosts also has eyes on his torso and a mouth on his abdomen.
 * The eponymous character in the fighting game Tongue of the Fatman has one of these.
 * The Half-Life series's regular zombies have their torsos ripped open. They are known to stuff food into their chest "mouths".
 * The fast "Species X" zombies from Opposing Force as well.
 * The Big Bad of Holy Umbrella has one of these. During his short stint as a playable character, you can shoot powerful flame attacks from it.
 * The Belly Juju from from Tak 2: The Staff of Dreams. Also, the Belly Mouth is competent, can speak, and demands candy as payment for help. Meanwhile his actual head is...less so.
 * In Serious Sam one monster has no head, but a big eye and mouth on it's torso.

Web Comics

 * Johnny Wander features the Maws, crow demons with mouths on their stomachs instead of their beaks.

Western Animation

 * On Dexter's Laboratory, Dexter meets an elephant-like alien that wants to eat him. Dex points out that he can't possibly fit through the alien's tiny snout... and then the alien opens its real mouth.
 * Venom in The Spectacular Spider-Man.
 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
 * Krang from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987. Insofar as a brain in a mech suit counts as a stomach.
 * Ch'rell also, when in his Shredder suit. In a Bad Future where he manages to take over the world, he occupies the head area of the mech instead, though.
 * Shushu General Anathar from Wakfu has a maw surrounded by crustacean-like pincers hidden in the belly. Although he describes "eating" what he puts there, it seems more to act as imprisonment.
 * The Piper in Extreme Ghostbusters has one, where he stores his army of ghosts.

Real Life

 * Mollusks, such as slugs and octopuses.