A wild adventure.
Mr. Zoo: the Missing VIP is a South Korean Dramedy movie which was written and directed by Kim Tae-yoon.
The film is about Tae-ju, a National Security agent who distrusts and fears animals. One day, he is tasked to guard Mingming, a giant panda who serves as an envoy from China. After he gets injured trying to prevent Mingming from being kidnapped, Tae-ju suddenly finds out that he now has the ability to talk to animals. Now, he must team up with Ali, a German Shepherd who is a former military dog, to rescue the kidnapped panda.
The movie was released on January 22, 2020.
Mr. Zoo: the Missing VIP contains examples of:
- Animal Disguise:
- Since Mingming has been kidnapped, a man disguises as a giant panda and takes her place at the zoo to prevent suspicion.
- When Tae-ju sneaks Mingming the panda on a bus, he also (falsely) claims she's a person in a costume.
- Animal Talk: The animals can talk to each other, but can't talk to humans (except for Tae-ju). In fact, after Tae-ju suddenly gains the ability to speak to animals, many of them seem surprised that he can understand what they're saying.
- Bad People Abuse Animals:
- Downplayed with Tae-ju towards the beginning of the movie. While he's not an outright bad person, he's not particularly nice, and disliking animals (to the point where he throws a cat in the garbage can) is one of his main character flaws.
- Played straighter with the antagonists of the film, who kidnap a panda and keep her in a small room, and later attempt to kill a dog.
- Blatant Lies: Some of Ali's Badass Boasts aren't as factual, such as him claiming that he was involved in rescuing people during The War on Terror. Clucky the cockatoo calls him out on this, telling Ali that he wasn't even born yet at the time.
- Close on Title: The movie ends with the title shown onscreen, as well as showing that the "VIP" stands for "Very Important Panda".
- Currency Cuisine: The black goat can tell people the winning lottery numbers if they feed him money. He even apparently prefers the taste of certain amounts of currency more than others.
- Dance Party Ending: The movie ends with Tae-ju and several of the other animals dancing to a song together in his apartment.
- Disney Death: Towards the end, Ali the German Shepherd has been shot and injured, and is initially thought to be dead/dying, much to the dismay of the other protagonists... until a nurse mentions that he's only sleeping. He later recovers.
- Extreme Omni-Goat: The black goat is able to tell people the winning lottery numbers, but he has to be fed money first.
- Fighting Panda: Invoked. Upon seeing the "panda" (actually a person in a costume), some children at the zoo ask it to do various things, including kung-fu, and the person in the costume does so.
- Fun with Acronyms: As shown in the Close on Title, the "VIP" in the title stands for "Very Important Panda".
- Heroic Dog: One of the protagonists of the film is Ali, a German Shepherd and retired military dog, who accompanies Tae-ju in trying to rescue the kidnapped panda.
- Intelligent Primate: The gorilla who Tae-ju talks to is shown to be rather smart. She claims that she sees everything at the zoo, and helps Tae-ju figure out how to rescue Mingming the panda.
- Karmic Transformation: Of a sort. Tae-ju, who doesn't like animals and tends to treat them poorly, gains the ability to speak to them. It's implied that this might have had something to do with him mistreating a cat named God towards the beginning of the movie.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Seo-yeon, Tae-ju's daughter, tells him that if you don't respect animals, you'll be punished.
- Left the Background Music On: Towards the end of the movie, Tae-ju encounters the cat named "God" again, and hears choir music. He assumes this means that the cat really is God... but it turns out that the music is just playing from a nearby speaker. An elderly couple compliments him on being very religious.
- Literal Transformative Experience: While Tae-ju doesn't actually turn into an animal, he gains the ability to speak to them. He starts the movie disliking animals, but later begins to understand them in more ways than one, and befriends a German Shepherd named Ali in the process.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The cat named "God", which appears towards the beginning and end of the film. It's hinted that the cat may have something to do with Tae-ju gaining the ability to speak to animals (especially since Seo-yeon claims that anyone who treats animals poorly will be punished), but at the same time, the choir music playing during the cat's next appearance is simply shown to be playing from a speaker.
- Missing Mom: Tae-ju's wife, as well as the mother of his daughter Seo-yeon, died sometime before the events of the film. It's later revealed that she became very ill and died of sepsis, but continued working with animals despite her illness.
- Nose Nuggets: The fish in the tank of the National Intelligence Security office ask Tae-ju to tell everyone to stop putting their boogers in the fish tank because they find it gross. Later in the same scene, a man is seen picking his nose and cleaning it off in the fish tank.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Ali is a former military dog, and is shown to still suffer some trauma from this — including the death of his former owner due to an explosion.
- Shout-Out:
- When the kids at the zoo see the panda (actually a man in disguise), they ask the panda to do kung-fu.
- As Tae-ju is driving to save Ali, an eagle tells him to "go fast and furious".
- Speaks Fluent Animal: After Tae-ju falls and hits his head while trying to prevent the panda from being kidnapped, he finds out that he can suddenly talk to animals.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Tae-ju becomes a nicer person throughout the film — not only does he learn to start treating animals better, but he also has a better relationship with his daughter.
- Trauma Button: Ali isn't just afraid of fireworks because he's a dog, but also because when he was in the military, his owner was killed by an explosion.
- Urine Trouble: There are some jokes about animals peeing/pooping, and one reason why Tae-ju initially doesn't like animals is because of this. In fact, in one early scene, a man in an elevator shows Tae-ju his pet pug, who then starts peeing on him.
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: Because of his job as a National Security agent, Tae-ju can't live with his family, and doesn't regularly get to see his daughter Seo-yeon.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Tae-ju dislikes and fears animals due to finding them dirty and gross, which makes it all the more ironic when he gains the ability to speak to them. It's later revealed that another part of the reason he doesn't like animals is because his wife contracted sepsis and died while working with animals, and appeared to prioritize animals over her family, which he claims he couldn't forgive her for.
- You Are Number Six: Ali is sometimes referred to as "1478", his military number.
