Nativity! is a 2009 British comedy musical film starring Martin Freeman, Ashley Jensen, Pam Ferris, Marc Wootton and Jason Watkins and directed by Debbie Isitt. It has spawned three sequels and a stage musical to date.
The film focuses on Paul Maddens (Freeman), a hapless primary school teacher at St. Bernadette's Catholic School in Coventry, who has to deal with unruly pupils and irrepressible class assistant Desmond Poppy (Wootton) after the Head Teacher Pat Bevan (Ferris) tasks him with directing the school's nativity play. Smarting from his girlfriend Jennifer Lore (Jensen) leaving him at Christmas, a disastrous previous attempt at directing the Nativity and the condescending attitude of his old friend Gordon Shakespeare (Watkins) of the rival Oakmoor School, Mr Maddens tricks the whole community into thinking his nativity play is going to be made into a Hollywood film. Soon, Maddens' lie spreads and he is forced to play along as enthusiasm and support for the St. Bernadette's Nativity Play gathers strength.
The sequels are:
- 2012 - Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger!
- 2014 - Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey?
- 2018 - Nativity Rocks! This Ain't No Silent Night!
Nativity provides examples of the following tropes:
- Acquired Situational Narcissism: Mr Maddens is forced to adopt such a facade once he realises his lie about Hollywood has gone out of control.
- Actor Allusion:
- Pam Ferris plays a headmistress who DOESN'T hate children.
- Hugh Dennis as Barnaby's beleaguered father in Nativity Rocks!.
- Always Second Best:
- Paul Maddens to Gordon Shakespeare and Jennifer.
- St. Bernadette's to Oakmoor.
- Donald Peterson to his twin brother Roderick in Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- Mr Maddens has an opportunity to tell the truth about Hollywood right away but, realising how disappointed everyone is going to be by the looks on their faces, he chooses to apologise for Hollywood not being there right now.
- At one point, it looks as though there really is a Christmas star in the night sky, it turns out to be the searchlight of a helicopter with Jennifer and her boss Mr Parker on board.
- Berserk Button: Do NOT deny Ollie the part of Joseph or tell him he will not be any good at playing it. Alfie finds this out the hard way.
- Big Eater:
- The critic Patrick Burns, he can be seen stuffing his face with sandwiches while watching Oakmoor's nativity play.
- Played with in Nativity Rocks as Barnaby has to unintentionally give his parents and nurse-maid the impression he is thirsty enough to drink three milkshakes (2 chocolate and 1 strawberry) in order to avoid revealing he has taken in Jerry Poppy and Doru as stowaways.
- Bloodless Carnage: Gordon Shakespeare insists that Oakmoor takes a different approach to the Nativity, in order to impress Hollywood (since he is not yet aware that Mr Maddens lied about Hollywood), so he has the play focus on the slaughter of innocent infant boys at the behest of King Herod.
- Butt-Monkey:
- Mr Maddens and anyone who comes near Mr Poppy and the St. Bernadette's students.
- Mr Shepherd and anyone who comes near him after he loses his memory in the second sequel.
- The Cameo: Ricky Tomlinson as the Mayor of Coventry.
- Cheerful Child:
- The St. Bernadette's students.
- Lauren Shepherd in Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey? until her father loses his memory.
- Darker and Edgier: Because he believes Mr Maddens' lie about Hollywood, Mr Shakespeare chooses to go with such an approach to the Oakmoor nativity play in the hope of upstaging St. Bernadette's.
- Deadpan Snarker: Mr Maddens and Gordon Shakespeare.
- Death Glare:
- Mr Maddens unintentionally gives one to the press when he discovers Mr Poppy has been spreading his lie about Hollywood to the students and other staff members.
- Roderick Peterson and the St. Cuthbert's choir give Oakmoor a collective example upon meeting them in the first sequel.
- The Ditz:
- Mr Poppy, prior to his Character Development in the second sequel.
- Also Jeremy Shepherd in Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey? after Archie the donkey kicks him in the head, causing him to lose his memory.
- Jerry Poppy in Nativity Rocks!.
- Don't Look Down:
- Naturally, TJ receives such a warning when he's about to perform his deathslide scene.
- Donald, Desmond and the students have to scale down a mountainside in the first sequel.
- Face Palm:
- Ollie does this twice, first with one hand, then with both.
- Mr Maddens provides a
Tear Jerker example while his students and Mr Poppy do a video appeal to Jennifer to come back to him.
- Fired Teacher: What happens to Mr Maddens after Mrs Bevan finds out he and Mr Poppy are still going through with the Nativity play after she forbade them to.
- Foreshadowing: Mr Poppy warning the children to have a Potty Emergency before their show starts, the girl playing Mary in Nativity Rocks! misses her scene when Nature calls.
- The Grinch: Mr Maddens decided he hated Christmas after Jennifer left him and his attempt at directing the St. Bernadette's Nativity Play received a toxic review.
- High Hopes, Zero Talent: The St. Bernadette's students, especially when compared to their Oakmoor counterparts, at one point in the first movie, Mr Maddens has to separate two students, Alfie and Ollie, who are fighting because the former said the latter would be a bad Joseph.
- It's All About Me:
- Gordon Shakespeare, he's always putting other people, other schools and even his own students down while inflating his own ego and talking up his school's chances of winning every competition they enter which they usually do.
- Bradley Finch in Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey?.
- Emmanuel Cavendish in Nativity Rocks! is probably the worst example of this trope in the entire franchise to date, given how he treats the whole of Coventry.
- Jerkass:
- Gordon Shakespeare and to a certain extent, the critic Patrick Burns.
- Roderick Peterson and his father in Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger.
- Bradley Finch, once he finds out about Mr Shepherd's memory-loss in Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey?.
- Emmanuel Cavendish in Nativity Rocks!.
- Maintain the Lie: Mr Maddens is forced to do this after Mr Poppy overhears his lie about Hollywood and tells it to the whole school.
- Manchild:
- Mr Poppy, he is no more mature than any of the students.
- His brother Jerry in Nativity Rocks! is no better, though this may be a result of his Parental Abandonment as a child.
- Noodle Incident: Mr Maddens naturally didn't want to take two children on an 11-hour flight, we don't actually see what happens on the flight but one can only imagine after seeing the expression on Mr Maddens' face when he, William and Saffron arrive in California.
- No-Respect Guy:
- Mr Maddens.
- Donald Peterson in Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger.
- Papa Wolf:
- Mr Maddens finds himself on the receiving end of this in a deleted scene when he is beaten up by the irate father of one of his students whom he claimed wasn't talented.
- Doru's father in Nativity Rocks!.
- Pet the Dog:
- Mr Maddens' only friend is his pet dog Cracker, until she is implied to have been unintentionally Killed Offscreen by Mr Poppy.
- Jerry Poppy befriends a stray dog named Dodger in Nativity Rocks!.
- Potty Emergency: Alluded to. Mr Poppy makes sure to tell everyone to make sure they use the toilet beforehand as there won't be any opportunity to do so on stage, something he apparently learned the hard way.
- Punny Name: Burns' Victims, the name Patrick Burns usually gives to anyone who received a poor rating from him, including Mr Maddens.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
- A common occurrence in the entire franchise, particularly with Mr Poppy on the receiving end.
- Emmanuel Cavendish receives this from the whole of Coventry for being such a Jerkass in Nativity Rocks!.
- Sadist Teacher: Mr Shakespeare, given how he treats his students, especially when it comes to teaching them singing and dancing and rehearsing for their Nativity play and he even abandons one of his students in the first sequel after using her to trick St. Bernadette's into taking a wrong turn.
- School Play: The film focuses on St. Bernadette's and Oakmoor organising their respective Nativity Plays.
- School Rivalry: Paul Maddens works as a teacher at St. Bernadette's Catholic School which has a rivalry with Oakmoor School where his old friend Gordon Shakespeare also works as a teacher.
- Shout-Out:
- The St. Bernadette's "auditions" usually parody The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent.
- In the second sequel, Mr Poppy refers to Mr Shepherd's rival as Bradley Grinch.
- In Nativity: Rocks!, Jerry Poppy befriends a stray dog named Dodger.
- Silent Snarker: Saffron rolls her eyes when Mr Maddens suggests she and William could have sung better after they are rejected by Hollywood.
- Stern Teacher:
- Mr Maddens and to a certain degree, Mrs Bevan.
- Mrs Keen who replaces Mrs Bevan as the Headteacher in Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey?, she and Mr Poppy quickly grow to dislike each other to the extent that he and the students call her Mrs Mean.
- Take That, Scrappy!: In-Universe whenever Mr Poppy is subjected to a The Reason You Suck speech.
- Title Drop: Each installment naturally focuses on the titular subject and each sequel features songs named after their respective subtitles.
- Villain Protagonist: Arguably Mr Poppy when you realise the full extent of his actions in the first three movies.
Tropes the sequels have:
- Big Brother Bully:
- In N2:DITM, it's a case of twin brother bully as Roderick Peterson has ruthlessly tormented Donald all their lives.
- A Not Blood Siblings example in '"N:Rocks!'' as, when they were kids, Emmanuel Cavendish bullied Jerry Poppy relentlessly when the latter's mother worked as a charlady for Emmanuel's family.
- Break the Cutie:
- Lauren in Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey? when faced with the prospect of her father leaving her and Sophie with Bradley. It gets worse when her father goes wandering around New York City without telling anyone, the poor girl is beyond consolation when she finds out.
- Doru in Nativity: Rocks!, he has already lost his mother, he had to flee his homeland due to War, his father is forced to temporarily abandon him when they arrive on British shores, he is repeatedly turned down for adoption (mainly because of Jerry Poppy's antics) and just when it looks like he's found someone who will take him in (Barnaby), he overhears that he can't stay, so he runs away to Shropshire, presumably to find his father.
- Character Development: Mr Poppy starts behaving more like the responsible adult he is supposed to be in Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey? when he briefly becomes a Parental Substitute to Lauren.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Each film features a different cast of characters. By the time of Nativity Rocks, Mrs Keen and the recurring character Angel Matthews are the only ones to have appeared in any of the previous installments.
- Disappeared Dad: Doru is separated from his father for most of Nativity Rocks!.
- Downer Beginning: The first thing we see in Nativity Rocks! is Doru and his widowed father arriving on English shores in a life-raft as refugees, and not long after this, Doru's father is forced to go with the other refugees and temporarily abandon Doru who has no option but to stowaway on a pick-up truck.
- Everyone Has Standards: Emmanuel Cavendish's secretary Bunny Sinclair in Nativity Rocks! is no less of a Jerkass than he is but refuses to stand for Cavendish openly insulting the whole of Coventry.
- Meaningful Name: The recurring character Angel Matthews, guess what part she ends up playing in Nativity Rocks....
- Missing Mom:
- The Peterson twins' mother in Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger.
- Lauren's mother in Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey?, she has to remind her father of this several times after he loses his memory.
- Doru's mother in Nativity Rocks!.
- Mistaken Identity:
- Mr Poppy and Mrs Bevan briefly confuse the Peterson twins in Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger.
- Mr Shepherd, still suffering from memory-loss, confuses the mother and best friend of his bride-to-be Sophie before finally recognising her in Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey?.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Mr Shepherd when he realises what his memory-loss and Bradley Finch's scheming is costing him after receiving a "The Reason You Suck" Speech from a tearful Lauren in Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey?.
- Not Now, Kiddo: Barnaby's parents in Nativity Rocks!
- Obnoxious In-Laws: In N3:DWMD, this is the general attitude of Sophie's family towards Jeremy Shepherd and they would prefer her to marry Bradley Finch. They even emphasise this through song once they find out about Jeremy's memory-loss.
- Parental Abandonment: Part of Jerry Poppy's Tragic Backstory in N:Rocks!.
- Parental Substitute: Mr Poppy temporarily becomes this to Lauren in the second sequel after her father loses his memory.
- Put on a Bus: What usually happens to the main characters in each movie.
- The Runaway:
- In N3:DWMD?, Jeremy Shepherd goes wandering around New York City without telling anyone, prompting his distressed daughter Lauren and Mr Poppy to go after him.
- In N:Rocks!, Doru runs away to Shropshire after overhearing Barnaby's parents refusing to let him stay with them.
- Sibling Rivalry: The hapless Donald Peterson against his highly successful twin brother Roderick in Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger.
- Tragic Backstory: In Nativity Rocks!, when Jerry Poppy was a child, his mother worked as a charlady for the Cavendish family, until a young Emmanuel stole one of his mother's prized possessions and framed Jerry for it. Mrs Poppy was promptly fired and abandoned Jerry.
- The Un-Favorite:
- Donald Peterson in Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger, his father constantly puts him down and compares him to his twin brother Roderick, a famous choir master.
- Jeremy Shepherd in N3: DWMD? is this in the eyes of Sophie's family who would prefer her to marry Bradley Finch.
- Doru is excluded from the Nativity Play altogether by Emmanuel Cavendish in N:Rocks!.
