Knight School

Oliver: So, you're the only girl in this school?Ellenor: Yep. Name's Ellenor. But don't bother making friends with me; I just wanna pass this class and get outta here.Oliver: Well... Welcome to hell, Ellenor.
Knight School is a Cartoon Network Studios feature film directed by Sam Fell (Flushed Away, ParaNorman) and Andrew Adamson (Shrek, The Chronicles of Narnia). The film centers around Ellenor (Anna Kendrick), a happy-go-lucky teenage girl being transferred to a new school after she failed history class. And this school she transfers to is a medieval-themed school, where students learn about the medieval times, which is run by founder and teacher Professor Gerald Reginald III (John Cleese). There, she meets his Straight-A student Lance (Ben Schwartz) who develops a crush on her. Little did they know, Reginald's assistant Wellington Snide (Rupert Everett) plans on fulfilling his great-great grandfather's legacy to take over the town of Yeoll.
This was the first ever feature film released by Cartoon Network Studios not based on any of the studio's original series or existing franchises and the first ever film released by the studio after 2002's The Powerpuff Girls Movie. The film later spawned a television series titled Back to Knight School, followed by a sequel under the name Knight School II.
==We welcome you to the trope page of Knight School; the page where you can read up on the tropes related to the film.==
*Actor Allusion:
**Ben Schwartz voices yet another character in blue.
**Yep, Anna Kendrick voices a positive minded girl with somewhat selfish tendencies. Not the first time, honestly.
** Ellenor asks Reginald if knights rode on foot with coconuts.
**Ellenor's father sure is overprotective.
*Almost Kiss: Between Ellenor and Lance after their first date. Once they reach Ellenor's house, Ellenor leans over to give Lance a kiss... until the front door opens and her mother questions she now has a boyfriend.
*An Aesop: Don't let your expectations get the best of you.
*Anti-Hero: Ellenor's introduced as immature but average-intelligent, and shown to be a little self-centered and aggravated.
*Blue is Heroic: Lance, while he's a Non-Action Guy.
*Breaking the Fourth-Wall: Ellenor glances at the audience twice throughout the movie.
*Chekhov's Gun: Lord Snide's staff, found in a cave only Ellenor knew about.
*Comically Missing the Point: When Ellenor was hyped at first for joining Knight School, she dreamed of having a knighthood or learn to be a knight. Unfortunately, the name was just figurative when she first arrives.
*Company Cross References: Ellenor owns a Starfire poster on her bedroom door and has a copy of The Powerpuff Girls Movie.
*Cluster F-Bomb: Near the end, Ellenor expresses her amazement at the events towards the news.Reporter: Tell our viewers about the event.Ellenor: It was so (BLEEP) awesome, man! That dude stabbed me like a (BLEEP) kabob and it really hurt and I was like "Holy (BLEEP)!" I (BLEEP) even rode a horse like a hero! And this sword I even got brought back to life by my boyfriend; so (BLEEP) cool.Reporter: (nervously smiling) Uh... thank you. Well, you've heard it here first
*Curse Cut Short: Ellenor utters "Oh, sh--!" before being cut off by Reginald.
*Dance Party Ending: After the final day of Knight School ends, Ellenor requested a celebratory dance party before she and the others can enjoy summer, with Smash Mouth's "Whole Lotta Love" playing to fit Ellenor and Lance's developed relationship.
*Dating What Daddy Hates: Gender-inverted to "Dating What Mommy Hates". Ellenor's mom, Gretchen, is less than pleased with her daughter dating a "square" like Lance.
*Establishing Character Moment: Ellenor is revealed at the start of the movie to be a slob that doesn't clean up her bedroom as much, as well as being out of shape.
*Genre Throwback: Its aesthetic for its environment is aimed at the movie eras of the late '90s and early 2000's while it follows in the footsteps of animated movies with profane language (notably DreamWorks' Antz, The Road to El Dorado, and Shrek, Pixar's Incredibles and Paramount/Nickelodeon's Rango).
*Girl Posse: Ellenor's paired with her close friends Darcey and Jane.
*Does Not Like Men: Ellenor starts off as this at the start of the movie. This is then dropped after she ends up in the titular school and becomes friends with the male students and dates one of them.
*Hell-Bent for Leather: A fashion trend in Yeoll High by the Jocks.
*Heroes Want Redheads: Ellenor for Lance, who has dark-orange hair.
*Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: During the climax, Snide stabs Ellenor with her own sword (off-screen, that is).
*Insult Backfire:Andrew: Look at the new girl. I mean, look at her waist, she must have a muffin top.Ellenor: (exposing her belly) Want a bite of this?Andrew: Gross! ... You win this round.
*It's All About Me: Ellenor, at first. She wants to be known for something she does, and has a habit of making it a big deal. Being the first female student is something she hopes would be a headline.
*Jerkass:
**Wellington Snide, the main antagonist, is deceitful and mad with power.
** Andrew is one of Reginald's students that enjoys squealing on his fellow classmates. He also tends to be snarky to almost everyone.
*Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Ellenor. She's immature, selfish, insensitive at times, but she's just been going through at lot of trauma and troubles after the few past few years of her life. She's also not a slouch for wanting to help her family anyway she can, even if she tries doing something that's out of her reach.
*Kissing Discretion Shot: Ellenor and Lance kiss near the end of the movie's Dance Party Ending.
*Love at First Sight: Lance develops an attraction to Ellenor as he finds her much different from the girls he's known. Ellenor is surprised he fell for her instantly, and he always wished for the "love at first sight" cliché to happen to her in real life.
*Logo Joke:
**The Warner Bros. Pictures logo is in the style of the 1998-2020 logo, without the banner around the shield, with the Warner Bros. Discovery byline in place of the TimeWarner/WarnerMedia byline.
**The Cartoon Network Studios logo is the one used in The Powerpuff Girls Movie.
**The DreamWorks Pictures' 2003-2021 logo is used... with Ellenor's alarm clock buzzing when the logo reaches the end.
*Made of Iron: Ellenor during the learning montage on her first time in Knight School. She falls off and gets kicked by her own horse during the jousting class, not even receiving any broken bones.
*New Transfer Student: Ellenor's transferred to Knight School after failing history class, which was on the topic of medieval history.
*Non-Action Guy: Lance. While not a coward, he doesn't participate in violence.
*Not So Above It All: Reginald, while savvy on medieval history, doesn't know much about American culture.
*Not-So-Harmless Villain: Snide in the climax. Shows how he's pretty much a Determinator in reigning over Yeoll.
*Only One Name: The exceptions of Gerald Reginald III and Oliver Jade, there are many characters that aren't with any revealed last names.
*Parents as People: Ellenor's mother, Gretchen, acts as such as she's more laid-back and has a tendency to be harshly honest towards both her husband and daughter.
*Production Throwback: Ellenor owns a copy of the William Steig book Shrek. Andrew Adamson had directed the film adaptation of the book and its sequel Shrek 2 with Conrad Vernon (co-director of this film and voice of Principal Begly).
*"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Snide gives one to Ellenor in the climax after stabbing her in the gut.Snide: Just look at yourself. You thought you could defeat me, like the heroes do with their villains in that pathetic motion picture hogwash?! Grow up! All you are is a girl who thinks way too much into the world of fiction rather than face reality like every other intellectual like me! Reginald was right about you. You are pathetic.
*Ruder and Cruder: Compared to Cartoon Network's other franchises, minus Regular Show during its time, this movie was pretty much meant to contrast for its use of mild profanity (consisting of one utterance of "hell", "damn", "crap", "Oh, my God", "ass" and "bitching"). No doubt it couldn't get through a Bowdlerise from such children-oriented networks.
*Supermodel Strut: Ellenor struts while hips swing side-to-side.
*Sleeps in the Nude: Ellenor's introduction scene has her wake up out of bed, only showing her feet down. As she walks to her bathroom, she passes by her clothes that are scattered on the floor. Subverted as she's shown her waking up in her swimsuit as nightclothes.
*Sliding Scale of Realistic vs. Fantastic: The movie starts with a mundane plot (Realistic) before the third act escalates to a magical staff used (Fantastic).
*The Smurfette Principle: Ellenor is the only lead female character and only female student to the titular school.
*Tolken Black Friend: Oliver Jade, the only African-American student of Knight School.
*Token Minority: To Knight School, Oliver (the only black student) and Ellenor (the only female student).
*Training Montage:
**The first one starts with Ellenor not only learning about medieval history, but living it, notably jousting.
**Later on, Ellenor takes Lance's advice in researching about medieval history to better her chances in acing her classes, to successful results.
*Wrong Genre Savvy: A recurring flaw with Ellenor. She believes many fictional things, like if they used coconut-pounding servants as horses. Even gets called out by Snide for believing she could stop him like how it works in pop-culture.
Category:Cartoon Network Studios
Category:Animated films
Category:Theatrical films