Geronimo Stilton

Everybody, act natural!

Geronimo Stilton is the protagonist of a series of books, originally written and published in Italy. The books follow the various adventures that Geronimo gets roped into (being a mild-mannered mouse, he'd much rather stay home, thank you very much). He's often accompanied by his sister Thea, his Cousin Trap, and his favorite nephew Benjamin.

Each book is written by Geronimo in the first person, since he is a famouse author and publisher/editor-in-chief of The Rodent's Gazette, the most popular newspaper in New Mouse City.

Along with Geronimo, his sister Thea has her own stories involving her and a group of journalism students known as the "Thea Sisters". It's also announced that Creepella will also have her own stories coming out in late 2011.

This book series has been adapted as a 26-episode animated series as a joint venture by Italy, Canada and other countries; first aired in Italy (Italian) and Canada (English), and shown in several other countries shortly after. As of writing, 2nd season is in the works. Despite being based on the books, the show is about 98% original material.

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Geronimo's literary adventures include examples of:

• Abhorrent Admirer: Creepella Von Cacklefur to Geronimo.
• Actually, I Am Him: When Geronimo first met his newly-hired assistant, Pinky Pick, he assumed she was his assistant's daughter, since she's only fourteen years old.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Chef Stewrat's long and very disgusting list of ingredients for his stew recipe ends with "...[plus] a little salt and pepper!"
• Barefoot Cartoon Animals: Despite being otherwise fully-dressed, almost none of the characters wear shoes. The most notable aversion is Pinky Pick, and how!
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: In "I'm Too Fond of my Fur!"
• Big Shadow, Little Creature: This happened with Benjamin (Geronimo's nephew) in one book.
• Catch Phrase: Shif T. Paws in "Watch Your Whiskers, Stilton!".

Shif T. Paws: Watch your whiskers, here comes Shif T. Paws!

• Cats Are Mean: The titular pirates in "Attack of the Bandit Cats".
• Chaste Toons: Benjamin is Geronimo's favorite (and only) nephew. A rather extreme example, as Geronimo's only mentioned sister, Thea, is not Benjamin's mother, nor is any mention of her made in any of the books (yet). All this despite there being Loads and Loads of Stiltons.
• Dark Is Not Evil: The Cacklefurs.
• Death Trap: In "Watch Your Whiskers, Stilton!", the game show "The Mousetrap" centers around a gigantic bladed mousetrap that the contestant is chained to.
• Disguised in Drag: In "Paws Off, Cheddarface!" Trap is made up to look like Sally Ratmousen in order to counter her Identical Stranger Gambit.
• The Door Slams You: Happens to Geronimo a number of times in "Watch Your Whiskers, Stilton!"
• Even Evil Has Standards: In "The Giant Diamond Robbery," Sally Ratmousen's profile states, "She's known for breaking the rules, except on the golf course, because that's unethical!"
• Excited Volume Title: "I'm Too Fond of my Fur!" "Paws Off, Cheddarface!" "It's Halloween, You 'Fraidy Mouse!" " Merry Christmas, Geronimo!" "Watch Your Whiskers, Stilton!" "Surf's Up, Geronimo!"
• Funny Animal
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: The books are stuffed with mouse-ified phrases.
• Identical Stranger: "Paws Off, Cheddarface!"
• Literary Agent Hypothesis: All the books are "written by" Geronimo himself. The real author is Elisabetta Dami.
• Hurricane of Puns: Mouse puns, mostly.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: You'd think that after all the adventures the gang goes through, they're portrayed as being older.
• The One Who Wears Shoes: Pinky Pick.
• Plot-Driven Breakdown: In "A Very Merry Christmas", Geronimo accidentally picks up someone else's bag instead of his own. The other person calls her own cellphone and starts to make arrangements for her and Geronimo to meet up and exchange bags, but her phone dies just before she says where to find her.
• Scenery Porn: Later books have BEAUTIFUL backgrounds. Most notably is the Fantasy Kingdom books (The third one has a beautiful depiction of New Mouse City in spring)
• Shaggy Dog Story: "Geronimo Stilton, Secret Agent"
• Shout-Out: In "The Secret of Cacklefur Castle," the Cacklefurs have a pet cockroach named Kafka.
• Species Surname: Not as many as you'd think.

The Animated Adaptation includes examples of:

• Abhorrent Admirer: Geronimo gets another one in the form of the Contessa in the S2 episode "Bloodlines". Granted, she could qualify as a BBW, but still...
  • Double Standard: The Contessa's rather aggressive advances on Geronimo, albeit the G-rated kind, is portrayed as funny; but heaven help the show against the Moral Guardians and Media Watchdogs if they're gender-flipped.
• Barefoot Cartoon Animals: Just as in the original books. However, as a variation, they do put on the needed footwear once they venture out of civilization.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: Big Toes, from the S2 episode "The Legend Of Big Toes". Though he's actually no different from the humanoid mice in the show; only much, much taller, hairier, and being speechless.
• Butt Monkey: Trap is more of this than his cousin Geronimo was in the original books.
• Composite Character: Benjamin in the TV series appears to be given the role and personality of his counterpart in the book series and Pinky Pick.
• Chekhov's Gun: At the beginning of "The Mask of Rat-Jitsu", Geronimo takes out a vial of a rare, strong-smelling cheese from his safe and inadvertently puts it in his clothes. He finally got to use it during the said episode's climax to knock out the villain of the episode and his mooks.
• "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Done for a few episodes.
• Everything Is Online: The only explanation on how Benjamin could hack into almost anything.
• Five Mouse Band: The main characters are presented as this:
  • The (Loser) Hero: Geronimo
  • The Lancer: Thea
  • The Big Guy: Trap
  • The Smart Guy: Benjamin
  • The Chick/Tagalong Kid: Pandora (Bugsy Wugsy in the books)
• The Fool: Trap. Full stop.
• Hollywood Hacking: Benjamin does this in spades.
• Inevitable Waterfall: In the S2 episode "The Legend of Big Toes", Geronimo was tricked into falling into the river and almost fell down one of these. He was saved by the titular Big Toes.
• The Lab Rat: Literally in Professor Von Volt's case.
• No Export for You: As of 2012, the show is still MIA in the United States, or any other English-speaking country except Canada (and even there, it's only on DVD - though it used to air on French-language TV). Fortunately, it's easy to find the region-free Canadian DVDs online.
• The One Who Wears Shoes: Sally wears a pair of killer heels.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Geronimo and Thea.