Tiger Cruise is a Disney Channel Original Movie from 2004, starring Hayden Panettiere and Bill Pullman (Hayden's brother Jansen and Jennette McCurdy also appear); despite the title and the channel, it's not about animals but rather set aboard a cruise for military families. That's just what the US Navy actually calls these things, for reasons lost on any not scholars of military jargon. Maddie (Panettiere) is a teenage girl who wants her Navy father (Pullman) to give up the life of a commander and stay at home... but during the cruise, the September 11 attacks on New York City take place, impacting all on board and causing Maddie to rethink her views.
This movie contains examples of:
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Broken Aesop: "Family Before Work", the aesop the film practically starts out with, is gradually superceded by the aesop that there is still hope for America after 9/11. - Content Warnings: Atypically for the Disney Channel, this film got them because of its subject matter. The ad opposite includes one.
- Cool Big Sis: Grace, Tina's older sister, who's also a pilot; Maddie after a bit of Character Development.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Maddie after coming around to how important her father's duty to his country really is.
- Eagleland: Boy is it ever Type 1. The tone the film goes with as it portrays the US armed forces is both deeply reverent and noticeably uncritical - in-keeping with the American post-9/11 idealism.
- Insistent Terminology: Maddie is not a brat!
- Military Brat: All of the Tiger Cruise kids. Maddie despises the name.
- Never Trust a Trailer: All the promotional material made it seem like the typical lighthearted DCOM faire, with no mention being made as to when the film takes place.
- Patriotic Fervor: The film's blissfully unblemished portrayal of the US Armed forces and the United States' political reaction to the 9/11 attacks received some flak amongst non-US viewers.
- Straw Character: Maddie is very much a straw pacifist to be 'set right' by what she witnesses on the cruise. By the end of the film, she has all but performed a 180 on her original views. Of course, many still argue that the straw girl had a point.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The actual Constellation really was between Pearl Harbor and San Diego on 9/11 on a normal tiger cruise at the end of its deployment.
- Violence Really Is the Answer: Maddie goes from a strawman pacifist to wholeheartedly supporting her dad's actions.
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: Maddie takes up to Tiger Cruise to confront her father with this very question. It's also a rare defiance of this trope, as the child admits that her dad should probably stick to doing his job.
