Bad Natural History

[urbpan]

Okay, so when you watch a movie with animals acting like people (you know, talking and such), you must suspend some of your disbelief. I'm okay with that--it has been this way since Aesop.

But these days the filmmakers are mixing in lots of actual Natural History with animals acting like people. For example the fish in "Finding Nemo" look (and to some degree behave) real, but they don't eat one another. In "Antz," there are both male and female worker ants. (This movie, which I am only halfway through, is the reason I'm posting. There's an awful lot that I could say, positive and negative about it, but I need to finish it, and I probably have to watch "A Bug's Life" for comparison, and the go see "The Ant Bully," too.) Even the bug scene in "King Kong," while exciting, is laughable from a Natural History standpoint (beyond even the bugs' great size--I'm talking behavior).

I want to know this, from you all:

At what point does faulty Natural History interfere with your enjoyment of a movie?

Comments

[fledchen.livejournal.com]

I usually only get upset at bad natural history if the movie purports to be "educational."

Exception: Kookaburra noises anywhere other than Australia or a zoo. That makes me NUTS.

[almeda.livejournal.com]

It amuses my (herpetologist) mother that in almost every SINGLE hollywood movie, if it's nighttime and they want 'ambient wildlife' noises that aren't crickets, they use Pacific Treefrogs.

Even if the action is set in Florida.

Or England.

Or ancient Egypt (extra giggle-points).

But kookaburra noises are inherently spooky!

[sarache.livejournal.com]

That's why they're in the opening scene of _Raiders of the Lost Ark_, in that anonymous Latin American jungle. Heh. They don't bother me, but they do pull my focus for a minute because they're out of place.

A friend of mine from the midwest says you often hear loon calls in movie jungle scenes too.

Re: But kookaburra noises are inherently spooky!

[fledchen.livejournal.com]

Ack! I forgot about those. I'm a Minnesotan, I know darned well what loons sound like.

I am ashamed to admit that hearing loons in the Harry Potter movies annoyed me until I found out that some loons actually do winter in the British Isles.

I'm pretty sure I shouldn't have been hearing loons in "Spirited Away."