Opinions needed! TV/Movie animals...

[Dekka]

As well what tv/movie animals do you think were excellent and believable? Any examples of bad ones?

I have a blog (see siggy) and one of the topic is animals on the big and small screen. Its a pet peeve of mine when animals are not paying any attention to their environment but are starting off frame..

 

[AGonzalez]

That doesn't bother me so much, but this is what gets me, and I notice it more in films with horses than dogs.
Horse A is a sorrel gelding with a big wide blaze...supposedly same horse later in another scene is a sorrel mare with a painted on blaze - and you can tell it's not the same horse.

I get why they do it for some scenes, but others I end up sitting there going "now why'd they swap out the horse?"

 

[MericoX]

We watched Beethoven 2 the other day, and there was a scene with the puppies that they are actually much older than the rest of the sequence. Also I find it funny when in like action movies when they bring out a whole bunch of GSD to *pick up a trail*.

 

[xpaeanx]

I chose the "it's kind of annoying but meh"

While I think it def makes the movie better when the animals look like they're really interacting with the people in the movie, I don't really get so upset when they're not that it bothers me.

But I do agree with ACamp, I HATE when they swap out an animal and you can totally tell they're using a different one. I also hate when someone is supposed to be "an expert" at something and they CLEARLY aren't.... or an animal is supossed to be some "perfect" whatever and it also clearly isn't.... That really annoys me, much much MUCH more than an animal just not paying attention to the person they're supposed to be interacting with.

 

[CaliTerp07]

I chose "I notice it but it doesn't affect my enjoyment at all."

Generally the animal movies I've seen are children's movies anyway though, so the acting across the board isn't necessarily top notch, lol.

 

[Dekka]

There was one scene in Stargate Atlantis where a person comes home after a long absence and their dog comes running to them..

And then ignores them to obviously scarf and chew food at the person's feet. It was a golden retriever.. shouldn't it easily run up to ppl lol.

I hate the swapping too. In one of the Black Stallion movies he goes from having a long flowing mane to short pulled mane. Or how about when there is a 'big' show jumping competition and the jumps are about 2 feet tall?

 

[Laurelin]

The thing that bothers me the most is when they use huskies or other northern breeds to portray wolves. Or even hybrids. You can definitely tell the difference if you know anything about wolves and it annoys me sooo much, lol.

 

[ACooper]

It's kind of annoying but meh.....

Yes, the OBVIOUS body doubles, the animals OBVIOUS looking off set for cues, wrong breeds for wrong duties......etc etc etc.........it's about as annoying as seeing a person give a "heart felt speech" on a product and you can PLAINLY tell their eyes are reading word for word off the cue cards. They lose me every time, LOL

 

[Kye&Rio]

I hate the swapping too. In one of the Black Stallion movies he goes from having a long flowing mane to short pulled mane. Or how about when there is a 'big' show jumping competition and the jumps are about 2 feet tall?

I never noticed that! But I did notice Ginger had a different blaze about four times.

Totally hafta watch that again

 

[Xandra]

It's kind of annoying but meh...

I find sound effects to be the most annoying.

Rats. They're always squealing and squeaking in movies. Rats don't do that.

Also annoying is dogs barking at wrong times. Like in No Country for Old Men when the pit bull chases Llewellyn into the river, the dog is barking when it's chasing him. It always seems like dogs bark when they're chasing something in movies. Which I have never seen a dog do (dog fixated on "prey" and barking as its tearing after prey item. Screaming, maybe, but not deep barking/snarling).

Dogs also seem to bark at people a lot in movies. I don't know about your dogs, but Roman will bark in a defensive way, like an alert or when he can't get to something that he wants. He doesn't bark at me or random people to get their attention. He uses his nose My mother's dog will vocalize, but he doesn't bark.

Also how dogs always yelp when they die.

 

[Dekka]

I love how horses whinny all the time.. except when sneaking away.. or sneaking up on someone.

Duh the one time when horses will whinny is when coming up on new horses or leaving friends.

 

[Maxy24]

I notice dogs stare at their handlers in TV shows sometimes and notice the eating treats sometimes but it doesn't bother me at all, it's not like they're actually trying to act.

But I must say that the cat screaming/yowl noise they use bothers me a lot. It's the sound of a cat in pain not a spooked cat so it shouldn't be used for a spooked cat, plus they use the EXACT same one every time.

 

[Dekka]

Did you know the 'ribbit' canned sound for frogs is the the call of some local (to Hollywood) frog? Thats why frogs sound the same on tv/movies (even though they don't really.

 

[Laurelin]

Oh one really annoying sound is the bald eagle sound they use all the time! Bald eagles don't make that loud, majestic screeching noise at all. I believe the noise they use for bald eagles is actually from a hawk. Bald eagles make a quiet chirping/whistling type noise in actuality. I guess it's not 'cool' enough for the national bird, lol.

 

[Kmh1]

Right there with you Dekka with the horse vocalizations --cracks me up everytime! Thats interesting about the frogs --too funny

 

[Laurelin]

Here's a REAL bald eagle sound: Bald Eagle Sounds

Hollywood eagle is actually a red-tailed hawk: Red-Tailed Hawks, Red-Tailed Hawk Pictures, Red-Tailed Hawk Facts - National Geographic

 

[Snark]

There was one scene in Stargate Atlantis where a person comes home after a long absence and their dog comes running to them..

And then ignores them to obviously scarf and chew food at the person's feet. It was a golden retriever.. shouldn't it easily run up to ppl lol.

I hate the swapping too. In one of the Black Stallion movies he goes from having a long flowing mane to short pulled mane. Or how about when there is a 'big' show jumping competition and the jumps are about 2 feet tall?

How about when they swapped breeds completely for the big race scene in the first Black Stallion movie? The 'stand-in' wasn't even a true black...

I always thought Disney did a pretty good job with their animal stars - my favorite 'star' was the Siamese cat used in the original That Darned Cat. I think his name was Tau (I have a book about the animals used in Disney films, tells how the animals were trained and where they came from - most were rescues). He was also in the original Incredible Journey and his trainer mentioned that in the scene where the cat confronts the bear, there was really no training for the cat - he knew Tau would challenge the bear if he put them together.

The most obvious use of cues for me was in an old western called Smoky. The rider was supposedly injured and stuck his arm through the stirrup so the horse could drag him home. The horse would walk a few feet, stop, and in response to every cue, wave his head up and down and take a few more steps.

 

[Snark]

Also annoying is dogs barking at wrong times. Like in No Country for Old Men when the pit bull chases Llewellyn into the river, the dog is barking when it's chasing him. It always seems like dogs bark when they're chasing something in movies. Which I have never seen a dog do (dog fixated on "prey" and barking as its tearing after prey item. Screaming, maybe, but not deep barking/snarling).

Well, Murphy sort of barks when he's chasing something (rabbit, deer) but it sounds pretty pathetic; wouldn't call it a scream either - more of an 'Ai yi yi, I CAN'T catch it!!' Poor guy sounds like a complete wuss...

 

[MPP]

With most commercials (like the Petco one with the dog looking in the mirror?), I find myself analyzing just HOW they trained for that trick. Don't ask me what the commercial's about!

 

[Criosphynx]

I have a blog (see siggy) and one of the topic is animals on the big and small screen. Its a pet peeve of mine when animals are not paying any attention to their environment but are starting off frame..

OMG this is the biggest peeve of mine...I HATE IT...we even have a joke at home, when we see one staring off screen we look at each other and go "trainers over there!" and point.

Did you know the 'ribbit' canned sound for frogs is the the call of some local (to Hollywood) frog? Thats why frogs sound the same on tv/movies (even though they don't really.

Yup, Hyla Regilla the pacific treefrog...I used to go out and catch them. They are local here.


the "monkey" sounds in movies are also ussually a Kookaburra, which is a bird

Also annoying is dogs barking at wrong times. Like in No Country for Old Men when the pit bull chases Llewellyn into the river, the dog is barking when it's chasing him. It

I caught that too...it bugged me.