Misplaced Wildlife: Difference between revisions

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* ''[[Elf]]'' includes a collection of stop-action wildlife at the North Pole. Even though this is a silly fantasy story, the movie twists the penguins-in-the-arctic cliché by having ''puffins'', which look a lot like penguins. (The extinct flightless Great Auk, ''Pinguinus impennis'' was the origin of the name ''penguin''. [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Keulemans-GreatAuk.jpg There is a similarity].)

* In ''[[Forbidden Planet]]'', Morbius keeps a surprising menagerie of Earth animals on Altair-IV, which hadn't been brought there aboard the Bellerophon with Morbius and the other colonists. The theory is advanced that these animals could have evolved on Altair-IV and subsequently have been brought to Earth by Krell [[Ancient Astronauts]]—but their Earthlike protective coloration is clearly inappropriate for this alien planet. Then one of these animals is accidentally killed, and an autopsy suggests that this Misplaced Wildlife is not "wildlife" at all...

* Cleverly averted in ''[[Harry Potter (film)|Harry Potter]] and the Philosopher~~'s/Sorcerer~~'s Stone''. They couldn't get a boa constrictor, only a Burmese Python, so they changed the reference from Brazil to Burma and removed the snake's use of the word "Amigo".

* Cleverly averted in ''[[Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)|Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone]]''. They couldn't get a boa constrictor, only a Burmese Python, so they changed the reference from Brazil to Burma and removed the snake's use of the word "Amigo".

* Averted in the movie ''[[Cast Away]]'' through the simple expedient of having no visible (or audible) wildlife whatsoever aside from the crabs and fish the main character catches for food.

* There's a jungle in the Madonna movie ''Who's That Girl?'' with all the usual suspects; cockatoos, kangaroos, zebras, patagonian felixes, etc., but it's artificial (the biggest artificial jungle on the Lower West Side), so they were stocked into it anyway. And it's on top of an apartment building.

* Lampshaded in ''[[Monty Python's The Meaning of Life]]'', where a "tiger" attacks a British soldier in Africa. Several characters incredulously ask, "A tiger? In Africa?" only to be shushed by others in the scene.

* ''[[Monty Python and the Holy Grail]]'': Rabbits were probably introduced to Britain by the Normans, believe it or not, so technically the Vorpal Bunny shouldn't have been there in Arthurian Britain either. Although there seems to be an alternative, more recent theory that the Romans may have brought some over, which might let them off. (And the legendary Arthur is usually presented as though he was a 13th-century knight, rather than a 6th-century warlord). Possibly it was ''really'' a Vorpal Mountain Hare: a species that was widespread in Britain until introduced European rabbits and hares began to compete with it. The animal in the movie was white, so any markings that would distinguish its exact species were obscured by albinism.

* ''[[Monty Python and the Holy Grail]]'': Rabbits were probably introduced to Britain by the Normans, believe it or not, so technically the Vorpal Bunny shouldn't have been there in Arthurian Britain either. Although there seems to be an alternative, more recent theory that the Romans may have brought some over, which might let them off. (And the legendary Arthur is usually presented as though he was a 13th-century knight, rather than a 6th-century warlord. On top of that, the movie dates itself as 932 AD.) Possibly it was ''really'' a Vorpal Mountain Hare: a species that was widespread in Britain until introduced European rabbits and hares began to compete with it. The animal in the movie was white, so any markings that would distinguish its exact species were obscured by albinism.

** Then there's the debate over how coconut shells turned up in England. They could have been carried by an African swallow, but not a European swallow. But then, African swallows are non-migratory...

* In ''[[An American Werewolf in London]]'', David and Jack start half-jokingly speculating about what's making the howling sounds in the distance. David first suggests a coyote, and Jack retorts that there aren't any coyotes in England.