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Noisy Nature: Difference between revisions
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A cat comes into a room and announces herself with a meow. An owl's image appears on screen, hooting perfectly on cue. A horse rears up with a dramatic bugle or falls with a whinny of protest. Rats and mice squeak with every step. Dogs bark, birds chirp, snakes hiss, and so on exactly where, when, and how [[Rule of Perception|you'd expect]]...
The thing is, [[Reality Is Unrealistic|an animal in that situation in real life would probably be quiet]].
Cats tend to be quiet unless they want something and the same goes for horses and dogs, though they will whinny and bark if they are excited by something. Rats and mice rarely make human-audible noises, though they will make ultrasonic laughs when tickled. Owls only hoot to announce they've claimed such and such a spot and the same generally goes for every bird's song, every canine's howl, and so on. An animal who has been hurt in all likelihood will not react vocally ''at all'', except for maybe one brief yelp at the moment of injury - it's [[Everything Trying to Kill You|too dangerous]] to announce your incapacitation by sitting there crying for aid. On that note, all the fictional predators who [[Calling Your Attacks|let out a blood-curdling roar/scream/whatever]] as they attack their prey are idiots (unless, of course, the scream is [[Make Me Wanna Shout|''part'' of an attack]] or a pack's tactic). Anyone who's watched how carefully their cat goes after a flock of sparrows can attest that if [[With Catlike Tread|you make any noise at all]] they'll go flying.
This trope can also cover animals who utter calls and cries that actually do not belong to them. All owls hoot, all big cats roar, and all birds of prey will have the cry of a Red-Tailed Hawk dubbed over (because [[Rule of Cool|a Bald Eagle's cry MUST be Awesome.]]) More movies and TV shows than you can shake a stick at have ambient noise that includes bird calls of species not native to that region. This is especially common in movies filmed in [[California Doubling|California but set on some other continent]], but even a movie filmed "on location" can have misplaced bird calls added in the editing process.
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** The attentive viewer familiar with the kookaburra's various calls might notice an unusual one in "The Wizard of Oz" - specifically, as they enter the haunted forest.
* [http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Common_Loon_dtl.html Common Loons] are very large, somewhat rare aquatic birds who are also known as The Great Northern Diver. In reality, they tend to be heard almost exclusively around their natural habitat: large bodies of open water in cold parts of the Northern Hemisphere. According to movie logic, they are '''everywhere'''. Even shallow swamplands, the middle of a forest, the middle of a ''mountain range'' (!?!), [[Lost|Craphole Island]], and the planet where [[The Dark Crystal]] takes place. Their cry ''is'' evocative, so [[Rule of Cool]] can make some instances work - as long as they're believable.
* Heck, any stock horror scene where all the animals in the forest are apparently ganging up to scare the hell out of the protagonist by making startling cries. For no other reason. At night.
** In particular, [[Carnivore Confusion|Crows and Ravens]] in horror movies must suffer mean cases of insomnia and have nothing better to do. In reality, corvids are... well the only term for it really is that they are afraid of the dark! (More specifically, the [[Paranoia Fuel|anxiety-fueling fact that they can't see well in the dark]], not to mention the larger carnivores who ''are'' active at night.)
* Every owl in the world goes "hoot". Every single one. Except for the Screech Owl. They must certainly make a blood-curdling scream as advertised (see "My Cousin Vinnie"). Not, you know, a distinctive [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3wNuEcbHag trilling or whinnying]. In reality, the owls [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YvyXu7coXA that make bloodcurdling screams] are ''Barn'' Owls.
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** Mostly averted in Disney's ''[[Brother Bear]]'', where Sitka sounds like an actual eagle - except for the grand crescendo at the end, where he once again became a hawk in disguise.
** One of the most confusing instances of this was an episode of ''[[Alvin and The Chipmunks]]'' (of all things) where the baby Bald Eagles made genuine eagle calls but their parents sounded like hawks. Oi.
** In the ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'' episode "Remote Island Syndrome Part 1", there was a ''gull'' with the call of a red-tailed hawk. Yes, a gull. Yeah, they can scream but seriously people.
** And in ''[[Binchou Tan]]'' this cry is uttered by a ''duck''. Of course, it is also ''delivering mail'' at the time, so its cry is perhaps the least odd thing about it.
** Justified in ''[[The Rescuers]] Down Under'': Marahute is a fictional species (who seems to have been born fully fledged out of the [[Rule of Cool]]) and is voiced by a ''human'' (the extremely versatile Frank Welker).
** And in ''[[K-On!]]'' the cry is yet again used for a seagull during the obligatory [[Beach Episode]], maybe as a [[Shout-Out]] the aforementioned ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'' episode, which is produced by the same studio.
* Though the idea that giraffes cannot make any sound at all seems to have been discredited, they are still very silent creatures. This is apparently disliked by filmmakers, who makes them sound like... ''rhinos'' (one example: ''[[Gladiator]]'' - the giraffes make the same sound as the baby ''Stegosaurus'' in ''The Lost World: [[Jurassic Park]]'', which in turn sounds just like the audio sample in Encarta's entry on the Black Rhinoceros)
* When a rat appears on screen, it will squeak. Real rats squeak very rarely, usually when fighting. They ''are'' very vocal, making lots of clicks and chittering noises... most of which are too high-pitched for humans to hear.<br /><br />Also, ''ANY'' Rodent will squeak, even if it's a rodent that makes another noise, like guinea pigs. Guinea pigs have a rather wide range of sounds, but the closest thing to squeaking is when they wheek. And where as a squeak is usually a small sound, a guinea pig's wheek is more like a loud yelling when they want attention. [http://www.jackiesguineapiggies.com/guineapigsounds.html Here are some of the sounds guinea pigs make,] and you can almost guarantee you will never hear them when a guinea pig is on-screen.
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* The swan in ''[[Hot Fuzz]]'' honks like a goose. The common white swan is more properly known as the ''Mute'' Swan; it is capable of making some sounds, usually hissing at predators (or people who get too close), but not honking.
* The giant mutant ants in ''[[Them]]'' are quite noisy for creatures without vocal cords.
* All fictional lizards (the [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent|cute ones, at least]]) seem to make the same weird nasal growling noise. The trailer for ''Nim's Island'' featured an impossibly talkative bearded dragon. They only hiss -- and they'll do ''that'' only if you try to give them a bath.
* There was a documentary on big cats where they gave a cheetah a fierce roar. When they failed to point out that cheetahs do ''not'' roar (they chirp!), she turned off the TV and took refuge in the encyclopedia.
* The most hilarious recent example can be heard in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDepiNP_3Ys this trailer] for ''Oceans''. Err, those aren't baby ducklings...
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* There's an odd scene in one of the ''[[Evil Dead]]'' films in which Ash hears a series of weird noises that segue between animal-like snorting, ambiguous screeching, and vaguely-mechanical sounds. The overall impression is that a carnivorous locomotive is circling the place.
* The titular ''[[Anaconda]]'' on occasion hisses. But if injured or in pursuit of our heroes, it will squeal and even wail.
* Though this is played with in ''[[The Lord of the Rings|Fellowship Of The Ring]]'' where, judging by their extremely cacophonic cries, Saruman's scary flock of avian spies are evidently Starlings (yes, they've invaded New Zealand too.)
** They're supposed to be black crows, though.
*** Technically they're [http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Crebain crebain], which are described as similar to black crows. Being fictional birds there's no "correct" crebain call, but they still seem to make more noise than they should.
* The ferrets in ''[[Beastmaster]]'' make some very un-ferret like sounds. Real ferrets make very little sound most of the time, but often hiss, grunt, and make a sort of chortling sound when playing.
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** The Shagohod even gets into the act in Snake Eater, making a lot of noises that simply cannot be explained by metal parts moving around.
*** And then there are the Gekkos, which run around [[Narm/Metal Gear|making cow noises]] in ''Guns of the Patriots''.
** In their appearance in ''[[Super Smash Bros.]] Brawl'', REX makes a high-pitched mechanical scraping screech while RAY does a somewhat quieter keening shriek. Gekkos still moo.
* The ''[[Bloody Roar]]'' series is guilty as charged with most of the characters' [[Animorphism|animal forms]], though the most glaring example would be Yugo, the roaring '''wolf'''.
* In ''[[City of Heroes]]'', if you're a Controller and happen to have Plant Control in your power set, congratulations! You're the proud owner of roaring man eating plants and vines.
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* Inversion: Contrary to popular belief, fish actually make a lot of sound with a surprising variety. However, the human ear isn't very trained to hear these.
** The same goes for crickets and cicadas during the mating season. In summers where you've got multiple species of cicadas up, expect to want earplugs. For good measure, an upside-down or otherwise trapped one can make a ''definite'' racket through panicking '''and''' hiss like a snake.
* Go into any wooded area during spring/mating season. Try to take a nap. See how difficult it is.
** No need for a forest if there are street cats or, god forbid, foxes in your neighborhood.
* If you live in the US or Canada near a pond, spring and summer are extremely noisy times of the year. Probably the two most recognizable are spring peepers (itty bitty frogs with ''loud'' high-pitched calls), which emerge in early spring and bullfrogs in the summer.
* Coyotes when running down a large prey animal. The majority of the pack forms a semi-circle and chase the prey while yipping and howling. Needless to say, the prey flees from the sound, ultimately heading into an area where a silent coyote is waiting in ambush.
* Canadian Geese are known for honking in flight, of course. But if you go near their nest they will HISS like a pissed off cat.
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