Furry Vengeance- I'd Rather Not...

Before seeing the movie, I decided to do my homework. I began with the trailer:

Immediately, you can see there's something up with this movie. The animals get modified to scream? There are giant rocks being hurtled at SUVs? The lame "Miley Cyrus!" gag seems almost humorous when you see the other stuff being thrown around.

My next step was to go to the official website.  I had to laugh. Click on "story" and behold! They have spraypainted the photo of Brendan Fraser with an aerosol can- anybody; remind me what those do to the ozone layer? Anyone? And then there's the game... in which you take on the identity of an animal and throw boulders at workmen, businessmen and bulldozers- that's right, you have to hurt as many people as you can. Oh, and to add to this, in the 'Characters' tab- their victim isn't the mastermind of the whole operation- it's the man relectantly following orders. Is this going to be a scare tactic- they don't go after the order givers- they go after the men who are just doing their jobs?

Now lets have a look at the "Take Part" section. "Get the furry vengeance activity guide"

This is full of rubbish. It's a lesson plan- to teach environmentalist values in the classroom- using hollywood as a tool. Now, even just with the worksheets- the message is clear. [Find Acivity 1 Part A] The businessmen 'don't care', one's all about profit while the other is about getting away from the nature to go home to Chicago. The 'kid' indicates how he used to like technology, but now is all about the green. And, last but not least, the animals. "Those humans ruin everything" "I'm tired of these humans trying to destroy it [my home]". Lets teach kids that humans are bad- lets give them that false guilt at as young an age as possible, don't you agree?

Now go to the "eco-action booklet" they've got a 'green' check list and 'alternatives' to tradtional celebratory objects/tasks- how about- taking away juice boxes? everyone should have a cup to have their drink poured into... at a party? That'll be fun, when kids thunder past and knock them over. And how about gifts- no new gifts! Give them something used! Lets all put the toy companies out of business by not purchasing their products, whilst also giving the kid all the old rubbish toys you don't want anymore!

Oh, and parents can definately relax once the kids get to the heading "Biodiversity eco-action"- they want to encourage kids to make their garden 'attract and support' animals- now, quite how this'll go down once the garden is full of animal faeces and the garbage is being messily emptied of food products, I don't quite know- but this is fine, because you can get your garden certified by the nwf!

And the final page:

Some of these are good ideas- to save money. Save money on electricity or water by following those points- but some of them... wash clothes in cold water? All very well if clothes are already pretty clean- but heat gets out stains, heat keeps clothes looking good. Pesticides and 'toxic cleaners'- pesticides are neccessary to keep crops fresh and unspoiled. My biggest problem on the list: "10. Eat less meat." Who are they to presume that the amount of meat the kids are eating is 'too much'? How is that 'saving the planet'?

Moving swiftly on...

The following contains spoilers- a lot of spoilers- in fact is made up of spoilers. Its long, but bear with me!

Furry vengeance begins with a 'quaint' little tune with the 'harmonious' sounds of nature- in the middle of the road sits an innocent little critter enjoying a little snack. The scene is then interupted by loud, abrasive music as a sports car thunders down a different section of the same road- revving loudly! The shots intercut, along with the soundtracks- the sense of danger for the critter grows- and then the human man in a business suit yells the words "I do as I please!" whilst driving and drinking from a fast food cup. The shots cut to the critter once again- and (through the magic of CGI) the critter screams a loud high pitched scream as the car goes directly over it- tires on either side- and carries on long after the car is gone- its screams echoing around the forest, gaining the attention of a racoon.

Inside the car itself- the middle aged white man has now got a cigar in his mouth as he drives, the state of the art iPhone docked he speaks over his bluetooth headset speaking in a loud obnoxious voice- 'oh yeah, I scouted it- its perfect- as soon as we chop down the forest we've got a goldmine!' he exclaims. The phone disconnects and he mutters- before proclaiming, apparently to himself, "give a hoot don't pollute- whatevah!!" and throws his lit cigar out the car window onto dry leaves- which immediatley begin to smoke- various species of wildlife convene around- the animals, having apparantly set a trap- triggering increasingly larger objects- ending with a boulder the size of a car- rolling down the side of the mountain towards the mountain road. Of course, the man in the car now taunts the critter on the road 'you better get outta the way- you got til the count of 3' et cetera- unaware that there is a large piece of rock hurtling towards his car. It hits its mark and the man ends up in his car teetering on the edge of the rockface- drivers side over the edge, passenger side opens to see the racoon. the critter throws him his cigar and then 'blows' on his car until it falls over the edge- crashing at the bottom. Then, apparently so as to not give you the idea that the little critters have committed murder less than 5 minutes into the film, we hear a phone beep and the man proclaim "I Quit!!"

So, before we've even gotten to the opening credits of the movie, we can see where the filmmakers stand- animals victims/vigilante heroes(?) and American business man = bad. They were very specific with their stereotype too- the 'evil, evil man' is a middle aged white American man, who smokes cigars, drives an uneconomic car, consumes fast food and 'likes' pollution- I suspect the filmmakers believe that anyone who doesnt swing from the Green Tree *likes* pollution. In any case- it also shows us, that these animals are dangerous- they are in fact the evil ones- within 5 minutes of screen time and they've already caused what could be a major car accident, it is only through luck and the magic of movies that the man in the car wasn't killed or badly injured.

The first words of Dan, the central character? Deep breath in "Ah, Nature." (a phrase he repeats throughout the flick) in front of him, work equipment- this first scene includes him and the foreman walking down the work-in-progress-street dodging mishaps as the workmen drop things, nearly decapitate them with chainsaws, and look clueless in the background- immediatley portrayed as inept and clumsy. The negative manner in which the human characters were portrayed with doesn't end there- not by a long shot.

Tyler, Dan's son, begins the movie as a city kid, who loves his laptop and being online- hates being in 'the middle of nowhere', but of course, meets a girl and ends up an eco-activist. Oh yes, you could see from the moment he met her that this is where the indoctrination ... sorry, 'awakening' begins. This movie encourages kids to shout at their parents if they think they aren't being green enough- this likely being the main reason these films love to have the kids tell the adults what to do. Its all for their own good, did ya know?

The 'big suit' is entirely reliant on technology and his assistant- and uses hand sanitiser if he so much as shakes hands with someone. When discovering he would have to travel 2 hours by car, he opts instead to get back on his jet for the meeting instead. Within this scene- he manages to insult, who are probably the core audience- or at least their parents. Putting down the 'people who like to think of themselves as "green"' as 'eco-hypocrites- who say they want to be green, always get their venti lattes in recyled cups and now they feel part of the solution' before following up with "What we need from you, isn't a commitment to 'green', its a grasp on the 'shades of grey'".

As for the violence... violence against animals = scary, horrible, evil. (And no, I'm not saying that attacking animals is a good thing) but violence against humans = funny! yes, pain! there's some great fun right there! I described earlier the trap the critters set up for cars, well not content on only doing this once- they repeat the trick with Dan, who they put under heavy surveilance. They lay seige to his life- ensuring he cannot get enough sleep, mess with his food and drink and they run off with *all* of his clothing whilst he is in the bath. Obviously, after being deprived of sleep, food, drink and being stuck in your wife's clothing is bound to have detrimental effects on the pysche- its pyschological warfare they waged on the man who is doing. his. job. Moreover, amongst the various vicious behaviors are; removing power without warning to his treadmill whilst he is running fast- sending him flying into a wall, his tv falling on top of him; hotwiring his car and joyriding into a river- with Dan trapped in the window and, oh this is my favorite, driving a car dangerously into a crowded area full of innocent people- many of whom are children.

To top this all off, when Dan has the perfect opportunity to end the racoon, the perfect shot, he decides against it and calls out for a truce- to have peacetalks- in response, the racoon attacks him. He bites him in the 'tenders', repeatedly punches him and urninates in his mouth. Lovely, eh?

The whole film, of course, ends on a sickly sweet "justice", with the central character 'seeing the light!' and rebelling, declaring his mistakes and "outing" the business men as 'frauds'. The 'evil' people who only want to make money and bring some much needed coinage into the local community are ejected by pure animal vengeance (yay, vengeance! ... ) and the central family can be smug.

Is this what kids need to see? My thought... is no. I'm lamenting the fact that I have seen the movie, let alone some poor kid. Movie Propaganda is, unfortunately, nothing new- and I'm afraid that we'll proably be subject to it for as long as we live- still, at least we can laugh at the fact that no one seems to be going to see this movie anyway.

EDIT: Having read BTeacher99's comment, I feel compelled to clarify about the animals- whilst they were very anthropomorphic in nature- they didn't speak with actual voices. Rather, when wanting to communicate magical thought bubbles appeared with picture/video representation (including at one point Braveheart implying 'they may take our lives, but they can never take our freedom!') hopefully this'll clear a few things up.

Written Badly by Naomi Wong

Many of these quotations are paraphrased- theres only so much I can write down/remember!

Not even discussed in this article: the overall shoddy filmmaking/acting, the almost sacreligious use of Braveheart clips, the open mocking of an elderly teacher or the ranger- who views himself as a military man- allowing the filmakers to poke fun at military values and behaviors. And some other stuff that isn't even worth mentioning here at the bottom.