Cinema Hype

So, toads are out of fashion these days. Penguins? We like penguins. Camels? Camels are nice. But toads? Toads are warty and hoppy and have transparent eyelids, and nobody really feels the need to either make or watch an epic about toads these days. Luckily for us(?), in 1988, Mark Lewis didn’t care what was in or out of fashion in the animal-documentary world. The future director of The Natural History of the Chicken and Standard of Perfection: Show Cats went out, and he made himself a movie. He made Cane Toads: An Unnatural History.

Cane Toads is exactly how it sounds: a documentary about cane toads in Australia. Lewis spends 47 minutes telling his audience about the importing of the cane toad, its subsequent population boom, its unique traits, and its place in Queensland culture (partially, it must be admitted, as roadkill). He uses nature-show footage and conducts interviews with people who love cane toads and people who run them over on purpose. The movie is, essentially, a no-holds-barred look at cane toad life.

The best thing about Cane Toads–about any good documentary, really–is the people. Comic documentary filmmaking in particular relies on the earnestness and unself-consciousness of the people being featured; directors need to find people who say hilarious and/or ironic things in front of the camera without cracking a smile. (Non-comedic documentary filmmaking also relies on earnestness and unself-consciousness, but in a different way, i.e. the people are less at risk of being mocked openly.) The residents of Queensland readily fit the bill, including an American researcher with a toad vendetta and an older woman who refers to the toads as “not pets, exactly…more like friends.” In that way, the movie isn’t just about toads; it is, one might say, about toads and the people who love them. Or hate them. On the next Sally Jessy Raphael!

Cane Toads is also…well, fine. It’s informative. The staff at CH now know far more about the Cane Toad and its place in the modern history of Queensland than we did previously: their disastrous introduction to Australia as a “solution” to an infestation of sugar cane grubs, their vigorous reproductive habits, their unofficial and sometimes grudging status as the Queensland regional mascot. According to Wikipedia, the film is sometimes shown in science classes, indicating that has actual educational merit. And it’s true, we’re smarter about cane toads than we used to be. Thank you, Mark Lewis. Now go find some parakeets to film, or something.

documentaries, cane toads, mark lewis