PETA's best and worst movies of 2008

There was no shortage of movies about and featuring animals last year, but not all animal movies are created equal. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Asia-Pacific (PETA) is announcing the good, the bad, and the in-between movies for animals of 2008. The following are PETA’s selections:

Two Paws Up:

• Marley & Me’s message is that dogs are family members—for better or for worse. Marley’s guardians showed their love and care for the Labrador — from puppyhood until his last breath — amid Marley’s many “naughty” moments.

• Bolt, a story about a canine “actor” who got lost, reminds viewers that dogs would rather fetch balls in the backyard than perform confusing tricks on a film set.

• The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian used incredibly realistic alternatives to live animals, encouraging other directors to follow suit. It proves that the advancements in computer-generated imagery and animatronics can be used instead of live animals.

Hisses:

• One of the chimpanzees who played Chim Chim in Speed Racer bit an actor on the set, and an American Humane Association (AHA) monitor saw an animal trainer hit the chimpanzee. If that’s how trainers treat animals in front of the AHA, we can only imagine what happens behind the scenes when no one is watching.

• You Don’t Mess With the Zohan messes with young people’s minds by sending the dangerous message that abusing animals is funny. In one scene, Zohan uses a cat as a hacky sack; in another, a man uses a cow as a punching bag. These scenes could encourage deadly “copycat” actions.

• Semi-Pro features Rocky, a grizzly bear provided by Predators in Action, which has been cited by the US Department of Agriculture for numerous animal welfare violations. These violations include failing to maintain structures and shelters in good repair, keeping a lion in a tiny shelter box in the snow, and failing to provide animals with drinking water. After the movie was released, Rocky fatally mauled one of his trainers.

Mixed Messages:

• In the movie Urduja, Princess Urduja is friends with a mouse, Kukut, and a tarsier, Tarsir. The movie proves that mice are intelligent, sensitive and friendly animals who bear the brunt of human fears and prejudices and don’t deserve to be painfully trapped, poisoned and killed. However, both mice and tarsiers are wild animals who are best left in their natural habitats and not domesticated.

• The Dark Knight features incredibly life-like animatronic dogs created by Animal Makers, but, unfortunately, portrays them as aggressive attack animals and shows Batman beating them.

• After their plane crashes in Africa, the zebra, hippopotamus, giraffe, and lion in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa interact with their own species and experience their natural habitat. Throughout the movie, however, the penguins and chimpanzees try to fix the plane so that the animals can fly back to the zoo where they came from. No real animals want to live in captivity.

“Movies don’t just entertain. They have the power to educate and inspire, and they can even influence viewers’ behavior,” says PETA director Jason Baker. “We applaud moviemakers who use their films to encourage kindness and respect for animals.”

For more details about animals used in the entertainment industry, visit www.PETAAsiaPacific.com.