Sadly, there is no information on "A Fish Called Wanda".
June 12, 2013 10:23 AM   Subscribe

No Animals Were Harmed is the Film and Television unit of the American Humane Association. Their website provides details on the different kinds of certifications films and television shows earn and how they go about earning it. You can browse recent films (such as Life of Pi and Django Unchained) or page through their archive (which includes everything from Fellowship of the Ring to Rushmore to… (cough)Apocalypse Now).
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI (37 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Is there a care committee for websites? We've killed it.
posted by bonehead at 10:26 AM on June 12, 2013 [1 favorite]


This is pretty fascinating stuff to read. It's a shame the navigation is broken - you should be able to click on "Unacceptable" to get a list of all movies in that category, but it doesn't work.

Still, fascinating. And I'm happy to see that my favorite film of all time is above-board.
posted by jbickers at 10:44 AM on June 12, 2013


I love the concept of this, but they come across as huge assholes in their writeup of The Fellowship of the Ring.
AHA takes the disclaimer and how it is issued seriously. It is being used without a level of accountability that AHA requires on Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring. We will not allow the credibility of other appropriate end credits to be devalued by misuse, nor the credibility of the films that have truly earned the AHA end credit disclaimer.
Of course, the article later goes on to state that FotR never actually used the "No Animals Were Harmed" trademark, instead opting to use different wording and the endorsement of a New Zealand-based humane society, which made sense given that the production was almost entirely based in NZ.

Really, the whole thing is way too rant-y for an organization of AHA's stature to engage in. I see where they're coming from, and why they'd want to distance themselves from endorsements that mimic their own. However, it's a little weird that they're up in arms about the fact that they weren't involved in the production of a foreign film.
posted by schmod at 10:45 AM on June 12, 2013 [1 favorite]


The happy Hobbitton Pig named Daisy was actually a pig that was being raised for slaughter when production chose her for this role. Newly exposed to dirt, air, the woods, other natural elements and the generous treats fed by the children in the cast, Daisy rooted her way into the hearts of the cast and crew. Production chose to purchase Daisy and adopt her out to a farm with the written understanding that she was to live out her natural life as a pet without fear of slaughter.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. I love pigs. They are very personable as well as delicious.
posted by WidgetAlley at 10:53 AM on June 12, 2013 [2 favorites]


Someone needs to write a script to get a list of all the unacceptable movies. If it isn't done by tomorrow when I get home for the weekend then I'll bang one out.
posted by jrsnr at 10:54 AM on June 12, 2013 [1 favorite]


I notice "No Aminals Were Harmed"® is a registered trademark of the American Humane Association. They list some movies that insert unauthorized "No Animals Were Harmed" end credits. I wonder if they'd be able to enforce it in court.
posted by ogooglebar at 10:56 AM on June 12, 2013


I'd have to imagine that Cannibal Holocaust is right up there near the top of the list. Just repulsive and gruesome.
posted by holmesian at 10:58 AM on June 12, 2013 [1 favorite]


In another scene, a coyote is seen jumping down from the tail gate of a jeep and running off with a bag in his mouth, supposedly containing one of the heads.

I am glad someone kept tabs on 8 Heads in a Duffle Bag.
posted by Kafkaesque at 11:05 AM on June 12, 2013


Playing around further, the interface is even more broken than first appeared - you can't get past the first page of results for any individual letter. Unless I'm doing something wrong.
posted by jbickers at 11:11 AM on June 12, 2013


2 things:
  1. The navigation is just atrocious on this site.
  2. Let's play guess the movie:
    In the film, a warrior kicks a dog aside in the street; a camel is struck and falls on its side; and horses are thrown into forward somersaults as a result of tripping wires. There are three visible horse trips, including a horse that falls into—and over—pointed stakes.
posted by Kafkaesque at 11:11 AM on June 12, 2013


The attention to detail is fascinating. From Rushmore: "In one of the final scenes, we see Max and his friend Dirk flying kites outdoors in an empty parking lot. There are seagulls flying around in the background."
posted by filthy light thief at 11:14 AM on June 12, 2013 [1 favorite]


I'd have to imagine that Cannibal Holocaust is right up there near the top of the list. Just repulsive and gruesome.

Just below Faces of Death.
posted by ogooglebar at 11:15 AM on June 12, 2013


Someone needs to write a script to get a list of all the unacceptable movies.

They list some movies that insert unauthorized "No Animals Were Harmed" end credits.


It's worth keeping in mind what schmod said above though - although the definition for "Monitored Unacceptable" seems to imply that an animal was directly harmed in the making of the movie, in actual examples that doesn't seem to be so clear - Moonrise Kingdom is given an "unacceptable" rating because their kitten was too young and some scenes were unmonitored.

I never knew "no animals were harmed" was anything but a claim of the production company, and only expected it when it looked like there were animals hurt onscreen, to reassure you that it was all staged. But I've noticed it more and more in movies where the thought hadn't crossed my mind...
posted by mdn at 11:17 AM on June 12, 2013




Apocalypse Now: Many brain cells were harmed in the making of this film.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:29 AM on June 12, 2013 [1 favorite]


I agree the writing needs improvement, as does the website navigation, but I heartily approve of these folks and what they do. Being a bearwife, I also liked this little excerpt:

Unlike most American Black Bears, which are highly energetic, Bonkers is a laid-back and mellow bear who got along famously with his cast mates. You could call him a people-bear, which made him perfect for the role of Gentle Ben . . .
posted by bearwife at 11:37 AM on June 12, 2013


Also, I concur with AHA and am not happy myself to read the following about LOTR:

AHA is continuing to investigate concerns regarding the care given the animals during production of this first film and also of films two and three. Concerns include the following:

A horse named Moon was allegedly sent to slaughter after it was determined by a veterinarian that the horse had a non-specified problem with its front legs. AHA does not condone Production sending an animal to the slaughterhouse because it is not fit for work required by film production. AHA would recommend that the horse be returned to its owner, be adopted out as a pet or, if the condition proved to be critical, that the horse be humanely euthanized. AHA has requested further veterinary reports and documentation as to the reasons why the horse was determined to be unfit.


AHA has reliable documentation supporting that three other horses died during the course of production. Two horses were euthanized after being examined by a veterinarian. One suffered from equine torsion, a common ailment in horses and one due to a cracked pelvis. Another horse died from a sudden heart attack. The history of each horse is unknown and AHA has no reports regarding observation or activity level and condition during filming. It remains unclear as to whether these deaths could have been avoided or were accidental occurrences. AHA has requested further veterinary reports and reports as to the degree of work each of the horses was required to do.


Electric shock collars were used for at liberty training of two horses. AHA considers the general use of shock collars to be unacceptable. Since there are well-known skilled liberty trainers that do not use electric shock, any use of such a technique would rarely be approved and would require complete supervision. We do not have documentation of the supervision in this instance. Production has indicated that liberty training was begun at the onset of production, although the liberty scenes will not appear until the second and third films. Production states that only professional trainers used the shock collars.

posted by bearwife at 11:41 AM on June 12, 2013 [1 favorite]


I couldn't find anything to back this up, and it's not in their archives, but I'd swear that this all came about as a result of the horse-punching scene in Blazing Saddles because people thought it was real. (Warning: horse looking like it gets punched.)
posted by Room 641-A at 11:42 AM on June 12, 2013


The page on 1990 spider-themed horror film Arachnophobia is interesting; that's a lot of trouble to go to for the welfare of spiders, the kinds of which much of the audience would have squashed without a second thought.
posted by acb at 11:59 AM on June 12, 2013 [1 favorite]


I vaguely recall the director's commentary for "Serial Mom" pointing out that they had to figure out how to swat the fly in the opening credits without harming it. (I think they somehow shot it in reverse so the fly started out under the swatter and then flew away)
posted by rmd1023 at 12:03 PM on June 12, 2013


I have never hungered for a Director's Cut Edition more: American Humane Association monitored some mild rat action, which was cut from the theatrical release.

And, yeah, the site is a mess. Neither the search nor the nav seems to work properly.
posted by sageleaf at 12:41 PM on June 12, 2013


I'd swear that this all came about as a result of the horse-punching scene in Blazing Saddles

Nope.

American Humane Association began its work in film in 1939, after an incident that occurred on the set of the film Jesse James.[15] The group began protesting the public release of the film, because of a scene where a horse was forced to run off the edge of a cliff.[16] The horse fell over 70 feet to the ground below and broke its spine, having to be put down afterwards.[17] In 1966 the AHA’s access to some sets was diminished for 14 years following the dismantling of the Hayes Office, during which time their jurisdiction was lessened.

In 1980,[18] following the release of Heaven's Gate, the opening of which was met with a national picketing and protest effort after complaints about how the filming of the movie had involved the inhumane treatment of animals – including the deaths of five horses – the Screen Actors Guild negotiated for the universal presence of AHA on the set as part of its union deal, forcing moviemakers to contact AHA in advance of any animal being present on set.[19]

posted by bearwife at 1:18 PM on June 12, 2013


Looks like Google's search engine is more accurate than my memory! Thanks bearwife.
posted by Room 641-A at 1:24 PM on June 12, 2013


Moonrise Kingdom is given an "unacceptable" rating because their kitten was too young and some scenes were unmonitored.

Interesting. I can see how they might figure if the stuff with the kitten was no more strenuous than what the kitten would get from being a pet, they would shrug it off as no big deal. And then AHA doesn't want to set the precedent of going, "Oh, we didn't monitor it, but they told us about it, so we think it's good."
posted by RobotHero at 1:39 PM on June 12, 2013


Considering what Andrei Tarkovsky did to a horse on his set,

The horse falls from a flight of stairs and is then stabbed by a spear. To produce this image, Tarkovsky injured the horse by shooting it in the neck and then pushed it from the stairs, causing the animal to falter and fall down the flight of stairs. From there, the camera pans off the horse onto some soldiers to the left and then pans back right onto the horse, and we see the horse struggling to get its footing having fallen over on its back before being stabbed by the spear. The animal was then shot in the head afterward off camera. This was done to avoid the possibility of harming what was considered a lesser expendable, highly-prized stunt horse. The horse was brought in from a slaughterhouse, killed on set, and then returned to the abattoir for commercial consumption.

I'm genuinely surprised that Andrei Rublev is not included. [Scene is here, if you can stomach it.]
posted by wensink at 1:54 PM on June 12, 2013


Yeah, HG became notorious:
'Cruel Camera,'' which was originally presented by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, says the 1981 production practiced more cruelty to animals than any film in decades. The producers of ''Heaven's Gate'' deny any intentional cruelty, but Carmelita Pope, the president of the humane association, declares that the blood and gore smeared over the actors came from animals bled and eviscerated for that purpose.
posted by dhartung at 2:02 PM on June 12, 2013


The cow used for this scene was a movie cow that likes people and does not mind getting wet.

As for the navigational problems with the archive: You can add "&currentpage=X" to an URL for a letter (e.g.: http://www.americanhumanefilmtv.org/archives/dev_new.php?letter=K) to get to the X'th site of this letter (e.g.: http://www.americanhumanefilmtv.org/archives/dev_new.php?letter=K&currentpage=2).

Also the search only searches in the new reviews, which is technically a Wordpress "blog". There is a search for the archive, but it is for the old archive and not functioning.

If you know a bit about web development, have a quick look at the source code of the archive, to see why they use jQuery.
posted by KMB at 2:19 PM on June 12, 2013


Let's play guess the movie:
a camel is struck and falls on its side;


Oh, this is fun.

"For the establishing shot of the ferret in the water, the actor dropped the animal approximately 2ft. into the water and then immediately picked it up and handed it to the trainer who, placed it on the floor. A fake ferret was used for the shots of the ferret thrashing around in the water."
posted by RobotHero at 4:01 PM on June 12, 2013



Someone needs to write a script to get a list of all the unacceptable movies. If it isn't done by tomorrow when I get home for the weekend then I'll bang one out.


Link me when you're done. I'll watch them all and maybe blog about it.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 4:14 PM on June 12, 2013


It better include Wake in Fright, the best movie about Australia, that has a kangaroo hunt.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 4:15 PM on June 12, 2013


I'm putting something together right now, at least I can get everything from the archive links like KMB said.
posted by RobotHero at 4:26 PM on June 12, 2013


Okay, all the ratings on the archived ones are:
Acceptable
Believed Acceptable
Monitored: Outstanding
Not Monitored
Monitored: Acceptable (Rating prior to 8/25/06)
Monitored: Acceptable
Unacceptable
Not Monitored: Production Compliant
Questionable
Unknown
Monitored: Special Circumstances
Monitored: Unacceptable
Acceptable/Questionable
Acceptable/Unknown

Everyone seems to be asking for a list of the bad ones, which I'll say are "Unacceptable" and "Monitored: Unacceptable"

The latter I find most interesting, so I'll list them first.
FAST AND FURIOUS 4
SNOW BUDDIES
SPEED RACER
THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN

The list of ones that weren't monitored and were deemed unacceptable is much longer.

ABYSS, THE
ANNIHILATION OF FISH
ANTARCTICA
ANTARCTICA 1984
APOCALYPSE NOW
ARABIAN NIGHTS
CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST
CONAN, THE BARBARIAN
CONAN, THE DESTROYER
CROCODILE
CRYSTAL EYE
CURSE OF THE STARVING CLASS
DEATHSTALKER III
FACES OF DEATH PARTS I & II
FERRYMAN
FIRST BLOOD
FIST OF FURY II
HEART OF THE STAG
HEARTLAND
HEAVEN'S GATE
IN THE BLOOD
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
LEGEND OF THE LONE RANGER
LION OF THE DESERT
LORD OF THE FLIES
MOMENTS OF TRUTH
MONDO NEW YORK
MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON
MR. MIKE'S MONDO VIDEO
ONE MAN'S HERO
PROPHECY
RAMBO III
REDS
RETURN TO SNOWY RIVER
RODEO BLOOPERS 2
ROGER & ME
SAVAGE OF THE CANIBAL GOD
SOUTHERN COMFORT
SUBURBIA—YOU WOULDN’T WANT TO LIVE THERE
THE BLACK COBRA
THE CHISHOLMS
THE FIELD
THE LION SPEAKS
THE LONG RIDERS
THE LORD OF THE FLIES
THE MOUNTAIN MEN
THE SNAKEFIST VS THE DRAGON
TOM HORN
TOMCAT
TRIUMPHS OF A MAN CALLED HORSE
TUNDRA
VAMPIRE'S KISS
YELLOW HAIR AND THE FORTRESS OF GOLD
posted by RobotHero at 5:49 PM on June 12, 2013 [1 favorite]


deemed unacceptable: ANNIHILATION OF FISH

Ya think?
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 5:55 PM on June 12, 2013


Men in Black 3 - Monitored: Unacceptable
Unfortunately, when we arrived on the set, too many fish had been put in the tanks and several were already dead and/or were dying.
posted by unliteral at 11:26 PM on June 12, 2013


I'm also finding some of this as an interesting look into how these are shot:

"trainers used both tethered and untethered chickens in this sequence."

"trainers used chickens with added feathering to make them look like roosters."

"For some of the scenes, the trainer was inside the cart sitting on a bench and his reins were placed through two holes down by the actor’s feet that held an additional pair of reins that they never applied."

"the zebra was actually a pony with zebra stripes painted on him."
posted by RobotHero at 9:34 AM on June 13, 2013 [1 favorite]


Thank gods for RobertHero, otherwise I might have to follow through.
posted by jrsnr at 11:31 AM on June 13, 2013


You could still try to figure out how to get a full listing of the more recent ones. I only did all the ones linked from the archives:
http://www.americanhumanefilmtv.org/archives/dev_new.php?letter=K&currentpage=2

I could just roll through all the letters and pages and be sure I got them all but I have no idea about the newer ones that aren't in the archive. Which is why Men in Black 3 didn't show up in my list.
posted by RobotHero at 12:49 PM on June 13, 2013


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