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Cane Toads, An
Unnatural History
1987
Directed by: Mark Lewis
Starring: cane toads by the thousands
Language: English
Look for it at the video store under: documentary
Watch it when you’re in the mood for something: true?!?,
whimsical |
Plot synopsis
In the 1930s, farmers in North
Queensland, Australia found themselves with a pesky problem: beetles and
grubs were destroying their sugarcane crops. They thought they’d found
the perfect solution in the Cane Toad, Bufo marinus, which
scientists had assured them was doing a bang-up job of taking care of
crop pests in Hawaii. So Cane Toads were introduced to Australia, in one
of the biggest ecological mishaps in Australian history. See, the
scientists had neglected to take note of one little fact: that the
beetles could fly, and the Cane Toad, being a toad, lead a strictly
earth-bound life. Not surprisingly, therefore, their introduction made
no impact whatsoever on the raging sugarcane pest population. Even
worse, the Cane Toad proved unusually adept at adapting to its new
environment, mainly for two reasons: its astounding reproductive output
and a poisonous toxin that it secretes when under attack, thus ensuring
that any potential predator is killed on the spot after attempting to
nab one of the not-so-tasty looking morsels. Toss in the factor that
these really very stupid creatures will eat everything in sight, and you’ve
got a real environmental disaster: Cane Toads are proliferating, killing
off much of the native wildlife in the process (plus a fair number of
inquisitive housepets). The Cane Toads are taking over, and everyone, it
seems, has a strong opinion concerning his relationship with these
ubiquitous neighbors.
Review Only
the Australians could make a nature documentary that’s as wacky and
entertaining as Cane Toads, An Unnatural History. The box cover
proclaims, "If Monty Python produced a National Geographic Special,
it would be Cane Toads, An Unnatural History," and this is
one marketing tagline that does a pretty dead-on perfect job of
capturing the spirit of this documentary. Chock full of strange
personalities making unintentionally hilarious statements, it’s really
the relationships developed between humans and cane toads that make for
thoroughly engrossing viewing. Some people love ‘em – like the old
couple that treat the toads as "mates" (that’s Australian
for "friend," in case you were thinking otherwise) and feed
them cat food, to the chubby little girl who keeps a fat-ass cane toad
named Dairy Queen as sort of the world’s ugliest living doll, to the
town official who (unsuccessfully) petitions to erect a gigantic cane
toad bust in the center of his town. Others all-out loathe ‘em –
like the local who wages all-out war on the Cane Toad population, making
it his personal mission in life to chase down each and every one with
his dilapidated clunker of a truck, swerving left, and right, left, and
right, all over the toad-infested roads. Cane Toads is
educational, sure, but never fear: this is one nature documentary that’s
as far away from PBS-special-dryly informative as you could ever
imagine.o
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