I found this film hard to watch.
The amount of distress these REAL animals went through in filming this was just atrocious. They actually had fierce animals attacking other animals that they had set up for the situation.
Absolutely awful and very disappointing.
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Can you provide examples? You people are a little wound too tight. I didn't see anything in here that was overtly cruel.
You honestly think the fight between bear vs. cat was real? Most of that sequences is shot in separate takes and they barely even touched each other.
These are trained animals and probably for the most part really enjoyed what they were doing.
And no, they didn't throw a real cat into a river.
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I think the very fact that the lynx/bobcat was filmed chasing a domesticated cat(s) would suffice. That and including a cat clearly being shown terrified cornered on a tree branch by a lynx attempting to attack it would be testameant enough.
And clearly there was at least one live cat shown in great distress being buffeted about by strong flowing water during the river scene, animatronics were not available at that time.
Whatever happened that poor beast. If he/she wasn't actually killed they still clearly suffered.
Disney, among many others, was and still is a corporation. They would still happily be chucking live lemmings off a cliff only for animal welfare concerns (not the loony animal rights brigade) and common public decency.
I re-watched this tonight for the first time in well over a decade, and I kinda wished I hadn't. I was really hoping that with adult eyes I'd see how most scenes were clever camera tricks but the reality is that's a real cat trying not to drown in the fast flowing water. That's a real bear taking a swipe at the dogs and that bunny is running for it's life when the Retriever goes after it. There were no animal protections laws back then so who knows how many animals died or got hurt on this production. Especially the expendable crew. When the cat grabs the fish out of the lake it's clear the fish was in some sort of container so it couldn't get away. No one was looking out for these poor beasts.
Why do people so frequently get told to "read the book" on a movie database?
1963 was fifty years ago. Thanks to the efforts of people who have advocated for animals, the situation is much better today. But there is still much to do in the area of animal protection.
shareKnowing that since this movie was produced millions of cattle and other animals have been raised throughout their life cycle shoulder to shoulder in stockyards, pumped full of disease resistant antibiotics to be destroyed and huge tumors cut out of their carcases to be sold as hamburger to billions of gluttonous hungry children; it filled me with joy to see the bull terrier, Bodger, tackle and rip into the young boy at the end.
It was a simpler time when animals roamed free range, people knew cats can swim, and Disney could sacrifice young children just for the whole family's entertainment pleasure.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
shareHow can you all ingore the animal cruelty involved in making this film?
Wow. What an idiot you are.
shareIt was a very different time, I would however be very interested to know in what order the scenes were shot and what kind of contingency was in place. They could have only had so many trained animals.