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Arthropods in Film

Arthropods are creatures of phylum arthropoda; they are invertebrates, and they have an exoskeleton, jointed appendages, and a segmented body.[1] Some common examples of arthropods are arachnids and insects. Arthropods are used in film either to create fear and disgust in horror/thriller movies, or they are anthropomorphized and used as the characters in animated children's movies.

Arthropods

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Main article: Arthropods

There are over 1,000,000 species of arthropods, and arthropods are thought to be 80% of all life on this planet. Ants in your backyard, spiders in your basement, shrimp and crabs in the sea, bees in the park; all are arthropods. This huge array of diversity is vital to the animal kingdom; almost every organism on the earth interacts in some way with arthropods.

The first ancestor of the arthropods was alive some 555 million years ago. It was likely a sediment feeder, with armored plates and biramous limbs. Over the course of 555 million years, this creature evolved into several different subphyla. One of these subphyla is Trilobitomorpha, which contains trilobites, an extinct race. Chelicerata, another subphyla, contains arachnids and scorpions. Myriapoda contains millipedes and centipedes, Hexapoda contains insects, and Crustacea includes lobsters, crabs, and shrimp.

In order for an animal to be classified as an arthropod, it must have several distinct characteristics. It must be an invertebrate, which means it does not have a backbone or notochord. It must have an exoskeleton, usually made of chitin, a tough material formed from sugars that is also found in the cell walls of fungi.[2] It must have jointed appendages, with a definite separation of tissue in the joints, rather than a continuous tentacle. It must have a segmented body, although the precise number of segments varies from arthropod to arthropod—insects have three segments, head, thorax, and abdomen, while an arachnid has just two, the cephalothorax and abdomen.

Insects are some of the most diverse animals on the planet, with an estimated six to ten million species. Insects come in all shapes and sizes, from the sizable Goliath Beetle to the microscopic fairyfly. Some insects, like beetles, are scavengers. Some, such as bees, get their sustenance from the nectar of plants Some insects, like mosquitoes, tics, and fleas, suck the blood of humans and other mammals. Insects live in almost every climate, all over the world.

Arachnids are slightly less diverse than insects, coming in at just over 100,000 named species. All arachnids have 8 legs, although for some arachnids one pair of legs serves a sensory function rather than a locomotive one. The most common types of arachnids are spiders and scorpions. Arachnids, too, are found all over the world.

In Film

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Arthropods are used in film either to create horror or as sympathetic heroes.

Horror

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The first and most notable part that arthropods play is in horror and thriller movies; human beings are basically conditioned to be disgusted and even frightened by arthropods, so arthropods made enormous, given special abilities, or in huge numbers are ideal constructs to frighten and scare. Some examples of arthropods used in this way are “Them!” In which a nest of ants becomes gigantic after exposure to nuclear radiation; “King Kong,” where the protagonists encounter a ravine filled with giant insects and arachnids while on an island of giant things; and “Starship Troopers,” in which the human race is embattled against an alien race resembling gargantuan insects.

Arthropods are effective tools to instill horror because fear of arthropods may be conditioned into the minds of human beings. Indeed, Jamie Whitten quoted in his book “That We May Live,” (talking about insects): "The enemy is already here-in the skies, in the fields, and waterways. It is dug into every square foot of our earth; it has invaded homes, schoolhouses, public buildings; it has poisoned food and water; it brings sickness and death by germ warfare to countless millions of people every year.... The enemy within-these walking, crawling, jumping, flying pests-destroy more crops than drought and floods. They destroy more buildings than fire. They are responsible for many of the most dreaded diseases of man and his domestic animals.... Some of them eat or attack everything man owns or produces-including man himself ."[3] Thus, insects and other arthropods are dangerous to humans in both obvious and less obvious ways. Undoubtedly, arthropods are dangerous for their potential to carry disease. Somewhat less apparently, arthropods cause damage to buildings, crops, and animals. Since arthropods can be harmful in so many ways, using insects and other arthropods to frighten people in movies was a logical step.

Aside from a natural fear or aversion to arthropods, reasons for using such creatures in movies could be metaphorical. Many of the most famous “Big Bug Movies” were made in the 1950's in the aftermath of World War II, when the world was introduced to the cataclysmic destruction inflicted by nuclear bombs. The bomb was unapproachable, remote, and terrifying; spiders and ants mutated by nuclear radiation to become huge were terrifying, but thanks to the competent government officials, soldiers, policemen, and detectives, the bugs were stopped and safety was restored. Nuclear terror was conquered without expressly facing a nuclear bomb. In this way, big bug movies could be cathartic and liberating to the general public.[4]

It has also been mentioned that big bug films could be symbolic of sexual desire. Margaret Tarrat says in her article “Monsters of the id,” “[Big bug movies] arrive at social comment through a dramatization of the individual's anxiety about his or her own repressed sexual desires, which are incompatible with the morals of civilized life.”[5] By this theory, gigantic swarming insects could represent the huge, torrential—but repressed due to the demands of society—sexual desires possessed by the creator and viewer of the Big Bug movie.

On gigantic arthropods, Charles Q. Choi stated that, if the atmosphere had a higher percentage of oxygen, arthropods would be able to grow quite a bit larger before their trachea became too large and could not grow any more. In fact, in the early years of the earth, when the atmosphere was more oxygen-rich, dragonflies the size of crows were not an uncommon sight.[6]

Animation

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thumb|right|alt=Cover art for A Bugs Life.|Theatrical release poster. A second way that arthropods are used in film is in animated child's films, where the insect is anthropomorphized and becomes a hero in the story. Examples of movies that follow this pattern are “Pinocchio,” with the wise and helpful Jiminy Cricket, who barely resembles a cricket; “A Bug's Life,” which depicts the dramatic workings of a colony of 4-legged ants; and “James and the Giant Peach,” in which James, the protagonist, becomes friends with a number of insects and arachnids.

The case for arthropods as protagonists, even cute and likeable characters, is not nearly as easily arrived at as the case for arthropods as instruments of horror. One reason insects are used successfully in this way could be that an insect or other arthropod's small size makes it seem heroic and sympathetic when faced against the big, big world. Another reason is counterpoint to the reason for using arthropods in horror films: whereas horror movies play upon the instinctive negative reaction humans have towards insects and arachnids, these animation films make something that is different and strange seem real, approachable, and sympathetic, thus making it comforting.[7]

A vital characteristic of these films in the anthropomorphism of characters. Mirriam-Webster defines anthropomorphism as “to attribute human form or personality to things not human.”[8] Thus, Jimeny Cricket looks nothing like a cricket, and instead resembles a kind grandfather figure who happens to be green and very small, and the ants in “Bug's Life” are reduced to 2 pairs of limbs. Also, all arthropods are given humanoid features—eyes, a mouth, a nose, even hair—as opposed to the actual features of an arthropod, such as compound eyes and mandibles. Arthropods are also given the socialization and emotions of human beings, all with the intent of making them more approachable.

Other

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A third way that arthropods are used in film is as incidental, non-essential elements of the film. Dozens of movies follow this pattern, mentioning or displaying insects, arachnids, scorpions, or some other arthropod only in passing. Sometimes arthropods are used in this context to frighten and repulse, and sometimes they are used to entertain.

Sometimes the arthropods used in these movies are animated, sculpted, or otherwise synthesized; however, in many cases these movies use actual creatures. As these creatures are not easily tamed or directed, a specialist known colloquially as a “Bug Wrangler” may be hired to control and direct these creatures. Some bug wranglers have become famous as a result of their expertise, such as Norman Gary, a champion bee-wrangler who is also a college professor, and Steven R. Kutcher, who wrangles a multitude of different types of bugs and who is the subject of over 100 print articles.[9]

List

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Some of the most notable movies involving arthropods are these: thumb|right|alt=Original Film Poster.|Theatrical release poster.| King Kong, 1933 and 2005. The original movie, in 1933, might have contained the first ever “big bug” scene. However, it was cut from the reel for unknown reasons. The 2005 remake by Peter Jackson features a scene in which the group of heroes is set upon by a multitude of large arthropods after falling down a chasm.[10]

Them!, 1954. This is perhaps the most famous “big bug” film, about a colony of ants that is mutated by radiation from atomic testing and grows to horrific size. The ants rampage in the desert of New Mexico, a naval vessel of the Californian coast, and the sewers of Los Angeles. The ants are eventually destroyed by the United States Army.[11]

“A Bug's Life,” 1998. A misunderstood tinkerer helps his hardworking colony of ants to fight off the evil grasshoppers with the help of a troupe of circus performers.[12]

“Starship Troopers,” 1997. Soldiers in the fascist earth army fight against an alien race of “Arachnids,” bug-like creatures, to save the earth.[13]

“James and the Giant Peach,” 1996. James, a young boy tyrannized by his evil aunts, escapes in a giant peach with a crew of friendly arthropods that, like the peach, have grown much larger than normal.[14]

“Pinocchio,” 1940. A wooden puppet brought to life by magic is aided in his adventures by Jiminy Cricket, who claims to be his conscience.[15]


References

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  1. ^ Merriam-Webster, "[1]", accessed 8 Dec. 2010.
  2. ^ Thiers, Genevieve, essortment, 2002, "[2]", 8 Dec. 2010.
  3. ^ Belveal, Dee, Today's Health, Feb. 1996. Quoted in Whitten, Jamie L. That We May Live," D. Van Norstrand Company 1996. Print.
  4. ^ Tsutsui, William M., Environmental History, Apr. 2007, "[3]", 8 Dec. 2010.
  5. ^ Margaret Tarratt, "Monsters from the Id" (1970), in Film Genre Reader, ed. Barry Keith Grant (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986), 259.
  6. ^ Choi, Charles Q., LiveScience, 11 Oct. 2006, "[4]", 8 Dec. 2010.
  7. ^ Leskosky, R.J. and M.R. Berenbaum. "Insects in Animated Films: Not All 'Bugs' are Bunnies." Bulletin of the Entomological Society of America. 1988. 34: pp.55-63.
  8. ^ Mirriam-Webster, "[5]"
  9. ^ The Crankshaft, "[6]", 8 Dec. 2010.
  10. ^ IMDb, "[7]" and "[8]".
  11. ^ IMDb, "[9]"
  12. ^ IMDb, "[10]".
  13. ^ IMDb, "[11]"
  14. ^ IMDb, "[12]"
  15. ^ IMDb, "[13]"
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