Orangutans in popular culture
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Orangutans, two species of great apes indigenous to Indonesia and Malaysia, have been the subject of multiple popular culture references.
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[edit] Orangutans as villains
An early example of orangutans in English literature is one of Edgar Allan Poe's most famous stories, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, which featured a a murderous orangutan. Later examples offer a more civilized ape.[citation needed] In 1967, Walt Disney produced a film version The Jungle Book, and added an orangutan King Louie who wanted the power of "man's red fire". The next year the Planet of the Apes featured orangutan administrators and politicians ruling over the other apes and treating humans as vermin.
[edit] Orangutans as pets and guardians
The flexible form of the orangutan is put to use, as in Terry Pratchett's Discworld with The Librarian, a human shapechanged into an orangutan. Orangutans become pets (as in Every Which Way But Loose), friends (as in Dunston Checks In) and even guardians, as in Nickelodeon's The Wild Thornberrys, where they raise a human child.
[edit] 'Use' of orangutans
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- Disney's 1967 animated musical adaptation of The Jungle Book added an orangutan called King Louie to Rudyard Kipling's original cast of anthropomorphic characters.
- Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels feature an orangutan as The Librarian of the Unseen University.
- The orangutan Clyde is Clint Eastwood's pet sidekick in the film Every Which Way But Loose and its sequel Any Which Way You Can.
- In the film Dunston Checks In, a young boy befriends a larcenous orangutan in a luxury hotel.
- In the film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, the protagonists rescue an orangutan from an animal testing laboratory.
- In Nickelodeon's The Wild Thornberrys, the character Donnie was raised by orangutans a for a while after his parents were killed by poachers.
- In Nickelodeon's Drake and Josh, Drake bougt an orangutan named Bobo from a car dealership then sold it to a man who meant to eat him.
Many other animals have the same appropriation for comedic and effect in many cultures.
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- Pollock, Mary S. and Catherine Rainwater (eds). Figuring Animals: Essays on Animal Images in Art, Literature, Philosophy & Popular Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 1-403-96512-9.
- Rothfels, Nigel. (2002) Representing animals. Indiana University Press, ISBN 100-2-53-21551-X.
