I promise to kick-start this column again, and have a whole slew of capsule reviews to keep it alive.
Cane Toads (Mark Lewis, 1988)
A sad-but-true slice of real Australian history, the ecstatic rise and giddy fall of the cane toad is detailed in Mark Lewis’ mockumentary named after the wretched beast. Lewis has subsequently made a career out of documenting the peculiar habits of animals (The Wonderful World of Dogs [1990], The Natural History of the Chicken [2000]) through a combination of hysterical camera work, adept sound effects, and brilliant interviews. Cane Toads traces the history of the introduction of the toad as a means of combating against a grub that was decimating the sugar crops of the Northeast coast of Australia.
The cast of assembled characters is vast, ranging from a vengeful scientist who professes to hitting the toads with a geology pick to a sedentary old man who waxes poetic about how the creatures are his best friend. The creatures instigated some interesting sub-phenomena, finding usefulness as tourist-attracting statues, as the skin on a specially bound book made for Charles and Diana to commemorate their wedding, and, most hilariously, as pets. The toads, which expel a dangerous poison if squeezed, became domesticated in some areas, to the horror of many.
Perhaps the best sequences in the film, which fluctuates between strait info-doc and total spoof, are the recreated, dramatic scenes of excessive suspense. The fact that toads attack a man while he is in the shower highlight this as a film of literacy, as the reference to Psycho solidifies the humor as entirely intentional.
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