50 Fun Facts About Animals in Movies

In The Hangover, the tiger found in a Las Vegas hotel bathroom turns out to belong to which celebrity?

Mike Tyson plays himself, knocking Alan out cold and demanding his tiger back. Both the boxer and the big cat were late additions, written in when the director reworked the script.

The mechanical shark in Jaws was nicknamed what on set, after Steven Spielberg's lawyer?

Bruce broke down so often in salt water that Spielberg chose mostly to suggest the shark rather than show it. The name came from his lawyer, Bruce Ramer.

Toto in The Wizard of Oz was played by a female dog named Terry, who was which breed?

A Cairn Terrier called Terry played Toto for $125 a week, more than many of the film's human actors earned.

Michael Jackson's first solo US number one, Ben, was written for a film about a boy and which pet?

A rat named Ben befriends a lonely boy in the 1972 horror film, a sequel to the killer-rodent hit Willard. The tender ballad about him was nominated for an Oscar.

Keiko, the orca who starred in Free Willy, was later flown to which country to be returned to the sea?

Iceland was where Keiko had been captured as a calf in 1979. In 2002 he became the first captive orca to be fully released back into the ocean.

In which crime film does a Hollywood producer wake to find his prize racehorse's severed head in his bed?

The Godfather used a real horse's head for the scene, supplied by a dog-food company. In the story the racehorse, Khartoum, was worth $600,000.

Lassie, a female character, was first played in the film Lassie Come Home by a male collie named what?

Pal took over after the female collie first hired was dropped, and six weeks of filming were reshot with him. Generations of his descendants have played the part since.

In the 1997 film Air Bud, a runaway golden retriever named Buddy shows a talent for which sport?

Basketball was a real skill of the dog who played him, who had bounced balls into a hoop on David Letterman's talk show before Hollywood called.

The 1995 film Babe, about a pig who learns to herd sheep, was shot in which country?

Australia hosted the shoot, in the village of Robertson in New South Wales. The talking-pig tale went on to earn seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.

Future US president Ronald Reagan starred in the 1951 comedy Bedtime for Bonzo opposite which animal?

A chimpanzee named Bonzo is raised like a human child by Reagan's character, a psychology professor who hopes to settle the nature-versus-nurture question.

Indiana Jones, the archaeologist hero of Raiders of the Lost Ark, has a famous fear of which animals?

Snakes arrived by the thousand for the Well of Souls scene, after handlers across London and Europe answered a call for more.

In The Lion King, what kind of animal is Timon, Pumbaa's fast-talking friend who helps raise Simba?

A meerkat in the wild travels on all fours and only stands up on its hind legs, whereas Timon strolls about upright for the whole film.

In the Harry Potter films, Harry's pet Hedwig, a birthday gift from Hagrid, is what kind of bird?

A snowy owl made such an appealing pet on screen that the films raised fears of a boom in the illegal trade in the birds.

In the 1992 family comedy Beethoven, the enormous dog who wrecks the Newton household is which breed?

A St. Bernard puppy gets the name Beethoven when he barks along as the family's daughter plays the Fifth Symphony on the piano.

Which actor played the tidy detective saddled with a slobbering dog in the comedy Turner & Hooch?

Tom Hanks later called the shoot one of his most demanding, because he had to act around whatever the dog did. Hooch was a Dogue de Bordeaux named Beasley.

Whose voice narrates the English-language release of the Antarctic documentary March of the Penguins?

Morgan Freeman's single narrator replaced the French original's approach, which told the story in the first person as if the penguins themselves were speaking.

Which director turned gulls and crows against a California seaside town in the thriller The Birds?

Alfred Hitchcock did without a conventional musical score, commissioning an electronic soundtrack of bird noises to carry the menace instead.

In Disney's Zootopia, which animals staff the DMV, much to the frustration of Judy Hopps?

Sloths run the Department of Mammal Vehicles, where a clerk named Flash is billed as the fastest worker in the building.

Alex the lion and Marty the zebra are star attractions at which zoo before being shipwrecked on Madagascar?

Central Park Zoo loses its four stars after Marty's tenth-birthday bid for freedom ends with their crates falling off a ship at sea.

Which actor voices the sword-fighting cat Puss in Boots, who first appeared in Shrek 2?

Antonio Banderas voices Puss in the English, Spanish and Italian versions alike, and has called the part an important one in his career.

Which Disney film ends with a Texas boy having to shoot his beloved dog after it catches rabies?

Old Yeller is bitten while fighting off a rabid wolf to protect the family, and young Travis insists on pulling the trigger himself because the dog is his.

Hachi: A Dog's Tale, starring Richard Gere, retells the true story of a loyal Japanese dog of which breed?

An Akita named Hachiko kept returning to a Tokyo railway station to wait for his owner for almost ten years after the man's death.

In Pixar's Finding Nemo, Dory, the friendly fish with short-term memory loss, belongs to which species?

Blue tang Dory, voiced by Ellen DeGeneres, proved so popular that she got a sequel of her own, Finding Dory, 13 years after the first film.

Which comedian played the doctor who can talk to animals in the 1998 remake of Dr. Dolittle?

Eddie Murphy shared the screen with a wisecracking guinea pig voiced by Chris Rock, and the film gave him the biggest opening weekend of his career to that point.

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective centres on the theft of Snowflake, an NFL team mascot of which species?

A dolphin named Snowflake vanishes from the Miami team's stadium shortly before the Super Bowl, and quarterback Dan Marino is kidnapped soon afterwards.

Which actor gave the motion-capture performance as the ape leader Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes?

Andy Serkis was the main performer, but the effects team also called on a smaller stand-in, Devyn Dalton, whose height matched a real ape's.

Clint Eastwood's trucker in Every Which Way but Loose lives with Clyde, who is what kind of animal?

An orangutan named Manis played Clyde, and Eastwood called his co-star one of the most natural actors he had ever worked with.

In Bringing Up Baby, the Baby that upends the life of Cary Grant's paleontologist is which animal?

A leopard named Nissa played Baby, and her trainer stood just off screen with a whip for every one of her scenes.

Balto is loosely based on a 1925 sled-dog run carrying diphtheria serum to which Alaskan town?

Nome's port was icebound for the winter, so relays of dog teams carried the antitoxin across Alaska, with Balto leading the final stretch into town.

Which actress played the primatologist Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist, set largely in Rwanda?

Sigourney Weaver won a Golden Globe for the part, playing a scientist who takes on the poachers laying traps around her mountain research camp.

Born Free follows a couple who raise the orphaned lioness Elsa and release her in which country?

Kenya's wildlife changed the lives of the film's married stars, Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers, who became animal campaigners and helped create the Born Free Foundation.

Which future star, still a child, rode a horse called Pie in the Grand National in National Velvet?

Elizabeth Taylor's character wins the unruly horse in a raffle, then has her hair cut off and puts on the jockey's silks to ride him in the race herself.

Which German Shepherd, rescued from a First World War battlefield, became a silent-film star for Warner Bros.?

Rin Tin Tin had an early hit so big that it is often credited with saving the studio from bankruptcy. The American soldier who found him in France, Lee Duncan, called him Rinty.

Which Stephen King adaptation follows a mother and son trapped inside their car by a rabid dog?

Cujo turns killer only after he pokes his head into a cave and a rabid bat bites him on the nose.

At the climax of the 1976 remake of King Kong, which New York landmark replaced the Empire State Building?

World Trade Center towers remind Kong of a mountain on his island in the story, and more than 30,000 people turned up as extras on one night of filming his death scene.

In Disney's Dumbo, what kind of animal is Timothy, the big-eared elephant's only true friend at the circus?

A mouse was a joke on the old idea that elephants are terrified of mice. In the story the film adapts, the helper was a robin.

Which British director made the 1969 film Kes, about a Yorkshire schoolboy who trains a wild kestrel?

Ken Loach, then credited as Kenneth, adapted the story from Barry Hines's novel A Kestrel for a Knave, which had been published only the year before.

Jack, Barbossa's pet in Pirates of the Caribbean, and Dexter in Night at the Museum are which kind of monkey?

A capuchin named Crystal played Dexter, while Barbossa's pet was given his name purely to mock Jack Sparrow.

Bart the Bear, a Kodiak, hunts Anthony Hopkins through the Alaskan wilderness in which survival thriller?

The Edge gave Bart one of his last roles, and a year later he appeared at the Oscars in a salute to animal actors. He was so docile on set that co-star Alec Baldwin worried the film would not work.

In the Paddington films, the marmalade-loving bear travels to London from the jungles of which country?

Peru is where a British explorer first meets the rare talking bears and their deep fondness for marmalade, long before Paddington heads for London.

In Disney's The Jungle Book, what is the name of the black panther who finds the baby Mowgli?

Bagheera carries the orphan to a pack of wolves, who give the boy his name, and later tries to steer him out of the jungle before a tiger can find him.

Which director turned Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox into a stop-motion film voiced by George Clooney?

Wes Anderson co-wrote the script with Noah Baumbach and gave himself a small voice part as a weasel.

Which actor won his first Oscar for The Revenant, in which a grizzly bear mauls the frontiersman Hugh Glass?

Leonardo DiCaprio had lost on five earlier nominations before the mauled trapper finally brought him the award.

Orangey, a prize-winning tabby tomcat, played the pet of which star's character in Breakfast at Tiffany's?

Audrey Hepburn's feline co-star won a PATSY, an award for animal actors, for the part, and remains the only cat to have won two.

In Meet the Parents, Robert De Niro's cherished cat Mr. Jinx was played by two cats of which breed?

Himalayan cats named Bailey and Misha shared the role, though their trainer said Misha handled about 85 percent of the scenes.

In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, the Enterprise crew travel back in time to fetch which extinct animals?

Humpback whales alone can answer an alien probe that is wrecking the Earth, because its signal matches their song. Few of the animals seen on screen were real.

Trigger, a palomino horse said to have learned 150 trick cues, was the screen partner of which cowboy star?

Roy Rogers picked him from five rented horses for his first starring role. Under his original name, Golden Cloud, the horse had already carried Maid Marian in The Adventures of Robin Hood.

Which German director made Grizzly Man, the documentary about Timothy Treadwell's summers among Alaskan bears?

Werner Herzog built the film from more than 100 hours of video that Treadwell shot himself, and narrates it with his own reading of events.

In Fly Away Home, a girl leads which orphaned birds south behind her ultralight aircraft?

Canada geese really were trained to follow an ultralight by Bill Lishman, the inventor whose 1993 migration flight inspired the story.

Which Disney film stars two dogs and a cat named Shadow, Chance and Sassy?

Homeward Bound remade a 1963 film, The Incredible Journey, and gave the three pets the voices of Michael J. Fox, Sally Field and Don Ameche.