# Made-up Animals in African Movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [August 11, 2025, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-animals-in-african-movies/1021936 "2025-08-11T18:17:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2025, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-animals-in-african-movies/1021936/1 "2025-08-11T18:17:34Z")
I’m not talking here about misplaced animals or animal noises, like the use of the Australian Kookaburra for “monkey” noises in the jungle, or the call of the American Loon to indicate wilderness (especially, for some reason, deserts), or rattlesnake rattles to indicate spiders or scorpions. Or the use of easily-tamed and trainable elephants in movies set in Africa (because they’re a lot easier to work with than African elephants). There are whole TV Tropes pages devoted to those. I’m talking about cases where the filmmakers decided to completely make up some animal because they needed something exotic and/or threatening, and they didn’t have anything on hand. So in the notorious **Ingagi** (1930) you have the venomous “tortorillo”, made from a turtle with extra scales and a wing-like shell. Or the ridiculously oversized and laughable spider that shows up in Deborah Kerr’s clothes in the 1950 **king Solomon’s Mines.** I guess they figured they needed some minor peril at that point, and they couldn’t persuade Kerr to play with a scorpion or something. That’s two, but I could have sworn that there were others. Anybody know of any? ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2025, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-animals-in-african-movies/1021936/2 "2025-08-11T19:02:48Z")
The qualification “in African movies” is likely going to prove extremely challenging. _The Angry Red Planet_ (1959) is otherwise a perfect fit! Best I can do is _The Show_ (1927) which takes place in Budapest, however the deadly poisonous “Madagascar iguana” provides the stand-out performance. [https://californiaherps.com/films/lizardfilms/Show.html](https://californiaherps.com/films/lizardfilms/Show.html) ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2025, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-animals-in-african-movies/1021936/3 "2025-08-11T20:12:57Z")
It’s not clear where the Loompaland jungle was, possibly Africa, nor were they portrayed onscreen, but Hornswogglers, Vermicious Knids, Snozzwangers and Whangdoodles were said to lurk there. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2025, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-animals-in-african-movies/1021936/4 "2025-08-11T21:09:51Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > It’s not clear where the Loompaland jungle was, possibly Africa In the original edition of the books, they are unambiguously from “the deepest and darkest part of the African jungle” and depicted as African pygmies. [But this was changed even in Dahl’s lifetime.](https://theconversation.com/from-pygmies-to-puppets-what-to-do-with-roald-dahls-enslaved-oompa-loompas-in-modern-adaptations-166967) Very fucking reluctantly, but nevertheless. [![](https://images.theconversation.com/files/420307/original/file-20210909-19-10om6xs.jpeg) ](https://images.theconversation.com/files/420307/original/file-20210909-19-10om6xs.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2025, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-animals-in-african-movies/1021936/5 "2025-08-11T21:29:09Z")
> [@Dropo](#): > > The qualification “in African movies” is likely going to prove extremely challenging. _The Angry Red Planet_ (1959) is otherwise a perfect fit! > > Best I can do is _The Show_ (1927) which takes place in Budapest, however the deadly poisonous “Madagascar iguana” provides the stand-out performance. If we’re switching from Africa to Eastern Europe, there’s the ongoing question about why there were armadillos running around Transylvania. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2025, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-animals-in-african-movies/1021936/6 "2025-08-11T21:47:17Z")
The apes that raised Tarzan - called “Mangani” in the books. Burroughs never clearly defined exactly what species they are, but they are expressly _not_ chimpanzees or gorillas, nor any other real-life African primate. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2025, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-animals-in-african-movies/1021936/7 "2025-08-11T21:52:48Z")
Not an African animal, but similar to the use of Kookaburra sounds, the cry of a Bald Eagle in movies is always dubbed in with the sound of a Red Tailed Hawk. Because it sounds more impressive. The real life cry of a Bald Eagle sounds like a drunken chipmonk or tweety bird. No one would be impressed by it. [Bald Eagle Calls and Sounds](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z0ycs4LkDs) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-animals-in-african-movies/1021936/8 "2025-08-12T06:40:24Z")
If I was asked what was the iconic African sound, I think it would be [the cry of the Fish Eagle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdCazQJFbPw). Not sure how that sounds to people with no sentimental attachment to the place. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-animals-in-african-movies/1021936/9 "2025-08-12T07:25:21Z")
Oddly enough, Vermicious Knids are depicted as space aliens in _Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator_. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-animals-in-african-movies/1021936/10 "2025-08-12T08:08:48Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > Vermicious Knids are depicted as space aliens in _Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator_ . They’re also mentioned in passing in _James and the Giant Peach_. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-animals-in-african-movies/1021936/11 "2025-08-12T10:37:23Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > If we’re switching from Africa to Eastern Europe, there’s the ongoing question about why there were armadillos running around Transylvania. For one of my Bad Film Festivals I was going to have a section I would call “Armadillo Follies”, featuring Tod Browning’s Transylvanian armadillos from 1931’s _Dracula_ and the armadillo that was supposed to be some prehistoric beast (Ankylosaurus? Glyptodon? who knows. The film mixed up Mesozoic with Cenozoic with wild abandon) in Hal Roach’s _One Million B.C._ ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-animals-in-african-movies/1021936/12 "2025-08-12T10:39:12Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > The apes that raised Tarzan - called “Mangani” in the books. > > Burroughs never clearly defined exactly what species they are, but they are expressly _not_ chimpanzees or gorillas, nor any other real-life African primate. In his mock biography of Tarzan, _Tarzan Alve!_, Philip Jose Farmer opined that they were some form of early man (although Australopithecus showed up in later books of the Tarzan series, with tails and prehensile toes.) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-animals-in-african-movies/1021936/13 "2025-08-12T13:30:07Z")
I’m surprised that no one has yet mentioned the Pushme-Pullyu from Hugh Lofting’s “Dr. Doolitte” books, described as the descendant of Abyssinian gazelles, Asiatic chamois, and unicorns (genetics wasn’t Loftings string suit), which arguably makes it African. It showed up in the 1967 musical adaptation of Dr, Doolittle (the one with Rex Harrison), looking like a two-headed llama (it looked more like a mule in the books), and apparently wasn’t in the Eddie Murphy or the Robert Downey versions at all. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-animals-in-african-movies/1021936/14 "2025-08-12T14:18:09Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > In the original edition of the books, they are unambiguously from “the deepest and darkest part of the African jungle” and depicted as African pygmies. Yes, that’s true. I read the books as a kid a lot and particularly enjoyed the drawings. I now know they’re a look at Dahl’s ugly, dated stereotypes as you point out. The version better remembered with Gene Wilder’s magnificent performance lets us better concentrate our energies against the real villain: that asshole Grandpa Joe. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-animals-in-african-movies/1021936/15 "2025-08-12T14:34:12Z")
Roald Dahl also invented the Roly-Poly Bird, which appears in several books: _Dirty Beasts_, _The Enormous Crocodile_, and _The Twits_ (where he’s able to communicate with Mr. and Mrs. Twit’s trained monkeys in their “weird African language”). ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-animals-in-african-movies/1021936/16 "2025-08-12T23:39:09Z")
Oh. I thought the OP was about mythical animals in, e.g., magical realism genres in actual African cinema, like the Akala bird in [the Nigerian film _Anikulapo_](https://www.premiumtimesng.com/entertainment/nollywood/557494-movie-review-anikulapo-soars-on-compelling-cinematography-but-leaves-us-wanting-more.html?tztc=1). But you mean made-up animals in mainstream Hollywood films **set** in Africa. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-animals-in-african-movies/1021936/17 "2025-08-13T10:49:05Z")
These critters didn’t make it into any of the Tarzan movies, but in the first Tarzan novel, Jane’s maid Esmeralda was fearful of the that they might be attacked by a ripotamus or a hipponocerous, which caused her to get ‘nervous prosecution.’ ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-animals-in-african-movies/1021936/18 "2025-08-13T14:02:39Z")
Nitpick: Strictly speaking, I don’t think that counts as “made-up animals” that the creator’s narrative was claiming actually existed in Africa, as in the OP’s examples. Rather, it was a (racist) comedy bit about Esmeralda’s malapropisms in trying to refer to actual African animals. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-animals-in-african-movies/1021936/19 "2025-08-13T14:15:10Z")
Wow! I don’t think that would have ever occurred to me! Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-animals-in-african-movies/1021936/20 "2025-08-13T15:10:45Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > The apes that raised Tarzan - called “Mangani” in the books. It’s been a long time since I read Tarzan, but I think Burroughs refers to them as “anthropoid apes” or some such name. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-animals-in-african-movies/1021936.md?page=2)