In The Secret of NIMH, there’s three different types of animals that can talk and have human-level intelligence: the rats/mice, an owl, and a crow. The rats and mice got their intelligence explicitly due to scientific experimentation: how did the owl and the crow get intelligent?
They eat mice and rats.
That’s great. I love little details that only make sense when you think about the world. In Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, it’s revealed early on that the Rats became intelligent from eating magic goo and Maurice, a cat, gained intelligence by eating one of the rats.
Crows eat rats and mice?
Huh? 
Yes?
Crows are omnivorous scavengers. They’re also active hunters, and mice are a major prey species for them. Adult rats are probably a bit big as prey, but they’d certainly eat juvenile rats, and they’d probably scavenge a recently deceased rat.
Did the intelligence boost come after a single sapient rodent, or was it a gradual thing over the course of many meals? Because if the latter, that must have gotten seriously awkward at some point.
This isn’t obvious to me, because I never saw the entire original film. I think the origin usually given may be improperly attributed.
“I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords” – spoken by newscaster Brockman on the Simpsons episode “Deep Space Homer” from 1974. It’s transcended its original use to become a meme, frequently used on this Board. In fact, the Dope Board is credited with helping spread its use by the Know Your Meme website
The origin is given as the 1977 abysmal film Empire of the Ants, which was nominally based on a story by H.G. wells, but is so completely changed that it’s really a sort of low-rent version of Them, with smaller (though still big) ants, crappy special effects, and a slumming Joan Collins, whose mind is controlled by ants.
As Know Your Meme puts it
[quote] The phrase is frequently misattributed to a film adaptation of the H.G. Wells science fiction story Empire of the Ants [8] was released on July 29th, 1977, which revolved around giant mutated ants attempting to destroy humankind. In the film, actress Joan Collins reacts to the insect threat by saying a similar line, “Don’t you see, we mustn’t’ disobey them. We must take care of them and we must help them.”[2
[/quote]
But I suspect this may not be correct. Four years earlier, another movie about controlling ants came out, written and directed by legendary cartoonist and movie title maker Saul Bass (who did the spectacular end titles for Around the World in 80 Days, among others). That film was Phase IV. The premise is that ants have developed a hive mind. Here’s the plot description, from the Wikipedia page:
(Bolding mine)
The film developed a cult following (as did Empire, though for different reasons), and introduced the concept of hive minds to the public earlier (the idea was around far longer in sf literature, but movies spread these concepts much better to the general public). I suspect that this is where the idea first came from. Although the idea of an ant-mind-controlled Joan Collins may have really driven the idea home.
Well, ignorance fought then.
I’m re- watching “The West Wing” and just got to the episode where CJ’s secret service protection guy gets killed in an armed robbery of a store. CJ and the Presidential party are watching a stage production of “The Wars of the Roses” at the time. Symbolically, red and white roses are those which represent the two sides in the conflict.
In the aftermath of the shooting there are some scenes in the store where a lot of flowers have been scattered all over the floor during the robbery. They are red and white roses.
Because of the movie, I keep thinking that Marvel Phase IV should star Ant-Man.
Few get that joke without explanation.
I’ve seen Phase IV. Quite a good movie.
I just saw Family Plot. At the end, Barbara Harris uses her “psychic” power to find the diamonds hidden in the chandelier. Then she winks at the audience.
This time I caught a line of dialog just after they drugged her. William Devane mentions the jewels in the chandelier. It was likely that Harris was just conscious enough to hear the line, hence the wink.
Well, my ravens eat mice. Live ones, and both crows and ravens will eat carrion.
I just realized that Mobius, the home planet of Sonic the Hedgehog was named after August Ferdinand Möbius.
Ok this is a really pathetic one. I’ve been watching most incarnations of Star Trek for many years. But watching a rerun of DS9 the other day I realised that the uniforms of the people working on the station are different from those on a starship. Starship personnel have coloured shirts with black tops, station personnel have black shirts with coloured tops.
I’ve probably seen Mad Max 2 aka The Road Warrior a couple dozen times over the past 35 years. I can’t believe I just noticed this one.
The night before the big truck chase, the leader Papagallo is talking about who will drive the truck, and is playing with an hourglass. The first time I saw it I made the obvious connection he’s thinking about his own mortality and how he might die during the escape attempt.
I watched it again a few days ago and it finally hit me. Hourglass…sand…the tanker is full of sand
Granted, a first time viewer wouldn’t know that, but the second time around, it should have been an obvious bit of foreshadowing.
WAIT…in Superman…he goes back in time and rescues Lois right?
He DOESNT stop the 100… ONE HUNDRED MEGATON bomb from exploding? The largest nuclear weapon ever exploded was 70 MT. 100 megatons.
I just noticed that Popeye cartoons are kind of formulaic.
Yes, he does. He stops the eastern bomb first, then goes back in time to stop the one in the West.
Then why is there still an earthquake and Lois’s car wont start?
wiki While Superman is busy saving others, Lois’s car falls into a crevice from one of the aftershocks, trapping her as it fills with dirt and debris. She suffocates before Superman can reach her. Angered over failing to save her, Superman defies Jor-El’s earlier warning not to manipulate human history, and instead heeds Jonathan’s advice that he must be there for “a reason”. He accelerates around Earth, traveling several minutes backward in time to prevent Lois’s death while also undoing the damage caused by the missile and earthquake. After saving the West Coast, Superman delivers Luthor and Otis to prison before flying into the sunrise for further adventures.
I guess the warhead does off but he undos the damage?
eta the best Superman film ever.