A mammoth being hunted by a neanderthal.
Credit: iStockphoto
~ Jenna Hanson
Having done all my research on mammoths for COSMOS' Mammoth Week, I was really looking forward to watching a good movie with mammoths in it. Unfortunately for me, I realised that the pickings were quite slim. But here's what I managed to find.
10, 000 BC
This movie is about a tribe of woolly mammoth hunters in a remote mountain range in the Urals. It follows a young hunter called D'leh as he searches for his newly won bride Evolet, who was captured by raiders and taken to a far-off place, similar to Egypt. The mammoths in the movie are all done with CGI and, to be fair, they did a pretty good job. I felt sorry for the poor mammoths being taken to 'Egypt' though - the hot temperatures and heavy work would have made these woolly giants incredibly uncomfortable.
I found it hard to sit through this movie when I saw it in the cinemas, so it didn't exactly inspire me to watch it again - especially when I would have to waste good money on a ticket! So 10,000 BC was a no-go for me in my quest for a good mammoth movie.
Outbreak
In this 2006 sci-fi film, a small town called Blackwater in Louisiana is in trouble after a spaceship carrying a shape-shifting alien crashes into the town's natural history museum takes the form of a woolly mammoth from the partially frozen remains found in the museum's historic exhibit.
Originally called Mammoth, this was intended to be a Sci-Fi Channel TV movie. Unfortunately, the Sci-Fi Channel wasn't playing the movie, so I wasn't able to watch it, but judging from its reviews, it looks like a cheesy spoof of the sci-fi/horror genre sounds like a whole lot of fun!
BBC's Walking With Beasts
This is a BBC miniseries on the Cenozoic era, which extends from 65.5 million years ago to the present. The final episode is called "Mammoth's journey", and follows a herd of woolly mammoths migrating to avoid the worst of the Ice Age winter.
As per usual, the BBC has spectacular CGI and location footage, which worked seamlessly together to create a realistic looking documentary-style series. The episode was incredibly interesting.
Ice Age
The Ice Age trilogy follows the adventures of Sid the sloth, Diego the sabre-tooth tiger and, of course, Manfred the woolly mammoth. The films are a spectacular display of animation from Twentieth Century Fox, with all the child-friendly action needed, and more than enough sly humour and witticisms for the adults.
Is it sad that I love these kinds of movies? While Ice Age is not always spot-on with the facts, it helped thrust mammoths into the mainstream. The stories are detailed, and the script! Comedy gold. Not to take away from Manny the mammoth, but my favourite character has to be Scrat, the sabre-tooth squirrel. Just picturing his adventures with that acorn and hearing his most repeated line - "Aaaahhhh!" - makes me burst out laughing every time. Even better, scientists have recently found a fossil that looks remarkably similar to my beloved Scrat! Weird, no?
I'd love to hear about any mammoth movies my search didn't manage to uncover, so feel free to list some! For now, though, I think I might go do some more in-depth research on the second Ice Age movie...
