The cane toad: Australia's imported terrorist.
Toad the line
By John Esther
A follow up to his 1988 documentary, Cane Toads: An Unnatural History, filmmaker Mark Lewis returns with the toad-and-cheeky documentary Cane Toads: The Conquest.
Presented in illustrious 3-D – although the film works in 2-D as well – this ribbiting tale reintroduces us to the titular character in all its menacing glory.
Indigenous to Central and South America for millions of years, more than a hundred cane toads were imported by Australia in August 1935 to eat the greyback cane beetle, a sugarcane pest, at the Mulgrave River near Gordonvale, Queensland, which is located in the northeast part of Australia.
Rather than lick out the vermin, the cute cane toads multiplied by the thousands and started to go west across the continent, creating a toad jam along the way.
Leap years later, the approximately 1.5 billion cane toads have taken on mythological proportions as pet and pest. While some keep them as companions, others have lost their pets when their dogs, cats, snakes, etc., ate one of the poisonous creatures.
The fear and misunderstanding of the toad, which is hardly a threat to human beings (for now, they are highly active evolutionary creatures), has brought on hysterical reactions from everyone from the local yokel to parliament and beyond.
“Toads are enemy No. 1,” says Dr. Chris Burns, Northern Territory health minister, in one of the calmer responses to the manmade problem.
To stop the toad tide, some deliberately drive over the accreting amphibians on asphalt, buy ineffective traps or worse. One unlucky hick electrocuted himself to death while spearing toads. (Frogs have also been mistakenly killed.)
While more joyless Australians may not appreciate the highly unflattering portrayal of their country and this particular ecological blunder, Cane Toads: The Conquest is a lot of fun to watch. Similar to, but a little scarier than The March of Penguins, it will likely provide children and adults a three-dimensional blast watching this “toadally” wonderful Summer Showcase entry while learning a valuable lesson about messing with an ecosystem.
Recommended.
(Cane Toads: The Conquest screens June 18, 10:30 p.m., Regal Cinemas)
