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Meerkats in popular culture

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Meerkats have been subject to numerous cultural depictions, and have featured in television programmes, films, books, and other media.

Examples

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  • The British television series Meerkat Manor, produced by Oxford Scientific Films, features wild meerkats studied by the staff of the Kalahari Meerkat Project[1] and primarily focused on a group of meerkats called the Whiskers. The show, which aired on Animal Planet, premiered in 2005, and the final episode aired in 2008. The series, which uses narration and traditional nature documentary style footage, has been described as a "reality soap";[2] the meerkats are given names and described as having human traits — for example, individual meerkats are characterised as being "courageous" or "caring".[3] A television movie serving as a prequel, Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins, was released in 2008, detailing the life of the Flower, who was the dominant female meerkat of the Whiskers. Unlike the TV series, the filmmakers did not use actual footage of the Whiskers group, rather, they primarily used various untrained wild meerkat "actors" to portray those in the story,[4] which was based on the research notes of the Kalahari Meerkat Project.
  • The 1987 BBC Wildlife on One documentary Meerkats United, presented by David Attenborough, played a large role in introducing the meerkat species to public consciousness in Britain.[5] It was once voted the best wildlife documentary of all time by BBC viewers.[5] A follow-up, Meerkats Divided, aired in 1996.[6]
  • The television advertising campaign Compare the Meerkat is popular in the United Kingdom and Australia.[7][8] The campaign promotes the price comparison website comparethemarket.com in the UK, and comparethemarket.com.au in Australia. The campaign was launched in 2009 in the UK, and centers around the anthropomorphic character Aleksandr Orlov (voiced by Simon Greenall[9]), an aristocratic Russian meerkat. Other meerkat characters have featured in the advertisements, such as Aleksandr's sidekick Sergei.[10][11]
  • The Neighbourhood Watch scheme in the United Kingdom has used meerkat imagery in its branding and posters.[12]
  • Timon, a character from Disney's The Lion King franchise, is an anthropomorphic meerkat.[13]
  • In the book Life of Pi and its film adaptation, the floating island is inhabited by tens of thousands of meerkats,[14] in an environment and grouping unlike real meerkats.
  • Billy, the protagonist of the German animated film Animals United, is an anthropomorphic meerkat.[15]
  • The 2008 wildlife drama film The Meerkats, produced by BBC Films and The Weinstein Company, uses footage of wild meerkats combined with narration written by Alexander McCall Smith. James Honeyborne directed the film, and is also credited for the story. Paul Newman, in his final film credit, provided the voice of the narrator.[16][17] Guardian reviewer Philip French commented that the portrayal of the meerkats was "more Disney-anthropomorphic than Attenborough-authentic."[18]
  • A rolling version of the popular Linux distribution Ubuntu was called "Maverick Meerkat". It was released in October 2010.[19][20]
  • The Pokémon species Watchog, first introduced in Pokémon Black and White, resembles a meerkat.[21][22] In official sources, each Pokémon species is given a category describing it; Watchog's category is "Lookout Pokémon".[23]
  • Komiya, a character from Sanrio's anime series Aggretsuko, is an anthropomorphic meerkat.[24]
  • Meerkats appear in Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. The chipmunk character Theodore is shown to be a fan of the TV series Meerkat Manor;[25] this later influences the plot of the film when, after running away from home, Theodore goes to a zoo and tries to join the family of meerkats there.[26]
  • Andre Norton's science fiction book The Beast Master (1959) included a pair of meerkats in the title character's telepathically-linked Commando team. He described their function to another character as, "These were our saboteurs.... They dig with those claws and uncover things other people would like to keep buried. Brought a lot of interesting trophies back to base, too. They're born thieves, drag all sorts of loot to their dens. You can imagine what they did to delicate enemy installations in the field--"

References

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  1. ^ Clutton-Brock, Tim (3 December 2006). "March of the Meerkats". The Independent. Archived from the original on 11 October 2007.
  2. ^ Smith, Lynn (29 September 2007). "A meerkat matriarch passes on". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
  3. ^ Poniewozik, James (2 November 2007). "Looks like Meerkat Love". Time. Archived from the original on November 6, 2007.
  4. ^ McCandless, Sarah Grace (22 May 2008). "Get Ready for More Desert Drama (Official Discovery Blogs interview)". Kalahari Confidential. Discovery Channel. Archived from the original on 25 May 2008.
  5. ^ a b "Attenborough at 90: his greatest journeys and how to do them". The Telegraph. 8 May 2016. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
  6. ^ "Wildlife on One: Meerkats Divided". Genome. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  7. ^ "Simples! How a Dodgy Pun Gave Us More Than a Decade of Compare the Meerkat". Little Black Book. 7 February 2019. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  8. ^ McGuire, Neneh (13 February 2017). "Meerkat Celebrities Aleksandr And Sergei Make Their Way Down Under". B&T Magazine. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
  9. ^ "How Passion created Aleks the billionaire meerkat". digitalartsonline.co.uk. 13 January 2009. Archived from the original on 25 June 2009.
  10. ^ Tyzack, Anna (22 January 2010). "Aleksandr Orlov of Compare the Meerkat answers some simples questions". London: The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 25 January 2010. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
  11. ^ Furniss, Elliot (5 January 2011). "Video: Idyllic Suffolk village stars in latest compare the meerkat TV advert". East Anglian Daily Times. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  12. ^ "Animal altruism myth exposed". BBC News. 4 June 1999. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
  13. ^ Ebert, Roger (24 June 1994). "The Lion King review". rogerebert.com. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
  14. ^ Clark, Nick (8 December 2012). "How did they bring the 'unfilmable' Life of Pi to our screens?". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-05-12. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
  15. ^ "Animals United -- Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. 29 October 2010. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
  16. ^ "The Meerkats: BBC Films and the BBC Natural History Unit collaborate on ambitious first feature film". BBC Press Office. 1 November 2006.
  17. ^ "Festival screens Newman swansong". BBC News. 5 October 2008. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  18. ^ French, Philip (9 August 2009). "The Meerkats". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
  19. ^ "Shooting for the Perfect 10.10 with Maverick Meerkat". Mark Shuttleworth. 2 April 2010. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  20. ^ "Ubuntu 10.10 ("Maverick Meerkat") Netbook Edition". PCMag.com. 22 October 2010. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  21. ^ "Patrat and Watchog". Bogleech. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  22. ^ "15 Worst Pokemon Designs Ever". Screen Rant. 7 December 2016. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  23. ^ "Watchog #505". Pokémon. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  24. ^ "This Cartoon Red Panda's Fury at Her Terrible Life Is a Big Mood". Elle. 9 May 2018. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
  25. ^ Orndorf, Brian (23 December 2009). "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel". DVD Talk. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
  26. ^ Bierly, Mandi (4 January 2010). "Mystery solved: what Zachary Levi does in 'Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
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