Dir. Mark Lewis, 72 minutes, Australia, 2010
Cast. Toads
Review by Michelle Moore
Cane Toads: The Conquest is actually a sequel to a 47-minute BAFTA-nominated short documentary, Cane Toads: An Unnatural History (1988) about the introduction of Cane Toads to Australia; this sequel is twice as long and shot in 3D. Returning to the subject again after many years, film maker Mark Lewis explores one of Australia’s greatest environmental catastrophes, which interestingly is neither hurricane, tornado, earthquake nor volcano. Some areas of the world have problems with mice and rats. In other places it is flies, wasps and cockroaches are the pests. In Australia it is the toads.
The film looks into several aspects of these creatures with many individuals sharing their personal experiences. The toads were originally introduced into Australia to eradicate a beetle that was destroying the sugar cane crops. However the plan went badly wrong, in that not only did the cane toads do nothing to help the situation, but they bred so quickly that they spread across the country like fire in a forest, becoming an unstoppable menace that ate everything in sight. The cane toad story does though have a humorous side to it. One person dealt with the excess amount of toads by creating “The Travelling Toad Show”, stuffing dead toads and placing them in different positions. The film also explores the experience one poor lady had, when a toad attacked her dog, another dog got light headed and intoxicated (voluntary on several occasions) and there was found to be a drop in the baby crocodiles population due to them eating and being poisoned by these noxious reptiles.
What is a little alarming is the way people talk about their favourite methods of killing the toads and indeed turning the dead toads into fertilizer. Some say drop them in water, others run them over with cars, while one family recommends putting them in bags and placing them in your freezer, telling their children it’s like going somewhere cold and icy for vacation. Conversely it is reassuring to hear is one man stating that “they’ve got the right to exist. They’ve got the right to be themselves”, when talking about a toad sanctuary.
Cane Toads: The Conquest offers up the two sides to the story – the infestation menace of the toads and the animal rights view that they should be left to their own agenda, as they have no idea that what they are doing is causing a nuisance. Although, this documentary won’t be for everyone, it is unexpectedly intriguing and raises the question in your mind, what would you do in this situation?
[cinemabase tt1568924 video_player]
love to know what you think of some of my work and music videos 
