Real animals will be less and less present on television and in the cinema. Animal welfare seems to have taken over entertainment and technology should make it possible to do without animals in captivity to appear on the screen.
Producers and television channels could soon do without animals. We will see less and less of it on our screens. The subject is in the news with the return of Intervilles which could be done without a cow, pushing the towns of Dax, Mont-de-Marsan and Bayonne to announce a boycott of the legendary game show from the 1990s.
In doing so, these cities have opened a major debate on the place of animals on our screens, in films, series and TV shows. Gone are the days when Maïté stunned eels before cooking them, like that of the Dechavanne sets with calves, cows and pigs under the spotlight of TV studios.
France Télévisions is asking producers to limit the use of animals, a first for an audiovisual group. It is nonetheless the fruit of long association lobbying. That in particular of the anti-speciesist Association PAZ (Zoopolis Animal Project), which contacted stakeholders in the sector.
The retired Fort Boyard tigers
At Fort Boyard, there are already no more tigers. After 33 years of participation in the game, the felines left the fort off the coast of La Rochelle. Since 2022, the tigers have been replaced by computer-generated images.
Because since a 2021 law, wild animals are prohibited on game or variety shows. In the future, France TV therefore asks productions, often external, to reduce or even replace the use of animals. Reducing means choosing sparingly, limiting filming hours. To replace is to use an image bank. After all, hours and hours of animal videos already exist and technical tools or artificial intelligence can fill the gap.
Explain to us by Matthieu Belliard: Television, fewer and fewer animals on the screen – 11/19
This has already been seen in the 2019 version of The Lion King. In Disney's live-action film, the animals were created using computer-generated images. Prowess. We mixed photos of animals, and the acting of real human actors. Beyoncé and Donald Glover, among others, not only lent their voices, but also their acting, their movements. The result is stunning.
What does the public think?
“The opinion is now accepted that animals have nothing to do on sets”, we say among 30 million friends. However, we still see a lot of animals on our screens. And it's always a success.
Even very recently with The Wolf and the Lion in 2021 where a young woman plays comedy with a wolf cub and a lion cub. A success like other films by Frenchman Gilles de Maistre, The Last Jaguar, Mia et The White Lion. The titles are evocative.
Controversy with Bambi
How can we imagine these films without the work of the trainers? The profession is already aware of the issue. And we now know that these films with animals are controversial. Even when it comes to glorifying wilderness. The last Bambi, filmed in live action, sparked intense controversy when it was released a month ago. Even if we were no longer talking about a “trainer” but an “animal coach”, who claimed that animals were treated better than humans on set.
The Association of Directors and Associates recalls the rules of the game on its site. Prohibition on killing, injuring, capturing, respect for the biological imperatives of the species. This same association had denounced reprehensible practices: unsuitable cages, the use of tranquilizers, particularly a few years ago.
“No animals were harmed or killed for the purposes of this film”: you know the phrase, an adage almost, but it is in fact the law.
