Hi everyone, I'm Em and welcome to Verbal Diorama, Episode 302, Anaconda. This is the podcast that's all about the history and legacy movies you know and movies you don't. That strikes wraps around you, holds you tighter than your true love. And you get the privilege of hearing your bones break before the power of embrace causes your veins to explode. But you know, listen to the podcast first and ideally, leave a five star rating and review before your veins explode. Thanks. Welcome to Verbal Diorama. Whether you are a brand new listener to this podcast and you just really love snakes. Welcome back regular returning listeners. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for choosing to listen to this podcast. I am so happy to have you here for the history and legacy of Anaconda. And just a huge thanks to everyone who listens to this podcast and has continued to listen and support this podcast. This podcast has been going for over 300 episodes and six years now and I am just hugely blown away by the amazing, incredible support that I get. It means so much to have you guys continue to be here with me, especially after my short break. It is good to be back. I've had a couple of weeks off after my mega five episode trip to Middle Earth. Holidays really taken out of you. But seriously, that series was so much fun and different and special and as much as I loved my trip to Middle Earth, we are back to actual Earth with a bit of a bang. And with that, I must welcome you to Baby Kaijune. What even is Baby Kaijune? Well, Kaijune was a series I did a couple of years ago. Because I love monster movies, I love creature features, anything to do with huge monsters, I am a massive fan. The series that I did a couple of years ago on this podcast included Bong Joon Ho's the host, Godzilla 1998, which is a lot more fun than a lot of people give it credit for. And it's also a great story as well. Shin Godzilla and Pacific Rim. Pacific Rim. I also have a lot of time for. I love Guillermo del Toro, as anyone who listens to this podcast regularly will know. And I especially love Pacific Rim. Why is it Baby Kaijune? Well, I wanted to do another Kaijune, but this series is smaller than usual because I've only got two weeks in June, and these monsters are a bit smaller than the other ones that I talked about. And whilst they're smaller, they're still terrifying. And actually, in some ways even more terrifying because these are creatures that exist in real life. And we're starting with the largest and heaviest snake species in the world, both in terms of length and weight. The green anaconda, which is native to Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, French Guiana and Suriname. Known for their lightning speed and ability to squeeze the life out of prey by coiling around, asphyxiating them, and swallowing them whole, which is absolutely terrifying. The largest verified green anaconda ever recorded, weighed 500 pounds, was 27.7ft long, and had a girth of 3.6ft. It was coincidentally discovered while filming for a National Geographic series. A new species, the northern green anaconda, was discovered in 2024 after studies found that the green anaconda is genetically two different species. And this movie is pretty famous for being the only movie starring Jennifer Lopez where JLO wasn't the biggest diva on set. Here's the trailer for Anaconda.

In search of the elusive Shirashama tribe, Documentary director Terri Flores, in the hopes of her big break, leads an equally ambitious team of six deep into the Brazilian rainforest, including an anthropologist, cameraman, documentary host, production manager and sound engineer. Before long, while sailing the meandering Amazon river, they encounter stranded Paraguayan adventurer Paul Serone, who claims he has evidence of the mysterious indigenous tribe's existence. However, Paul seems to know more than he's letting on and starts misleading the group. Slow and agonising deaths await the unsuspecting crew as it becomes clear that the eccentric Sarone is hunting a record breaking green anaconda and he plans to use the team as collateral damage to get his million dollar live bounty. Let's run through the cast. We have Jennifer Lopez as Terry Flores, Ice Cube as Danny Rich, Jon Voight as Paul Serone, Eric Stoltz as Dr. Steven Cale, Jonathan Hyde as Warren Westridge, Owen Wilson as Gary Dixon, Kari Wuhrer as Denise Kohlberg, Vincent Castellados as Mateo, Danny Trejo as Poacher and Frank Welker as the voice of the Anaconda. Anaconda was written by Hans Bauer, Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. And was directed by Luis Llosa. Now, creature features are nothing new, having originated in the 1910s with the lost German silent film The Golem in 1915 and its sequel the How He Came into the World in 1920, and of course the work of Willis H. O' Brien in the Lost World in 1925 through to the legendary King Kong in 1933, which would inspire Ray Harryhausen to work with O' Brien on Mighty Joe Young in 1949. It kick started the 1950s wave of creature features like Creature from the Black Lagoon in 1954, then in 1954 it came from beneath the sea in 1955, Tarantula in 1955, the deadly Mantis in 1957 and 20 million miles to earth in 1957. It was in the 1950s that Toho produced Godzilla, arguably the most famous Kaiju of all time, which adapted the nuclear concept from the beast from 20,000 fathoms from a Japanese perspective rooted in real life. Japanese historical events such as the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and the Daigo Fukury Maru incident in 1954. Steven Spielberg then pioneered the genre with Jaws in 1975, which is one of the few monster movies based on a real incident. The New Jersey shark attacks of 1916. Imagine that real creatures are out there that could kill you. I guess we're coming back to that. Other animal based horror features followed Jaws's inspiration, like Orca, the killer whale in 1977, Piranha in 1978 and Alligator in 1980, which was itself inspired by the urban legend of alligators living in sewers, in particular an account of alligators being found in New York City. These were followed by more horror comedies in the early 90s, like Tremors and Arachnophobia. Spielberg perfected the formula further with Jurassic Park in 1993, which set a new benchmark in the genre with innovative use of cgi and tried and tested animatronics to recreate dinosaurs. But Jurassic Park also dawned the new era of monster movies. They didn't need rubber suits or cardboard sets. They had big enough budgets for big names and big enough budgets for big effects. Unlike the often mindless beasts of earlier B movies, Jurassic Park's dinosaurs displayed cunning intelligence, particularly the velociraptors. This shift towards smart, strategic predators became a hallmark of 90s creature features, which made the very real creatures of the likes of Anaconda, Lake, Placid and Deep Blue Sea somewhat more terrifying when you realize that they could kill you and they were more intelligent than you. The 90s was a rich vista of creature features and disaster movies. And I do want to do some disaster movies real soon on the podcast, because there are a couple I really love. But Even in the 90s, the creature feature landscape was continually evolving, as was the original script for Anaconda. While we don't have that script, we do have this quote. It has been said that among the continents, South America will teach it to you. God and the devil are the same. This last great reservoir of primordial wilderness is at once both Garden of Eden and green sweltering hell. In the dead of a Chicago Winter, a 20something middle school biology teacher, Andy Easter and six young colleagues Hatch a plan to spend their summer in Brazil, hoping to reverse their meager fortunes by joining a modern day gold rush on a tributary of the mighty Amazon. Disorientated and increasingly isolated, the treasure hunters stray into the remote domain of three colossal Daughter, mother, grandmother. One by one, under terrifying circumstances, the teachers fall victim to the devastating effects of gold fever and the relentless brutality of the primeval South American jungle. Andy Easter must discover her inner Amazon to avoid becoming prey for the mother of all snakes. And if you think that sounds a little bit like the plot of Anaconda, you'd be kind of Right. Because this is the synopsis of Anaconda, the Writer's Cut, Hans Bauer's original vision for his Anaconda script. It is a little bit different, but also kind of the same. Anaconda was the first project CL Cinema Line Films Corporation brought to the big screen via the company's three year first look deal with Columbia Pictures. It was also the only film made in this deal. They acquired Bauer's script and immediately set about rewriting it and drafting in the writing team of Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. Known for their work on Top Gun. To change the core cast from teachers to documentary filmmakers. It's worth adding that Hans Bauer published the Writer's Cut as a novel in 2014 and marketed it as the original tale conceived by the writer before movie studios got their hands on the script. Part of the script's appeal to the filmmakers was that the giant anaconda that becomes the main instrument of terror is not entirely a creature of fantasy. Anaconda had the potential to scare people and be an exciting action adventure movie at the same time. Snakes had never really been part of those creature feature monsters, despite so many people being genuinely afraid of snakes. The only other notable snake movie is the horror comedy Snakes on a Plane. And even then it's not one or two snakes, but thousands of snakes. But they're tiny snakes, so they're not really that scary in the grand scheme of things. As this movie was set in the Amazon, they wanted a South American director. And one of the first directors CL Cinema Line's president of production and Anaconda executive producer Susan Ruskin approached was Luis Llosa. Llosa's involvement with Anaconda came as the natural progression of an interesting career trajectory that seemingly positioned him perfectly for the project. Originally a Peruvian born film critic before transitioning into filmmaking, he began his career in his home country making films in the 1980s before catching the attention of Roger Corman. Corman had Llosa produce and or direct half a dozen English language exploitation films, including Hour of The Assassin in 1987 starring Eric Estrada and Robert Vaughan. The sci fi action A Crime Zone, which Jose produced and directed in 1989 with David Carradine as Sherilyn Fenn and the suspenser Full Fathom Five in 1990, headlined by Michael Moriarty. Llosa made his American movie breakthrough directing sniper in 1993, a jungle set thriller starring Tom Beringer and Billy Zane. Following Sniper, he directed the Specialist in 1994 starring Sylvester Stallone and Sharon Stone. So by 1996, Josa had experience Directing jungle based action films, a proven ability to work with studio budgets and star casts. He had familiarity with South America, specifically jungle locations, production logistics, and a track record of commercially successful genre films. So he was a prime candidate for directing Anaconda. It was Llosa who had the idea of starting the film out with large, expansive settings, vistas and visions, the expanse of the forest, the jungle and sky. And as the journey goes on, you're getting into narrower and narrower tributaries, so the feeling of the film starts to close in on you as well as the snake closing in on you. Josas hiring for Anaconda wasn't accidental. And as I'm coming to, nor was anything else in this movie. There was a remarkable amount of effort behind the scenes to make something really extraordinary. The next challenge was the cast. They wanted to find an interesting group of actors that the audience would immediately care about and would want to see on this kind of journey, as well as characters. You wouldn't be able to tell right off the bat who was going to be the hero, who was going to live, who was going to die, and what order were they gonna die in. Of course, this movie ends with two people of color, an African American man and a Latina woman as the survivors, alongside the traditional hero, white guy, who's basically sidelined for the vast majority of the movie due to a wasp sting. Jennifer Lopez had already starred in the action thriller money train in 1995 alongside Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson. But notably for Anaconda's release, her starring role in Selena was released in March 1997, a mere one month before Anaconda and Selena had been Lopez's breakout role with a Golden Globe nomination for Lopez the following year. While internationally Selena wasn't a big movie, it was huge in Latin American communities, especially in Texas, where Selena resided. It was itself released just two years after Selena Quintanilla was murdered by the president of her fan club. Whether Anaconda was riding on the success of Selena is debatable. But in 2021, Selena was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically or aesthetically significant. Anaconda has not yet, but let's give it time. Ice Cube notably hated snakes, but took the role of Danny Ricch and admitted on Twitter in 2022 that quote, when they asked me to do Anaconda, I said I'd only do it if my character lived and helped kill the snake before then. Most black people in these type of movies are dead within the first 15 minutes. Eric Stoltz, who joined the movie as anthropologist Stephen Cale, thought he harbored no fear of snakes until he met a real anaconda. While shooting in Brazil, a live 15 foot anaconda was captured off the deck of their hotel. It took four people to hold the snake down. He then acquired a small fear of snakes. And of course, shooting on location in Brazil allowed the cast and crew the opportunity and privilege to observe real anacondas on a regular basis over the five week shoot. And of course we have to talk about Jon Voight and that accent and whatever it is that he's doing. Look, he's channeling Tommy Wiseau before the room somehow. Nowadays, Voight is more well known for being an outspoken supporter of the Orange Wotsit In Chief. But back in 1997, he was smarmy Paraguayan, ex priest, now snake poacher Paul Serone. Voight was a two time Oscar nominee for 1969's Midnight Cowboy and 1985's Runaway Train and a one time winner for Coming Home in 1978. He had become a three time nominee for his role in 2001's Ali, but his character in Runaway Train became the partial inspiration for his interpretation of Paul Serone. The infamous wink wasn't scripted. Voight just snuck it into filming after having a conversation with his makeup artist and he was surprised it made it into the final cut. And of course, this was a wink after he was regurgitated by a huge anaconda. So let's talk about the star of this show and the incredible animatronics by Walt Conti and his team at Edge Innovations. Conti would of course go on to make the animatronic sharks for Deep Blue Sea. He also devised the dolphins in Flipper and the whales in Free Willy and Free Willy 2. And this snake would be a similar technical marvel or snakes, I should say, because there were two. Warrior, the green anaconda was 25ft and weighed 1500 pounds. Queen, the black and red final Boss Snake was 40ft and weighed over a ton. Now, clearly using real snakes for these characters was out of the question. Firstly, snakes of this size don't exist. And second, have you ever tried to direct a snake? They don't really respond to human commands. To design the animatronic anacondas, Conti studied the movements and expressions of real snakes and recreated them via hydraulics, electronics and computers. To replicate a real snake in the head, they mimic the motion of the eyes, the way the mouth opens, how the tongue works. They tried to give it as many joints as a real snake, at least 100 individual joints to give it enough degrees of movement to emulate the smooth undulating motion of a real snake. But they also had to be able to do some movements extremely fast. The final configuration included 60 dual axis hydraulically powered joints, for a total of 120 degrees of freedom. Fitting so many joints inside such a slender form factor meant using commercially available actuators and servo valves was not an option because of space constraints. Instead, the engineering team had to develop a highly integrated and custom design that combined structural and hydraulic functions. Each link served as a structural member as well as the body of two high performing servo valves. In addition, 20 different custom designed size cylinders and dozens of styles of hydraulic fittings were used. Each of the 60 links contained almost 200 custom mechanical parts. To coordinate the movement, they needed at least 10 puppeteers. A computer was programmed with all the intricate movements the script required. And the computer drove the snake with the puppeteers controlling intricate movement. The system consisted of 60 digital signal processor cards and seven Pentium processors. The DSP cards performed geometric transformations and closed the control loop for each link, while the Pentium processors coordinated the commands across all links. And all of this software was also built in house. It was proprietary. Although anacondas have round spherical pupils in real life, the snakes in the film were given slanted pupils to make them appear more dangerous. All of the snake's features, the eyes, the moving tongue, the lips, moved independently. Every detail was at the utmost importance. Dozens of eyeballs were painted and tested inside the snake's head. The snake itself was painted on the inside to better resemble the sheen and pattern of a live anaconda. Conti also devoted a great deal of time to designing the interior of the anaconda's mouth. For all intents and purposes, this was a real snake, both to Conti and his team and the cast. The main concern with Anaconda was that the fake snake had to be able to operate underwater, as there were several scenes of the animal swimming. This was a significant technical hurdle that required specialized waterproofing and engineering solutions, Drawing on Conti's expertise from his marine animal work. But as we all know, especially from Jaws, water and electronics don't often mix. And one day while filming, the snake malfunctioned and the puppeteers lost control, with the snake violently thrashing in the water with essentially 10 tons of torque convulsing all over the place. Some of the footage of this snake going haywire did actually end up in the movie but it was incredibly dangerous for both the actors and the crew to. But with it being incredibly dangerous, I guess it was just being a genuine anaconda, even though anaconda don't tend to eat humans. But I mentioned a bigger diva than JLo. The snake was the star of the show and God damn it, she would get her way. Damn catering. In this movie, there's hardly nothing to regurgitate. I'm not happy I'm going to have a full on diva meltdown in the water is probably what the snake was thinking. Now, obviously with a creation like the anacondas that were made for this movie, I always like to wonder, well, where are they now? And the 40 foot animatronic model for the queen anaconda seen in the movie would actually spend much of its life in San Francisco at the California Academy of Sciences inside the Amazon Rainforest Aquarium and snake Pit attraction. The model had the skin and tail removed, displaying the snake's endoskeleton and complex circuitry of the animatronic wiring. It was indeed the real snake used in the movie and not a replica. Now I can't seem to find if it's still on display at the California Academy of Sciences, so maybe anyone who's been recently can let me know. It was definitely there in 2011, possibly up to 2020. But I can't actually find any records of the snake still actually being there, so I'm guessing it's since been removed. But again, where is this snake now? Where is the warrior snake? I have no idea. We need to know where these incredible snakes live. Conti's animatronic snake was composited with computer graphic imaging from Sony Pictures Image work for effects and motion that could not be achieved practically on set. And this hybrid approach allowed the filmmakers to use practical effects for close up and detail shots while relying on CG for wide shots and more dynamic movements. But this was CG in its infancy and it was expensive. Reportedly, 1/2 of CG snake footage cost this movie $100,000. So it was used sparingly. And the animatronic was always favored if possible. And this is why this movie still looks so good today. The giant CG snake would become Sony Pictures Image Works. First fully CG animated character. And it was fully articulated, meaning it required complex rigging systems to control the serpentine movement realistically. The digital snake was primarily used for wide shots, complex swimming sequences underwater such as the Owen Wilson and the Tommy scene, fast moving attack sequences and scenes requiring the snake to perform physically impossible movements. For the animatronic. Otherwise, the reason this movie looks as good as it does is because the vast majority of the time, the snakes are real animatronics. The ugly truth is that 1997 CGI technology meant the digital snake was most convincing in darker scenes or when moving quickly, as the rendering technology wasn't sophisticated enough to hold up under close scrutiny in bright lighting. And this explains why the CG snake just stands out when it's used, and why the film relied heavily on animatronics and used the CG primarily for full body movements and action sequences. And honestly, this movie is all the better for using this CG snake sparingly, because I watched this movie on Amazon prime in HD and the animatronic snake still looks incredible. The CG snake not so much. As much as I love this movie, and I really do, the CG snake just does not look as good as the animatronic. And if you're not impressed by this movie enough yet. 200 crew members moved into the Amazon to film on location. Half of these crew members were American, the other half were Brazilian. And at the time, it was the largest group of American filmmakers to ever shoot in Brazil. Brazilian production manager Keiki Fiera and his American counterpart Jim Dyer organized their respective crews who worked side by side to accommodate the production. Much of the film was shot off the river city of Manaus. Llosa chose his locations based on their beauty and splendor, such as the Meeting of Waters where the Rio Negro and Solimoes rivers meet, but don't mix until many miles downstream when together they form the Amazon River. The film was originally scheduled to shoot eight months earlier than it did in the autumn of 1995. But that year the Amazon experienced a severe drought with water levels dropping at a depth of a three story building ships were grounded. Coincidentally, the same year, deforestation peaked in the region. I'm sure the two aren't linked. The production made the decision to postpone on location filming till April 1996, where the waters naturally rose from the winter rains. But when they returned, the opposite happened and the water continued to rise, going from a drought to almost a flood. Luckily, the majority of filming was on a barge, and this production relied heavily on ships and barges. Props would shuttle round on barges. The crew went to work every day on skiffs, traveled to lunch and back to the hotel at sunset via boat. At night, big buoys, Americans pronounced them boo-ees, but they're buoys were lit and placed along the river, illuminating the way cast, crew and equipment were boated back and forth. A yacht with a number of suites housed eight actors and director during the day in between scenes and also held the hair and makeup departments. An ex tourist sightseeing boat called Jumbo was refurbished and made as a warehouse for props, set dressing, camera, grip and electrical equipment. They also built a two man skiff, dubbing it the Panaconda to film shots from the snake's point of view. Filming in the spring, literally on the equator, meant that not only did they have to deal with rain in the unsurprisingly named rainforest, but also incredible heat, humidity and high sun. Even with the jungle canopy, the sun and heat was often excruciating with silk canopies being used for shade. After shooting in the Amazon, the crew moved back to the US to film at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, transforming it into a tropical rainforest that included a cascading waterfall. This was down to production designer Kurt Petrichelli and his team who built everything from the ground up, taking three and a half months to build the waterfall which was 45ft tall and had to be able to support the animatronic snake. They also had to replicate the floating trees of the Amazon, which ended up being trees mounted on platforms under the lake. Not long after production wrapped, the producers, Carol Little of the LA based fashion empire, her estranged husband Leonard Rabinowitz and his former girlfriend Verna Harrah split up. And by that I mean the production team split up, not romantically split up. This was very much a production born of love for the movies, but not for producers in the business. The production company, CL Cinema Line Films Corporation was set up with connections, independent cash and a love of alien and science fiction. Harrah bought out Little and Rabinowitz's stakes in CL Cinema Line Film Corporation after they favoured independent productions with maximum control and Hauer preferred studio deals. It was very much an art versus crowd pleasers, the very definition of irreconcilable differences in a production company. And that's basically why CL Cinema Line Films Corporation never made anything else. It certainly wasn't from the release and reaction to Anaconda. And this is the thing and the reason I love doing this podcast to most this is just a dumb snake movie. And yeah, I guess it is in many ways, but there is so much love and attention in this dumb snake movie. It may not have the greatest characters or script in the world, but it has Jon Voight doing whatever Jon Voight's doing and it has some incredible practical animatronics and beautiful sets. There is no easy way to segue into this, but it is time for the obligatory Keanu reference of this episode and if you don't know what that is, it's where I Troy in the movie that I'm featuring with Keanu Reeves for no reason other than he is the best of men. And let's be honest, if the team found Keanu Reeves in the Amazon instead of Paul Cerrone, the situation would have ended up a lot differently. I can guarantee that there would be no dead bodies in the Amazon. Anaconda came out the same year as the Devil's Advocate, and the Devil's Advocate would actually beat Anaconda to win the Best Horror film at the Sutton Awards in 1998. And obviously if you don't know the Devil's Advocate stars Keanu Reeves and it is actually a great movie. It is one of those that I would love to do on this podcast and I've actually been thinking of doing it for a long time. So let me know if you'd like an episode on the Devil's Advocate Anaconda was released on 11th April 1997 and immediately went to number one at the domestic box office, beating out Liar, Liar, the Saint and fellow new release Grosse Pointe Blank. It would stay at number one for two weeks and remain in the top 10 for seven weeks. On its $45 million budget, Anaconda grossed $65.9 million domestically and $70.9 million internationally, for a total worldwide gross of $136.8 million. Not bad for a cheesy little bee movie. Creature Feature this Anaconda had bite. Not so much with the critics though, because on Rotten Tomatoes it has a rating of 41%. With the consensus reading, Anaconda's pulpy pleasures are constricted by its own absurdity, but Creature Feature fans may enjoy its brazen silliness. Some critics did praise the film's effects, scenery and tongue in cheek humor, but many criticized the acting forgettable or cardboard characters, inaccuracies and boring start. Roger Ebert loved the movie though, and he gave it three and a half out of four stars. Anaconda was nominated for two Saturn Awards, including Best Actress for Jennifer Lopez. She lost to Jodie Foster for Contact and as I mentioned, Best Horror Film, which went to the Devil's Advocate. It was also nominated for six Razzie Awards in 1998, including worst picture, Worst Actor for Jon Voight, Worst Director, and Worst Screenplay, all of which it lost to Kevin Costner's the Postman. It was Also nominated for Worst New Star for the animatronic Anaconda, which is a travesty and is really harsh because the animatronic Anaconda is the highlight of this movie. And also Worst green couple for Jon Voight and the animatronic Anaconda, which they lost to Dennis Rodman and Dennis Rodman and Jean Claude Van Damme for Double Team. Anaconda spawned one theatrical sequel and three made for TV sequels. Anaconda's the Hunt for the Blood Orchid was released in cinemas in 2004. Three more direct to video movies followed Anaconda, Three Offspring in 2008 and Anaconda's Trail of Blood in 2009, which was shot back to back in Romania. The other movie I'm going to come to shortly, the original Anaconda has a large cult following and though it was critically reviled on its initial release, has become a cult classic and enough of a cult classic to talk about a remake. And in January 2020 news broke that a reboot of Anaconda was in the works at Sony's Columbia Pictures after a resurgence of animal centric horror films over the previous few years. Following the success of The Shallows in 2016, 47 metres down in 2017, the Meg in 2018, Rampage in 2018 and Crawl in 2019, which is excellent by the way. I'd highly Recommend Crawl in 2023. Tom Gormican was announced as a director and in 2024 the script was announced as being written by Gormican and Kevin Etten. It's scheduled to be released Christmas Day 2025. Starring Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Sultan Melo, Daniela Melchior, Thandiwe Newton and Steve Zahn. Before this could happen though, we got a Chinese produced remake of anaconda in 2024 simply called anaconda. But this reboot is also called Anaconda, so technically we have Anaconda 1997, loads of sequels, then Anaconda 2024 and then Anaconda 2025. The thing is, Anaconda is widely considered a so bad it's good movie, with many citing Jon Voight as delivering an iconic so bad it's good performance. It's received almost legendary status as a B movie that fully embraces its creature feature roots as well as delivering on the thrills and kills you'd expect that and Voight accent, permanent facial sneer. He's definitely memorable. And if you want a cult classic you need a memorable villain. It's not a bad movie, it's not a good movie. It's not a great movie, and I absolutely love it. And you know why? Because I just love a huge snake. And I love the practical snakes in this movie. They're genuinely the best part. The movie wouldn't work without them. They bring the real genuine fear of having a physical foe under the water. And I just think they're so brilliantly designed and executed. Now, of course, the documentary team should have probably scarpered as soon as snakes rained down on them from above, but nevertheless, some of them survived and presumably told the world. And then no one ventured into the realms of the anacondas ever again. Except in 2004 for the sequel, which I haven't seen and I have no intention of seeing, mostly because I know deep down it won't have these incredible animatronics in it. And for that reason, I'm out. There's a lot wrong with this movie that's not Jon Voight doing what he's doing. As much as I love snakes having a voice by Frank Welker, I am not a huge fan of snakes that can scream. The idea there are two snakes at all feels anticlimactic, despite the queen snake being awesome. And then at the end, you find out that Paul Sarone was right and this is where the tribe was. Don't make that guy right. Jesus. And just FYI, the Shirashama tribe that they're searching for doesn't exist in real life. But there's also so much right with this movie. And while the CG has aged poorly, it's used sparingly enough for you to appreciate the animatronics so much more. The cast here is great, many of whom would go on to have big careers. And Ice Cube, listening to his own music will never not tickle me. Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez have good chemistry together. And if any of you have listened to my episode on Hustlers, you'll know how much affection I have for JLo. The woman is a queen. It's a shame the script is so formulaic and weak, but we do get a little character development. And we also get an obligatory mummy reference in there. With the legendary Jonathan Hyde, Anaconda featured a diverse cast at a time when such representation was less common in major studio releases. Also, one thing I really love about this movie, I love a mouth view. You know, where you see the perspective of the creature from its side. Its mouth. They do it in JAWS 3D, they do it in the MEG2. They also do it in Little Shop of Horrors, and they do it here with Jon Voight going into the snake's mouth. And I absolutely love that shot, genuinely. It is one of my favorites. In 1975, Jaws gave us all a fear of what could be in the water at the beach. In 1997, Anaconda did the same. Except not many of us will holiday in the Amazon rainforest, but the technology to deliver a creature in the water has come on leaps and bounds in the 20 years between these two movies, and Anaconda still pays homage and respect to the mother of all creature features. Even the digital snake represented an important milestone in CGI development, contributing to Sony Image Works evolution into a major effects house, which of course then led to Spider Man a few years later. But surely the people in these movies know by now you don't go off for some fruity, sexy time in the jungle, no matter how horny the jungle makes you. Because let's be honest, anacondas are a real libido killer as well as, you know, just a general other stuff killer too. Thank you for listening. As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on Anaconda, and thank you for your continued support of this podcast. If you want to get involved and help this podcast grow and reach more people, you could leave a rating or review wherever you found this podcast you could find and follow me on social media. I'm @VerbalDiorama. You can find posts like posts, share posts, comment on posts. It all helps with visibility. Or you could simply tell your friends and family about this podcast or about this episode or how they can access this podcast and this episode. And if you like this episode on Anaconda, you might also like some previous creature feature movies that I have done episodes on episode 41, Tremors, which I remember watching vividly when I was a child, and it absolutely petrified me to the point where it gave me nightmares. But now as an adult, I absolutely love Tremors. I think it's a great movie, but yeah, not really suitable for kids. Episode 106 the OG Jaws it's one of those movies on this podcast that I worry that not a lot of people know that I've done an episode on Jaws because Obviously it's episode 106. It was a while ago, but it is one of my favorite episodes that I've done on this podcast. I've also done an episode on Deep Blue Sea, which is episode 146. It was a little bit different because I was kind of grieving at the time. I'd just lost my cat, Jess. I did the episode in honor of her and it was a very emotional episode. So it's not really the typical deep Blue sea episode that you might expect because there's a little bit of emotion in there as well. And episode 224, which was a triple episode on Jaws 2, Jaws 3D, and Jaws the Revenge. Each of those movies incredibly special and brilliant in their own right, and each of those movies has an incredible story behind them as well. As always, give me feedback. Let me know what you think of my recommendations. Now. I said I'd come back to one of the sequels of anaconda. In 2015, a crossover was released on the Sci Fi Channel and it was called Lake Placid versus Anaconda. Basically the two franchises coming together in 2015, Anaconda versus Saltwater Crocodile. It was the fifth installment in both of these franchises. Lake Placid is also about a real life monster under the water that has huge teeth. So I guess there's a theme to this month's Kaijun entries, but rather than walk a blindfolded cow to the water, let's instead do an episode on the history and legacy of Lake Placid. So please join me next episode for the final episode of Baby Kaiju, where we're going from a giant snake to a giant saltwater crocodile. Please join me next week for Lake Placid. 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Zenos, Sean, Rhino, Philip K, Adam, Elaine, Kyle, and Aaron. They are all wonderful people and I genuinely am hugely grateful for their support. If you want to get in touch with me, you can email hellos, feedback or suggestions@verbaldioramail.com or you can go to Verbaldiorama.com and you can fill out the little contact form. I always love to hear from people, especially people who listen to this podcast. I've had a couple of really lovely emails recently, so thank you so much if you have emailed me recently. I promise I will get back to you as soon as possible. But thank you so much for your lovely messages of support, especially for the 300th episode. And fear not, there is plenty more to come on Verbal Diorama. And finally, bye