How much do you love taxidermy? Not much, eh? Wait until I kind of change your mind.
I just watched ‘Dinner for Schmucks’, and I really enjoyed it. It’s really funny. But the thing I loved the most about it were the mouse dioramas. A-MAZ-ING! I never knew I wanted a dead mouse for Christmas until about 2 hours ago. Just wait until you see!
One of the main characters, Barry is a taxidermist and he creates little scenes with all the mice he ‘stuffs’. Is that a bad word in the world of taxidermy? I’ll bet there’s a more technical term they like to use. But we’ll go with ‘stuffs’ for now. Anyway, the film starts with lots of little mice being put into position in a massive diorama, and it turns out that all these little mice are playing out the role of Barry and his ex-wife, the red-haired Martha.
You can watch the opening title sequence here on ‘Art of the Title‘. - My favourite bit is when the fire extinguisher is positioned in Martha’s hands. But my absolute favourite thing in the whole film is the ‘Tower of Dreamers’. (I really hope this video embeds…fingers crossed)
Now the thing about the mice in the dioramas in ‘Dinner for Schmucks’ is that they aren’t actually ‘real’ mice. Real mice it seems don’t have long enough arms to enable them to do very much and it can be awfully difficult to get clothes on them, and well, dead mice just aren’t that cute supposedly. So all the mice were hand-made and most of the people who look at them think they are real. If however, you just can’t settle for anything less than authentic dead mouse, there are people out there who can provide.
Loved To Death should probably be your first stop.
'Bach's Parlour' from Loved To Death
If you want to find out a bit more about the making of the mouse dioramas in Dinner for Schmucks, check out the links below. I thought the Art of the Title article was particularly good.
Links:
Art of the Title interview with the mouse diorama makers
Mouseterclass in Storytelling from Bleedingcool.com
Variety article about Dinner for Schmucks
I LOVE THIS. I am going to watch all of it at 08:01 on Friday as a treat. I can’t wait. And I love taxidermy. I love that lady, what’s she called, Polly something…
*google*
Polly Morgan. Amazing.
I have since read that most people think this film is rubbish. I really liked it. It made me laugh and I have a very sophisticated sense of humour. See? (That was a subtle sophisticated joke right there). Though I think my journey into taxidermy is losing my FB fans…*swings forcibly back into the mainstream*
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It was the Vincent van Gogh diorama that got me. It’s a middling movie, but the dioramas were awe inspiring. Truly art…by the end of Barry’s little presentation, I was in tears. How glad I am that you, too, feel the same way about it! Thanks for this wonderfuil piece!
Thankyou. I would love to see them in real life. I recently went to visit Loxx Miniatur Welten in Berlin which is like a huge miniature Berlin. I couldn’t help but think how much more amazing it would be done in the style of the mouse dioramas!