Zoos in the Movies

There is a good and intelligent horror film from the 1980's called "Wolfen" which features the Central Park or Bronx zoo.

I can't say it is basically about werewolves as it doesn't really fit that genre though obviously it's very Wolfy / lupine and does feature attacks / blood / gore (including an attack on a character that was obviously modelled on Trump which is wonderful).

It stars Edward Olmos and Albert Finney who both give pretty solid performances but Olmos is the one who really steals the show.

Probably the most intriguing thing about it though is the way it has themes of both ecology and anthropology at the heart of the story without being too preachy.
 
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This has probably already been posted here, but when I was a kid I loved watching Zookeeper, I'm too bored to write my own synopsis so I copied the first summary I found "Kindhearted Griffin Keyes (Kevin James) is one of the best-loved caretakers at the Franklin Park Zoo, but since he is more comfortable with the animals than with females of his own species, his love life is lacking. When Griffin decides that the only way to get a girlfriend is to find a more-glamorous career, the animals panic. To keep him from leaving, they reveal their secret ability to talk and offer to teach him the rules of courtship, animal style." The film featured quite a few notable actors, but I haven't watched it since I was about five or six, so I don't know if I'd recommend it to anyone.
 
ChIkEn NuGrEt said:
This has probably already been posted here, but when I was a kid I loved watching Zookeeper, I'm too bored to write my own synopsis so I copied the first summary I found "Kindhearted Griffin Keyes (Kevin James) is one of the best-loved caretakers at the Franklin Park Zoo, but since he is more comfortable with the animals than with females of his own species, his love life is lacking. When Griffin decides that the only way to get a girlfriend is to find a more-glamorous career, the animals panic. To keep him from leaving, they reveal their secret ability to talk and offer to teach him the rules of courtship, animal style." The film featured quite a few notable actors, but I haven't watched it since I was about five or six, so I don't know if I'd recommend it to anyone.
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Typical B-tier Kevin James film. Weird that they filmed at Franklin Park Zoo but features grey wolves, brown bears, and an Asian elephant, which are not currently at the zoo nor were they at the time of filming
 
BBC series Prehistoric Park (2006) shows an unnamed reserve-like facility in South Africa, with tame African elephants and a pool with Nile crocodiles. Merged with CGI prehistoric animals.

ChIkEn NuGrEt said:
I'm unsure if you knew, but the scenes featuring the fictional "Cetacean Institute" were filmed at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
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Apparently the Monterey Bay Aquarium had a problem because many visitors wanted to see real whales there.
 
I've never watched it so I don't know how it fits into the plot, but the film The Black Panther, from 1977, contains a short clip of Dudley zoo.

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The zoo featured in Wolfen is the Central Park Zoo: Filming Locations for Wolfen (1981), in New York.

The zoo scenes in Eraser were set at the Central Park Zoo but they were actually shot in sets on a sound stage: Eraser (film) - Wikipedia

CPZ was also the zoo featured in Peter Jackson's King Kong: Peter Jackson’s King Kong Was A Beautiful, Messy Tragedy - Den of Geek

As mentioned above, CPZ was also the zoo featured in Miracle on 34th St., The Day After Tomorrow, Hitch, and Marathon Man.

There was a scene in Altered States that was supposed to be taking place at an unidentified Boston Zoo but was in fact filmed at the Bronx Zoo, in what is now the Ethiopian Highlands exhibit.

IMDB lists ten shows with Bronx Zoo settings: Filming Location Matching "Bronx Zoo, Bronx, New York City, New York, USA" (Sorted by Popularity Ascending) - IMDb

Here are a couple of lists of movies with Central Park Zoo settings:
Filming Location Matching "Central Park Zoo, Central Park, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA" (Sorted by Popularity Ascending) - IMDb
MovieMaps
 
There is a brief scene set in the Berlin Zoo, c. 1860 right at the end of the new series about whaling on the BBC, The North Water. Worth a look and the show is great generally too.
 
Has anyone else seen the 1933 "Murders in the Zoo"? It's a surprisingly violent movie for its era, leading to it being banned in some countries shortly after its release. Most notable is it's large wild cat fight scene at the end, featuring several species of big cat in a free-for-all.
 
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