I took my younger brother and sister to see Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian this weekend.
As a lover of the Museum of Natural History, I laughed along with the first movie, Night at the Museum, enough to be able to ignore its cheesier moments. Also a lover of the Smithsonian Museums, I was confident this would be true for the second as well – and it was, except for one glaring flaw.
As I was notified by my Google News Alerts, many reviews of Night at the Museum 2 promised a specimen of a giant squid come to life. This, of course, was a big draw for me – the only thing I enjoy more than giant squid specimens are, in fact, live giant squid (well, I think – I’ve never met one in person).Â
Yeah, well, that’s a great thought and all, but whoever did the animation for this movie royally f’ed up: their so called “giant squid” was actually a giant-squid-colored extra-large octopus!
Interestingly enough, while looking for pictures of the offending cephalopod (I couldn’t find any, unfortunately – but see the hint of octopus-ness in the movie poster above) I found that the Smithsonian’s own website notes the error themselves while showing one of the giant squid exhibits that inspired the movie:
“The so-called ‘squid’ in the movie bears little resemblance to this streamlined creature, one of two giant squid specimens in the museum.”