Live Like Animals

Quick: Name an epic theme song from a famous 90s movie.
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Most likely, you've thought of one of the following songs:

"My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion from Titanic
"I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston from The Bodyguard
"Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio from Dangerous Minds
"Everything I Do (I Do It for You)" by Bryan Adams from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
"I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" by Aerosmith from Armageddon

One song that I'd wager that you didn't think to name is "The Animal Song" by Savage Garden from The Other Sister. You should have thought of it, however, because it's hilarious and inappropriate. Hilariously inappropriate even.



In case you're not familiar, The Other Sister is a 1999 film about a pair of mentally challenged young adults who fall in love. I've never seen the film, so I can't comment on whether it is meaningful or exploitive, but I worry it is the latter given its choice of theme song.

Maybe I'm being overly sensitive, but I feel that people making a movie about individuals with mental disabilities should especially consider the messages their film is sending, including those that are underlying. In "The Animal Song," the chorus repeats the line, "I want to live like animals," a notion that undermines the film's theme of showing the capabilities and humanity of people with mental disabilities. Sadly, there are people who already think of mentally challenged individuals as animals; having a supposedly progressive film (perhaps inadvertently, but how could that be?) draw the comparison doesn't really aid in enhancing societal understanding. At first I believed that the music director made a poor choice for a theme song, but then I researched the matter and discovered that Savage Garden wrote the song specifically for the film, making it a big mistake by everyone involved.

To make matters worse, the song is just inane. It's catchy, sure, but the lyrics, which I suspect attempt to be poignant, are just ridiculous. I'm confounded by one line in particular:

"Animals and children tell the truth, they never lie. Which one is more human? There's a thought, now you decide."

Thanks for giving me some food for thought, Savage Garden. I'll be pondering this question for ages. There seems to be an obvious answer, but maybe it's a trick question. Besides, I definitely know children who lie. Maybe that makes them less human than animals. I sure feel as though I've been challenged mentally anyway.