The Island of Doctor Moreau

The Island of Doctor Moreau is a 1896 science fiction novel written by H. G. Wells, addressing ideas of society and community, human nature and identity, playing God and Darwinism. The mythic figure of the chimera, a human/animal hybrid, is brought into the scientific age.

The novel

When the novel was written in the late 19th century, Britain's scientific community was engulfed by debates on animal vivisection. Interest groups were even formed to tackle the issue: the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection was formed two years after the publication of the novel.

The novel is presented as a discovered manuscript, introduced by the narrator's nephew; it then 'transcribes' the tale.

Adaptations

The novel has been made into a movie on three occasions:

• Island of Lost Souls (1933 film) with Charles Laughton and Bela Lugosi.
• The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977 film) with Burt Lancaster and Michael York.
  • This was turned into a novel by Joseph Silva and published by Ace.
• The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996 film) with Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer

References in other works

The Island of Doctor Moreau is a popular story that has influenced many works, mainly about mad scientists creating chimeras. The following are some of the works which are closely related to Moreau and his story:

Novels, comics, and printed works

• Adolfo Bioy Casares 's novel The Invention of Morel, the account of a fugitive who lands on a desert island where an unscrupulous scientist has conducted his work.
• The novel Dr. Franklin's Island by Ann Halam.
• Dr. Moreau is featured in Alan Moore's comic book series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II. In the comic book, Moreau's first name is given as Alphonse. He has created many characters from classic fiction, including Rupert Bear, Toad of Toad Hall and Peter Rabbit. He references Gustave Moreau as his nephew. Edward Prendrick also makes an appearance as an insane outsider who is permanently monitored by Moreau creations. The virus which destroyed the Martians in The War of the Worlds was also one of Moreau's creations (though this was covered up by the British government at the time).
• The High Evolutionary, a Marvel comic villain, is distinctly similar to Dr. Moreau. He has the power to evolve living beings, and use it to evolve animals into humanoid bestial species called the New Men.
• JLA: The Island of Dr. Moreau was an Elseworlds comic produced in 2002 by DC Comics portraying the Justice League as various human/animal hybrids.

Films, TV, and screen-based works

• The Twilight People (1973), a similar film, with Pam Grier in the role of the panther woman.
• Island of Mutations (1979) starring Barbara Bach featured a scientist who transforms the native inhabitants of a remote island into amphibious deep-sea diving creatures.
• In the British comedy series The Mighty Boosh, evil zookeeper Bembridge creates human/animal hybrid mutants.
• In The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror XIII", one of three featured short stories is titled The Island of Dr. Hibbert. Here, the transformation process has been reversed; Dr Hibbert does not attempt to transform animals into humans, but rather, humans into animals.
• In the Sliders episode "This Slide of Paradise" (1997), the main characters visit a compound where Dr. Vargas (played by Michael York) engages in Dr. Moreau-style experiments producing animal/human chimeras. York himself starred in the 1977 movie version of the novel.
• The Japanese animated movie Blue Submarine No. 6 featured a Dr. Zorndyke who created hybrids on an isolated island and, when discovered and condemned by mankind, killed billions of people by flooding most of the world's food-producing lowlands. His creations, mainly sea-hybrids, treated him as a father and waged constant war against the surviving humans.
• An Episode of Batman: The Animated Series entitled "Tyger, Tyger" (1992) is loosely based on the events of the novel where Doctor Emile Dorian experiments with cat DNA which leads to the creation of Tygrus and the splicing of Selina Kyle.
• Dr. Mephisto parodies Moreau as a genetic engineer in South Park. He lives in a mansion on a hill and is ever-accompanied by the small rat-human from the 1999 movie.
• An episode of the Looney Tunes

Computer games

• The Dungeons & Dragons game setting Ravenloft includes Frantisek Markov, the darklord of Markovia, who is responsible for the creation of creatures called Broken Ones and has the ability to shape-shift into any form of animal but must maintain his human head and is cursed in that he can never again have a humanoid body.
• The role-playing game d20 Modern has rules for a race of animal-men called Moreau, which come in several forms including feline, dolphin, and bear moreau.
• In the video game Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, the villain Dr. M is based on Doctor Moreau, and even shares the affinity for splicing animals.
• In the computer game Impossible Creatures, Dr. Eric Chanikov, in a secluded island, invents the Sigma Technology, which allows two animals to be fused into a new creation.
• The Game Vivisector by ActionFourms is based off of The Island of Doctor Moreau.

Music

• The electronic group Infected Mushroom refers to Dr. Moreau in one of their songs, "Over Mode".
• The book inspired the name of hiphop group House of Pain. Several songs and certain versions of their debut album contain words from the book.
• The band Oingo Boingo's song "No Spill Blood" on their album Good for Your Soul is based on the book and the 1933 movie. It makes reference to Moreau's "House of Pain" and the punishments for breaking Moreau's laws.
• The Devo song Jocko Homo takes its line "Are we not men?" indirectly from the book through the 1933 movie, and before that from Shylock's soliloquy in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.
• Rodan, a rapper from the New York based hip hop group Monsta Island Czars, refers to himself as Dr. Moreau sometimes and references Dr. Moreau in his songs or verses.
• The Italian neoclassical band Ataraxia featured a song on their album Arcana Eco entitled "The Island of Doctor Moreau.

Other

• The Moreau series by S. Andrew Swann deals with human/animal hybrids named "moreaus".
• In Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, there is a character named Doctor Moro, whose name, character, and appearance are based on Dr. Moreau.
• The Art of H. G. Wells, by Ricardo Garijo, is a 2006 trading card adaptation of three stories by Wells, the second of which is The Island of Dr Moreau.[1].

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

The Island of Dr. Moreau

• The Island of Doctor Moreau, available at Project Gutenberg.
• Text of the novel

• A draft of the 1996 films screenplay, dated April 26th, 1994
• The Island of Lost Souls (1933) at the Internet Movie Database
• The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977) at the Internet Movie Database
• The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) at the Internet Movie Database
• Jurassic Park: Horizontal Evolution by Harrison Mujica-Jenkins at latephilosophers.com
• Jörg, Daniele (2003). "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly—Dr. Moreau Goes to Hollywood". Public Understanding of Science 12 (3): 297-305.  Compares the three adaptations of the novel, focuses on the scientists and the science in the film, considering the year of the production and what was known about genes and cells at the time.

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fr:L'Île du docteur Moreau it:L'isola del dottor Moreau he:האי של ד"ר מורו nl:Het eiland van dokter Moreau pl:Wyspa doktora Moreau (powieść) pt:The Island of Dr. Moreau ru:Остров доктора Моро (фильм, 1977) tr:Dr. Moreau'nun Adası (kitap)