If you lived here you would be home by now.

Animal companions.

I see a lot of movie posters, and I’ve noticed an increasingly large number of the ones that show cast ensembles also show animals that act as important plot points. For instance, in How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, Simon Pegg (as Toby Young) pretends to bring Babe the Sheeppig to a party. Hence, the pig is important enough to be in the poster.

I haven’t seen the movie, and got to chapter two in the book before realising the table was wobbly, but there’s also a dog there. The very same dog also seems to appear in the new film based on Noel Coward’s play, Easy Virtue:

I don’t know whether this dog got on the plane to New York to England, and somehow got zapped by the security scanner and travelled back in time to 1930. It’s the only explanation.

Anyway, I digress. These film-poster animals got me looking around the internet to see if any really great movies of the past twenty-five years employed the same tactics in their marketing — putting important animals into the posters. Do you know, I found quite a few. Here are five examples.

Click for (slightly) bigger on each of these.

1. City of God

Cidade de Deus’ opening sequence involves avian gang violence. Lord only knows why the hen was cut out of this poster.

2. Alien

This terrifying poster was banned immediately on publication and everything in the world was cancelled. Of course, in the 21st century age of the lolcat, we can look back with amusement on OH MY GOD ITS EYES

3. Brokeback Mountain

The tale of when these two sheepherders found troubled love was initially told from the sheep’s perspective, but narrative structure tends to break down if all you ever do is eat grass and run away.

4. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Shadowfax, the star horse in Peter Jackson’s epic third episode of LOTR, had a 25-minute epic galloping sequence to the theme tune to Black Beauty. His part was later cut back after he refused to stop nibbling on the letters in the film title.

5. Apocalypse Now

Finally, the puppy is part an extremely important moment in this movie: it’s a key element of Willard’s descent into his own heart of darkness. In this never-before seen poster, it finally gets the elevation it deserves.

Maybe you could suggest some more.

Credit needs to go here for the source images and here, here and here for some of the animals.