How can I convince my bosses that we need this for the office? (We work from home, so the office is my living room).
I grew up in the ’90s, so of course I spent a lot of time watching Jim Carrey in his Ace Ventura movies.
The first in the series, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, was released in 1994 and features the comedy legend in the title role, a private detective seeking to track down a dolphin that was stolen from the Miami Dolphins.
If you haven’t seen it by now…well, you’re missing out. It’s as ridiculous as you would expect, but ended up launching Carrey’s career and started a bidding war for his services. Critics hated it, but the success of the movie led to Carrey landing a massive deal to star in Dumb & Dumber and even led to an Ace Ventura sequel the following year.
Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls finds the pet detective being sent to Africa to track down a missing sacred bat, where he finds himself in the middle of a war between two native tribes.
I won’t even try to describe the entire plot (which is equally as ridiculous as the first movie), but even if you haven’t seen the movie there’s one scene that you’re probably familiar with.
In the famous scene, Carrey uses a robotic rhino to try to spy on two villians in the wild. But in the process, he realizes how hot it gets inside a mechanical rhino on the African plains, and when he gets trapped inside he has to find another way to escape – poking a hole in the back of rhino and climbing out of its butt in front of a horrified family on a safari tour.
It’s a classic scene that everybody knows by now. And now, fans of the movie have the chance to own a piece of cinematic history.
The mechanical rhino is going up for auction through PropStore Auction later this month, and the starting bid is surprisingly cheap: Only $2,000, with an estimated final price of between $4,000 and $8,000.
According to the listing, the scenes from inside the rhino were shot on a soundstage, but the prop is the one used in the film for exterior shots. It measures more than 10 feet long and was built from fiberglass with hard-coated styrofoam legs.
The rhino, which had previously been on display at Planet Hollywood, features a removable latex sheet backside, a foam latex tail, a door hatch with hydraulic hinges on one side, a padded chair, a control dashboard, and a fan on the inside. The listing says that the latex sheet covering the rear end was thought to have been replaced between takes of the famous “butt birth” scene.
The listing says that the rhino has undergone minor restoration since the movie:
“Following production, the hard-coated legs underwent sympathetic restoration and minor paint blending to correct damage and paint loss from production use and age. The rhino exhibits chipped paint and a buildup of grime throughout, as well as stiffening to the foam latex in the tail.”
I mean, just look at this thing:
The auction will be held on March 25 at 12:30 pm eastern, so if you’re interested here’s your chance to own a piece of Hollywood history.
That is if you can outbid me on it…
