Trivia / Night at the Museum

• Acting for Two:
  • In the sequel, Robin Williams returns to his role as Teddy Roosevelt. He also plays a Teddy Roosevelt statue and Teddy Roosevelt hologram.
  • Hank Azaria plays the Big Bad (Kahmunrah), the Thinker, and Abraham Lincoln.
  • Amy Adams plays Amelia Earhart and a museum visitor who bears a suspicious resemblance to the late pilot.
  • The same monkey (a female named Crystal) plays both Dexter and Able.
  • In the third movie, Ben Stiller adds a second character in Laa, the caveman designed to look like Larry.
• Actor Allusion:
  • At one point in Battle of the Smithsonian, the three cherubs voiced by The Jonas Brothers sing their own song, "Love Bug".
  • Clint Howard plays a Mission Control officer at that National Air and Space Museum, just like he played EECOM Sy Liebergot in Apollo 13.
• Actor-Shared Background:
  • Much like his character Ahkmenrah, Rami Malek is Egyptian.
  • In the third film Larry mentions he is half-Jewish and half-Irish, just like his actor Ben Stiller.
• All-Star Cast: Much like National Treasure, it's quite surprising to see so many big name stars in this film, including Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Amy Adams, Bill Cobbs, Paul Rudd, Ricky Gervais, Carla Gugino, Steve Coogan, Hank Azaria, Owen Wilson, Christopher Guest, Bill Hader, Jonah Hill, Dan Stevens, Hugh Jackman, and Alice Eve. There's also Rami Malek and Jon Bernthal, who would gain greater recognition from the public for their roles in hit TV shows. And for Francophones, Alain Chabat, a renowned French comedian of the 1980s.
• Billing Displacement: Craig Robinson is listed as one of the major actors in the credits, even though he only appeared for approx. 5 minutes.
• The Cast Showoff: Dick Van Dyke gets to bust a few dance moves at the start of his cameo in the third film.
• Colbert Bump: The first film's popularity helped increase the number of visitors visiting the American Museum of Natural History by almost 20% during the 2006 holiday season, with 50,000 more people visiting the museum between December 22, 2006 and January 2, 2007 than during the same period the year before.
• Corpsing: According to Shawn Levy, the scene in the second film where Larry and Amelia talk to the metal bust head of Theodore Roosevelt took almost forty takes because Amy Adams and Ben Stiller couldn’t stop laughing at Robin Williams' delivery.
• Dawson Casting: Rami Malek was around 24 years old when he starred in the first movie, playing Pharaoh Ahkmenrah, who the novelisations of the first and third movies reveal was around seventeen years old when he died.
• Died During Production: Mickey Rooney, who played Gus in the film series, died on April 6, 2014 at the age of 94, before principal photography wrapped up on Secret of the Tomb (in which his character makes a brief appearance) in May 2014.
• Fake Nationality: Since the movie concerns historical figures, things can get a bit awkward with the casting choices.
  • Sacagawea is portrayed by the half white, half Japanese Mizuo Peck. She has mentioned that she may have some Cherokee ancestry through her white father but like many other white Americans who claim Native American heritage, it is unverifiable and indigenous tribes do not view them as valid members of their ethnicity. A recognized sociological phenomenon among white Americans is to appropriate indigenous culture and forge an indigenous ancestry to "feel more American" and absolve themselves of white guilt. Besides that, Sacagawea was a Lemhi Shoshone and not Cherokee, and there are very few Lemhi Shoshone alive today (fewer than 5,300).
  • Hank Azaria is a Sephardic Jew who plays the Egyptian Kahmunrah. The Jewish people have a complicated history with Egypt. According to Exodus, the Jewish people were kept enslaved in Egypt and were instructed to never settle in Egypt again. Though the Exodus story is not historically credible. In the 1950s, as a backlash against Israel, Egypt began a mass expulsion of its Jewish population and there are now fewer than 10 Jewish people left in Egypt today.
  • Half Irish American and half Chinese actor Patrick Gallagher portrays Attila the Hun. The Huns are an extinct ethnic group so it would be impossible for a him to be portrayed by an actor today who fits his ethnic description. Nobody knows for sure what Attila the Hun even looked like, though it is likely he had a typical East Asian appearance. It is speculated that the Huns originated as the Xiongnu, a (probably) Yeniseian-speaking ethnic group from Siberia who were the sworn enemies of the Han Chinese. The Xiongnu's crushing defeat at the hands of the Chinese pushed them westwards. It is hypothesized that these Xiongnu then absorbed many other ethnic groups as they swept across Central Asia and became the group identified by Europeans as the "Huns". Since Gallagher is half Chinese, this may be quite amusing to the history buff.
• In Memoriam: The franchise's third installment Secret of the Tomb was dedicated to the memory of Mickey Rooney, who died before principal photography was finished, and to Robin Williams, who died four months before the film's release.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Nick was played by Jake Cherry in the first two films, but then by Skylar Gisondo (who looks nothing like Cherry) in the third. It seems the movie is attempting a timeshifted actor, but both actors are the same age.
  • Also, in the Battle of the Smithsonian video game, all of the characters except for Larry are recast such as the Easter Island Head going from Brad Garrett to Jim Cummings. In particular, Hank Azaria's roles were split amongst three voice actors: Kahmunrah is voiced by Marc Graue, the Thinker is Ted Biaselli and Abraham Lincoln is Cummings. Molly Hagan also filled in for Amy Adams in the game.
• Playing Against Type:
  • First of all. Dick Van Dyke is one of the Big Bads in the first movie, the same principle applies for Mickey Rooney.
  • Ben Stiller's playing the main role in a series of children's films.
  • Ricky Gervais very much goes against his famous role in The Office (UK) (where he played a goof of a boss) as the no-nonsense museum manager.
• Role Reprise:
  • In addition to Ben Stiller playing Larry in all three of the movies, he also reprised his role in the tie-in game for Battle of the Smithsonian.
  • Caroll Spinney reprises his role as Oscar the Grouch for a cameo in Battle of the Smithsonian.
• Sequel Gap: Secret of the Tomb came out 5½ years after Battle of the Smithsonian.
• Uncredited Role: Owen Wilson is uncredited in the first film, despite Jedediah being as big a role as Octavius.
• What Could Have Been: An early draft of Battle of the Smithsonian had Ahkmenrah traveling to the Smithsonian with the others instead of being Demoted to Extra.

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