The new Hobbit movie will premier in theaters soon. New Zealand served as location for the movie set and for the production including digital animation. The visual effects were produced by a New Zealand studio called, Weta Digital. The company is named for “New Zealand’s coolest little monster, a bizarre and prickly prehistoric cricket.” As noted in the previous post, a weta is an insect native to New Zealand. Like the visual effects company that evolved from technology developed elsewhere, the weta evolved from similar species present in other parts of the world.
WETA Digital Logo
Some weta grow to a large size and were a food for the Maori, the Polynesian people that first colonized New Zealand over 700 years ago. Perhaps the name was chosen in hopes the company would grow to a large size and help provide a living for the founders? The weta on the logo is certainly a more imposing and less anthropomophic figure than Disney’s
Jiminy Cricket.
About jjneal
Jonathan Neal is a retired Associate Professor of Entomology at Purdue University and author of the textbook, Living With Insects (2010).
This blog is a forum to communicate about the intersection of insects with people and policy. This is a personal blog.
The opinions and materials posted here are those of the author and are in no way connected with those of my employer.
Living With Insects Blog 
It is interesting to see a company that is so willing to integrate an insect into their logo. Most people would shy away from liking the company, just based on the negative stigma placed upon insects. However, I think it was very creative to embrace such an interesting piece of their country’s own history. Who knows, maybe they will become as large as the Weta they boast on their logo. Being a computer graphics student myself, and knowing how far creativity goes in this profession, I predict this company will make great strides as it presses on through the industry. Make way for the Weta!