Author: Jenny Marshall

  • The Little Mermaid. Dir. John Musker and Ron Clements. Buena Vista Pictures. 1989.

    Ariel, a headstrong 16-year-old mermaid, has dreams of living as a human on land, despite her father, King Triton’s, constant reprimands regarding her desire for human/animal (mermaid) interaction. With the help of her friends, Flounder (a loyal, although cowardly, tropical fish), Sebastian (a red Jamaican crab and servant of Triton), and Scuttle (a foolish seagull…

  • Ratatouille. Dir. Brad Bird. Buena Vista Pictures. 2007.

    In the Ratatouille scene where Remy and Emile enter an old woman’s house, questions of animal invasion into human spaces are raised. The woman’s reaction is to kill the trespassing rats; a reaction which, in reality, we would be unlikely to query.                                                             Fig. 1 As uncaged rats they represent pests, undesirable to find in one’s home. The…

  • The Little Mermaid. Dir. John Musker and Ron Clements. Buena Vista Pictures. 1989.

    Human ignorance towards carnivorous eating behaviours are challenged in the ‘Les Poissons’ scene of The Little Mermaid, where a flamboyant chef sings about cooking fish as he prepares them. One example is through the physical appearance of the fish. Unlike the individualised, colourful and characterised animals in the rest of the film, the fish to be…