ZooScope

Category: Imaginary Animals: No

  • Oldboy. Dir. Park Chan-wook. Show East & Tartan Films. 2003.

    Park Chan-wook’s 2003 film Oldboy is at its core a thriller, a revenge story of Oh Dae-su (played by Choi Min-sik) imprisoned in a room for 15 years without any knowledge of the reasons why, and who is then suddenly released back into the world and told by his captor to try to work out…

  • Carnage. Dir. Simon Amstell. BBC. 2017.

    What would the world be like if everybody was vegan? According to Simon Amstell’s vision of the future in Carnage, it’s a peaceful utopia in which the young vegans of tomorrow frolic in fields and enjoy food much more, knowing that nothing was taken from an animal, albeit one in which the older generations of ex-meat-eaters…

  • Of Horses and Men (Hross í oss). Dir. Benedikt Erlingsson. Film Europe. 2013.

    Benedikt Erlingsson’s directorial debut Of Horses and Men (2013) is best described as a series of interlocking fables, focusing on six sets of neighbours living in an isolated Icelandic valley. Linked by their passion for horsemanship, the vignettes introduce us to: a courting couple with equally frisky horses; an alcoholic whose penchant for hard liquor…

  • Mary and the Witch’s Flower. Dir. Hiromasa Yonebayashi. Toho. 2017.

    Mary and the Witch’s Flower is a 2017 animated film, directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi and produced by Studio Ponoc (founded by the former lead film producer at Studio Ghibli). The film tells the story of Mary, a little girl, who moves in with her Great Aunt Charlotte whilst her parents are abroad. When Mary is…

  • D-War : Dragon Wars. Dir. Hyung-rae Shim. Freestyle Releasing, Showbox. 2007.

    The movie, D-War : Dragon Wars, begins with introducing the Korean legend of the ascension of Imoogi, a gigantic pre-dragon stage serpent. Every 500 years, one good Imoogi was rewarded with a chance to become a dragon, and it had to receive the gift of the Yuh-yi-joo, a magical pearl from heaven, to become a dragon.…

  • King Kong. Dir. Peter Jackson. Universal Pictures. 2005.

    King Kong is the modern remake of the 1933 classic, which follows Carl Denham (Jack Black) in his attempts to film a movie by coercing his cast and crew into following him on his voyage. His voyage is an attempt to find the mysterious Skull Island where he hopes to film the ‘last blank space on…

  • Coco. Dir. Lee Unkrich. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. 2017.

    Lee Unkrich’s Coco (2017) is built on similar foundations of recent Disney/Pixar releases alike Moana(2016) and The Good Dinosaur(2015); twelve year old Miguel’s (Anthony Gonzalez) dream of becoming a musician compromises his family’s ban on music and their hope for Miguel to continue the family business.[i]Yet what may feel like recognisable narrative territory, the enriched setting of traditional Mexico…

  • Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Dir. Matt Reeves. 20th Century Fox. 2014.

    Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Dir. Matt Reeves. 20thCentury Fox. 2014 ‘Now, they may have got their hands on some of our guns. But that does not make them men. They are animals!’ – Dreyfus Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) is the second film in the 20thCentury Fox reboot of…

  • Twelve Monkeys. Dir. Terry Gilliam. Universal Pictures . 1996.

    Twelve Monkeys begins: human beings whoop and rattle in cages, buried deep underground. Wild animals roam free in the streets; in the churches, on top of this underground prison. But who dug the hole? The animals or the human… …beings? The deadly virus which forced the survivors to flee underground came from the animals. But the…

  • The Cat Returns. Dir. Hiroyuki Morita. Toho. 2002.

    The Cat Returns (2002) is a Japanese fantasy film animated by Studio Ghibli, which follows dissatisfied schoolgirl Haru Yoshioka, who after saving a cat from a road collision, discovers she has the ability to talk to cats. Upon saving the feline it is revealed that this individual is none other than Prince Lune, Heir to the…