Category: Imaginary Animals: Yes

  • E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Universal Pictures. 1982

    Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), despite its tearful conclusion in which 10-year-old Elliott is parted from his extra-terrestrial friend aptly named ‘E.T.’, is revered for its thematic sentimentality (popularised by its iconic John Williams score) and stood him in contrast to his contemporary auteurs such as Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, who adopted…

  • Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!. Dir. By. Peter Lord. Columbia Pictures. 2012.

    Aardman never shy away from the ludicrous. So when a crew of incompetent pirates endeavour for protagonist The Pirate Captain to win the Pirate of the Year Award by relying on the commercial value of his prized dodo companion Polly (who should have been extinct for 150 years and is believed to be a parrot)…

  • Okja. Dir. Bong Joon-ho. Netflix. 2017

    Okja. Dir. Bong Joon-ho. Netflix. 2017

    There are two kinds of pigs that make an appearance in Okja; genetically modified super-pigs and greedy, corporate capitalist pigs. The slaughterhouse scene forces the viewer to dispel any false idealism surrounding the reality of the meat industry, an explicit criticism of how human exceptionalist thinking blended with modern ‘capitalist delirium’ [1] has ruined the…

  • Wolfwalkers. Dir Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart. Apple TV+. 2020.

    Wolfwalkers. Dir Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart. Apple TV+. 2020.

    The woods are getting smaller every day. At the core of 2020’s Wolfwalkers is a fable about environmental degradation:  the mounting destruction of the natural world, and the subjugation of those who live in tune with it. From its very beginning, the film seeks to examine and even disrupt the human/animal boundary in a unique…

  • Nanny McPhee and The Big Bang. Dir. Susanna White. Universal Pictures. 2010.

    Susanna White’s Nanny McPhee And The Big Bang (2010) introduces Mr Edelweiss as Nanny McPhee’s mischievous sidekick. Mr Edelweiss is a Jackdaw crow, a member of the Corvid species, who are known for their thieving habits. This scene is particularly interesting as the human-animal relationship portrayed causes a shift in the predicted stock characters of…

  • Ted 2. Dir Seth MacFarlane. Universal Pictures. 2015.

    Ted 2 is the second instalment of the Ted series in which John (Mark Wahlberg), as a child wishes for his teddy bear, Ted (Seth MacFarlane), to come to life. What follows is thirty-something years of memories, shenanigans and improper behaviour. The first film follows the pair as John finally learns to ‘grow up’. We find…

  • It: Chapter Two. Dir. Andy Muschietti. Warner Brothers. 2019

    Following this scene, we see the characters of Richie (Bill Hader) and Eddie (James Ransone) petrified by Pennywise, a shape-shifting creature known as a Glamour, following them; they open a door and are greeted by a cute Pomeranian dog, creating an air of bathos. Here, we have a conflict of genres as the primary classification…

  • Babar, King of the Elephants. Dir. Raymond Jafelice, Alliance Communications. 1999.

    Babar: King of the Elephants (1999) is an animated film adaptation of Jean de Brunhoff’s popular children’s books. Written and directed by Raymond Jafelice the story tells the tale of Babar who witnesses his mother killed by poachers. Babar manages to escape and leaves the jungle (an unnamed fictitious South African jungle) , visits the…

  • Okja. Dir. Bong Joon-ho. Netflix. 2017.

    Okja[1] is a South-Korean/American film about a girl called Mija and her best friend, a ‘super pig’ called Okja. When Okja gets taken by the company who made her, the Mirando corporation, Mija leaves her idyllic mountain-top home and goes on a dark adventure, determined to find Okja and bring her back home. At the…

  • Sorry to Bother You. Dir. Boots Riley. Annapurna Pictures. 2018.

    Boots Riley’s debut feature has been praised for its portrayal of the callous nature of capitalism in modern America. The overarching message throughout is that the efficiency of the labourer is paramount to economic success and is valued more than human life, with this ideology being brought to life with the Equisapians, a half-human/half-horse hybrid,…