ZooScope

Category: Imaginary Animals: Yes

  • 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,…

  • Of Mice And Men. Dir. Gary Sinise. MGM. 1992.

    ‘Of Mice and Men’ (1992) is a film adaptation of the novel by John Steinbeck, which is set in 1930s America during the Great Depression. The film follows the lives of George and Lennie, two ranch workers who struggle to fulfil their ideal of the American dream, which is to acquire their own land.

  • Wolf Children. Dir. Mamoru Hosoda. Toho. 2012.

    Wolf Children describes the maturation of two werewolf children, Yuki and Ame, and their human-being mother, Hana, with great sensitivity. The werewolf children struggle between their two identities – human and wolf. They can turn into either of them whenever they want which implies that it is their responsibility to choose which identity they will…

  • Mulan. Dir. Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook. Buena Vista Pictures. 1998.

    Disney’s Mulan (1998) takes on a Chinese folktale of a woman who takes the place of her father in the fight against the Huns who have recently invaded China. The film follows the adventures and troubles of Mulan, a young woman who breaks the stereotypes of Disney’s classic princess, as well as the expectations which…

  • Shrek 2. Dir. Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, and Conrad Vernon. DreamWorks. 2004.

    The second film in the Shrek franchise, Shrek 2 focuses on a pair of ogres, Shrek and Fiona, and their life as newlyweds: it’s time to meet the in-laws. Fiona’s human parents, King Harold and Queen Lilian, are unpleasantly surprised by the fact their daughter and her husband are ogres, and their marriage has a few magical…

  • Monsters, Inc. Dir. Pete Docter, David Silverman, Lee Unkrich. Buena Vista Pictures. 2001.

    Lovable monsters like Sully and Mike of Pixar’s Monsters, Inc (Docter, Silverman and Unkrich, 2001) manage to make the monster world not so scary. Despite their initial employment as professional children ‘scarers’ for the Monsters Inc. corporation that uses scream- energy to power Monstropolis (the film’s monster-inhabited society), the pair prove themselves to be more…

  • Treasure Planet. Dir. Ron Clements. Disney. 2002.

    In the animated film Treasure Planet anthropomorphism is used as a narrative tool within a wider concept of Hyperrealism which is ‘Disney Studio’s application of realist conventions of narrative, logical causality and character motivations – breaking with the largely non-realist and anarchic dynamics of the cartoon form.’ Anthropomorphism is used throughout this film as many of the…