Category: Year: 2012

The Hunger Games. Dir. by Gary Ross (Lionsgate Films, 2012)

The Hunger Games (2012), directed by Gary Ross, sets up the mockingjay as a unifying symbol of rebellion and resistance against the dystopian ruling of the Capitol. Ross uses this sequence to establish the mockingjay as a balancing force between interpersonal relations and political solidarity. The human-animal connection between the protagonist, Katniss, and the mockingjay…

15th January 2024
Big Miracle. Dir. Ken Kwapis. Universal Pictures. 2012.

”And we ache for them cause they are so much like us”. Rachel Kramer. The film Big Miracle is a drama directed by Ken Kwapis and distributed by Universal Pictures in 2012. It is based on the book Freeing the Whales written by Tom Rose in 1989, which narrates the 1988 Operation Breakthrough to rescue…

20th January 2023
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)…

20th January 2022
Ernest and Celestine. Dir. Benjamin Renner. StudioCanal. 2012

Ernest and Celestine[2] (2012) is a French animated film that presents the unorthodox relationship between a bear and a mouse. Introduced as a struggling musician, Ernest is starving and on the hunt for food; Celestine is on the hunt for teeth when they form an unlikely pairing to help one another. Due to societal constraints and animal…

2nd June 2020
Ernest and Celestine. Dir. Benjamin Renner. StudioCanal. 2012.

The animated film Ernest and Celestine[1] (2012) uses animals to offer a socio-political examination of French society. A predator-prey construct is conveyed through the division of social classes in the species contrast between a mouse- Celestine, and a bear- Ernest. By depicting stereotypes of animality and inverting the norms to show an unorthodox friendship, Renner exposes human class limitations.…

28th May 2020
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…

12th December 2018
Moonrise Kingdom. Dir. Wes Anderson. Focus Features. 2012.

Wes Anderson’s 2012 Moonrise Kingdom tells the tale of Suzy and Sam as they run away together. Our two young characters are pursued by Suzy’s family and Sam’s scout troop.

25th January 2016
Life Doesn’t Frighten Me. Dir. Stephen Dunn. LDFM Films. 2012.

Stephen Dunn’s 2012 Canadian short film, Life Doesn’t Frighten Me, presents viewers with a campy peek into the life of thirteen-year old Esther as she embarks upon her journey into womanhood. Taking place over the course of her thirteenth birthday, the film primarily revolves around Esther’s apprehensive feelings towards her imperfect appearance and her newly…

25th January 2016
The Grey. Dir. Joe Carnahan. Inferno. 2012.

‘You are going to die. That is what’s happening.’ After spending five monotonous weeks working as a hired wolf exterminator ‘doing some of that sniper shit’[i] at an oil refinery in Alaska, near suicidal John Ottoway (Liam Neeson) boards a plane bound for home, along with his fellow men ‘unfit for mankind.’[ii] When their flight clashes violently…

25th January 2016
Polar Bears: A Summer Odyssey. Dir. Adam Ravetch and Sarah Robertson. Universal Pictures. 2012.

18th December 2014