ZooScope

  • The Deer Hunter. Dir. Michael Cimino. EMI. 1978.

    Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter explores the impact of the Vietnam War on Americans, depicting protagonist Michael’s transformation from notoriously adept hunter and Russian-roulette crazed killer to sparing a deer’s life, delicately challenging the culturally normalised human-animal hierarchy. Specifically through mirroring shots of when he is moments away from firing at the deer, one prior…

  • Pocahontas. Dir. Eric Goldberg and Mike Gabriel. The Walt Disney Company. 1995.

    In Pocahontas, the animosity between Meeko, the Native American raccoon and Percy, the English pug is a microcosm of the conflict between the Native and English humans. The animals are comic foils, providing family-friendly slapstick relief from human violence. However, the inclusion of animals adds meaning beyond just comedic value. The animals and humans both…

  • Snatch. Dir. Guy Ritchie. Columbia Pictures. 2000.

    – “Okay, I reckon the hare gets fucked” – “What? Proper fucked?” In Guy Ritchie’s comedic crime thriller Snatch, he uses this hare coursing scene to draw parallels between the animality of the dogs and the gangsters, whilst also simultaneously using the mise-en-scene to create a contrast between the agility of animals alongside the clumsiness…

  • Paulie. Dir. John Roberts. Dreamworks Pictures. 1998

    Paulie. Dir. John Roberts. Dreamworks Pictures. 1998

    Paulie is a  blue crowned conure, trapped in a small cage within a Research Institute. When he befriends Misha the janitor, Misha realises that Paulie can do more than talk- Paulie understands! Paulie is a family film that uses comedy and lighthearted fun to discuss the issues it presents. Paulie’s ideal life is to return…

  • Jojo Rabbit. Dir. Taika Waititi. Fox Searchlight Pictures. 2019.

    Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit embodies the toxicity of hegemonic masculinity in Nazi Germany, utilising the rabbit ‘as a material and symbolic resource.’[1]. Waititi’s decision to navigate the film through the eyes of ten-year-old Jojo is significant, as Jojo’s own conflicted sense of masculinity is underscored through the rabbit as a symbol of gender, as his…

  • Come and See. Dir. Elem Klimov. Belarusfilm.1985.

    Life Elem Klimov’s 1985 pernicious masterpiece Come and See leaves viewers in a state of abject horror. The film depicts the atrocities commited by the Nazi regime in Byelorussia during the Second World War, following Florya on his path from innocence to experience. The cow is introduced to us halfway through the narrative working as…

  • Batman Begins. Dir. Christopher Nolan. Warner Bros. 2005.

    Why does Batman dress like a bat? In the words of Batman himself, “bats frighten me. It’s time my enemies shared my dread.” In Batman Begins, the boundaries between human and animal are psychologically breached through Bruce’s lifelong phobia of bats. This all-consuming dread leads to Bruce’s attempt to confront this fear through exposure therapy.…

  • Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island. Dir. Jim Stenstrum. Hanna-Barbera Cartoons. 1998.

    Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island[1] is subversive both in terms of subverting what you’d expect from a typical Scooby outing (substituting criminals in masks with genuine monsters) and subverting ideas of what it truly means to be villainous. Immortal werecats Simone and Lena (fig. 1) sacrificed their souls to their cat god to exact revenge against…

  • Children of Men. Dir. Alfonso Cuarón. Universal Pictures. 2006.

    Children of Men is a 2006 film directed by Alfonso Cuarón set in Britain in which the people have become infertile. This infertility has caused the collapse of most countries apart from Britain, which has embraced far-right ideology. The chosen scene, from early on in the film, shows Theo (Clive Owen) on his way to the…

  • The Lion King. Dir. Jon Favreau. Walt Disney Pictures and Fairview Entertainment. 2019.

    ‘There’s a stampede, in the pride lands’, Zazu’s memorable line is word-for-word identical to the 1994 animation. But where the animation focused on a simple plot, Jon Favreau’s recreation with CGI animals creates depth by building more of the animals’ characterisation into the story, I will question how this creates problems with humanising certain animals…

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