ZooScope

  • Gone Girl. Dir. David Fincher. 20th Century Fox. 2014.

    Stereotypically, cats are represented as sly, sexy, intelligent, manipulative and mysterious creatures, and all of these characteristics are embodied in Gone Girl’s (dir. David Fincher, 2014) complex anti-heroine Amy Dunne. In order to understand Amy’s immensely complicated character, who only exists in flashbacks during the film’s opening scene, the film projects Amy’s character onto her husband Nick’s…

  • 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…

  • The Wizard of Oz. Dir. Victor Fleming, King Vidor, George Cukor, Richard Thorpe, Norman Taurog. MGM. 1939.

    The Wizard of Oz showcases, through its many varying forms of animal representation, the ways in which filmmakers deal with the challenge of creating animal characters, and how these different methods are used to craft personality traits such as the moral essence of the character. We can see this with regards to the flying monkeys, particularly…

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

    King Kong (2003) is a remake of a 1933 film of the same name where a giant prehistoric gorilla is taken from its native island in captivity to New York where it consequently escapes. The climactic scene where Kong is protecting Anne on top of the Empire State Building is a crucial moment as it…

  • Cinderella. Dir. Sir Kenneth Branagh . Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. 2015.

    During Ella’s journey from a happy, sweet child, to the mourning servant of her stepfamily, to cherished wife of the King, her fundamental characteristics are consistent. Her mother tells her to ‘have courage and be kind’. The message is not subtle: this exact phrase is repeated another 9 times in the film. For the sceptics…

  • Harvey. Dir. Henry Kosta . Universal Pictures . 1950.

    In Henry Kosta’s film Harvey (1950), the simple power of the imagination, entwined with the light-hearted childish nature of the protagonist Elwood P. Dowd (James Stewart) acts as a tool to undermine and distinguish the evident psychological disturbances that lie beneath the surface of the plot.  Harvey, a six-foot three-and – a – half – inch tall hare,…

  • Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Dir. Chris Columbus. Warner Bros. 2002.

    Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets utilizes horror film narratives and their depiction of monstrous animals in order to reveal a deeper complex message regarding human-animal relationships. The franchise’s reliance on Ophidiophobia acts to highlight the negative animalisation assigned to animals such as snakes, whilst the treatment of the Basilisk by humans in the film…

  • John Wick. Dir. Chad Stahelski. Summit Entertainment. 2014.

    John Wick is an exploration of domesticated animals and their hierarchical standing. The entire narrative centres around a revenge plot following the killing of Wick’s dog. It raises important questions of domestication, anthropomorphism, and worth. Following the opening montage of scenes detailing the loss of Wick’s wife, he is shown to have been given a…

  • Mad Max: Fury Road. Dir. George Miller. Warner Bros. 2015.

    Miller’s use of post-apocalyptic colour is deliberate and ground-breaking. Mad Max: Fury Road is saturated with reds and oranges. Immediately following a fight scene that results in a lead-character casualty, the colouring changes to a palette of deep blues and blacks. This immediately creates an association around the characters within of death; alongside the Crow…

  • Jurassic Park III. Dir. Joe Johnston. Universal Pictures. 2001.

    “This is how you make dinosaurs?”       “No. This is how you play God.” [1] Jurassic Park III revolves around the dinosaurs of the island ‘Isla Sorna’; genetically modified and inevitably abandoned in a previous movie of the franchise. It follows a wealthy family who have lost their son on the island, and try to pay their…

Got any book recommendations?

Get In Touch