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Bringing Up Baby. Dir. Howard Hawks. RKO. 1938.
In this article, I will analyse the scene in which David first encounters the dog, George, and Susan’s aunt, Mrs Random, while caught wearing Susan’s dressing gown. I will argue that here a direct comparison can be made between Susan and George. George is used to emphasise that rather than sharing characteristics with a wild…
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Ratatouille. Dir. Brad Bird. Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. 2007.
Brad Bird’s Ratatouille is a film in which the human community collides with that of the rats, through Remy the rat’s aspiration to be a cook for humans despite his status as animal vermin (assigned to him by those he wishes to cook for). Remy the rat’s first encounter with a compassionate, caring ‘human’ arises from an…
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American Beauty. Dir. Sam Mendes. DreamWorks Pictures. 1999.
Despite its iconic lusty red petals, Sam Mendes’ American Beauty is abundant with other striking images – one of which is a dead bird, lying on the grass of the school grounds, under the lens of Ricky Fitts’ camera. The bird becomes part of a vision of freedom and liberation, in a film where most of the…
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Project X. Dir. Jonathan Kaplan . Twentieth Century Fox. 1987.
Project X explores the journey of a chimpanzee named Virgil, taking him from the safety of his home with psychologist Teri Macdonald to an Air Force base where he participates in a secret experiment named Project X that trains chimps as pilots. We learn that Teri has taught Virgil to communicate with humans via American Sign…
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Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde. Dir. Charles Herman-Wurmfield. Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer. 2003.
Legally Blonde 2 attempts to interrogate the controversial issue of animal testing in a comedic domain. Although the realm of comedy is potentially limiting, due to its farcical and flippant nature, Herman-Wurmfield uses humour to expose issues in animal experimentation through his protagonist, Elle Woods. Elle realises her beloved pet Chihuahua Bruiser’s mother is trapped…
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Shark Tale. Dir. Bibo Bergeron, Vicky Jenson, Rob Letterman. DreamWorks Animation. 2004.
DreamWorks Animation’s Shark Tale plays with the binary of shark/fish through the characterization of Lenny the vegetarian shark and his performativity of conventionally human gender stereotypes. The family animation draws attention to the common opinion of meat eating as conventionally masculine, relating to an acceptance of violence, and vegetarianism as typically associated with femininity, empathy and compassion…
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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Dir. Garth Jennings. Touchstone Pictures, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. 2005.
Garth Jennings’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy introduces its science fiction narrative by destabilizing the assumption that human intelligence is greater than that of all other animals by conceptualizing that they are in fact only “the third most intelligent creature on the planet” and dolphins are the second. A satirical image entitled ‘Why Dolphins are the…
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Ratatouille. Dir. Brad Bird. Buena Vista Pictures. 2007.
In the Ratatouille scene where Remy and Emile enter an old woman’s house, questions of animal invasion into human spaces are raised. The woman’s reaction is to kill the trespassing rats; a reaction which, in reality, we would be unlikely to query. Fig. 1 As uncaged rats they represent pests, undesirable to find in one’s home. The…
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