Tag: HAR: Animal Agency

  • The Wrong Trousers. Dir. Nick Pick. BBC. 1993.

    Hapless Wallace and his faithful dog Gromit appear again on screen for a dramatic adventure in The Wrong Trousers (1993). The inventors’ worldsget thrown upside down by Gromit’s birthday present: a pair of mechanical trousers. These were intended to self-walk Gromit, but when Wallace’s debts lead him to letting out a room to a penguin, the trousers…

  • Shrek. Dir. Andrew Adamson & Vicky Jenson. DreamWorks Pictures. 2001.

    Shrek (2001) is a film that invests in the fairytale tropes found in literature to create humour. Characters are typecast and stereotypes are flung at the audience in the beginning scenes of the movie. This is important for establishing the roles of animals in the film, because most of them, being objects of fairytale discourse, are…

  • Chicken Run. Dir. Peter Lord and Nick Park. Pathe Distribution Ltd.. 2000.

    I must have first seen Aardman Animation’s Chicken Run (2000) around the age of seven, not long after its initial release, and I remember frequently quoting it after that. But the film’s self-consciousness about its family audience, manifested in the wonderful attention to detail, has meant that I have kept enjoying, noticing and learning new…

  • Oliver and Company. Dir. George Scribner. Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. 1988.

    Let’s be honest, most of us will agree that stories can always be improved by the addition of a few adorable animals. It’s understandable then that Disney chose to recreate the classic tale of Oliver Twist using a whole host of cute and quirky quadrupeds in their 1988 animation Oliver and Company. Drawing on its…

  • Ice Age. Dir. Chris Wedge, Carlos Saldanha. 20th Century Fox. 2002.

    Set twenty thousand years ago, at a time when animals were migrating to warmer climates, Ice Age follows the story of three animals. Sid, a sloth, is left behind by his family, and meets Manny, a mammoth, who he decides to follow. They come across a human settlement which has been attacked by sabre-toothed cats.…

  • The Jungle Book. Dir. Wolfgang Reitherman. Walt Disney. 1967.

     The Jungle Book (1967) Walt Disney Synopsis Having been raised by a pack of wolves, with a black panther and a bear as your two closest companions, you would think you would have no troubles, but for Mowgli this is untrue. The Jungle Book is a Disney adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s book of the same name, following…

  • Fantastic Mr. Fox. Dir. Wes Anderson. 20th Century Fox. 2009.

    Mr. Fox in Fantastic Mr. Fox is a charismatic selfish father that puts his own wants and needs before his family. The narrative follows Mr. Fox and his many escapades of stealing chickens and putting his family and town into harm’s way by interfering with three powerful corporate farmers. After being fooled one too many times, the…

  • Tangled. Dir. Nathan Greno and Bryon Howard. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. 2010.

    A modern twist on the traditional fairytale story of Rapunzel, Tangled is an edgy take on a timeless classic. Disney’s 50th animated family film is a fantasy, fairytale, romance, comedy and musical.  Set in a fantasy kingdom far-far away, the King and Queen’s baby daughter Rapunzel is stolen by the evil Mother Gothel, who wants to use…

  • Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Dir. John Hughes. Paramount. 1986.

    (Scene beginning 55:15) ‘Mr. Rooney’s sole motivation is “getting Bueller”,’ claims Media Literacy author Art Silverblatt; ‘To reduce Ferris’ influence over the other students, which would re-establish adults, Rooney, that is, as traditional authority figures.’[1]  Rooney does not ‘get Bueller’ however, thus never truly establishes himself as having any executable authority.  This is no better exemplified than through…

  • The Plague Dogs. Dir. Martin Rosen. United Artists Corporation. 1982.

    The Plague Dogs – Revival of a Masterpiece* By Loredana Loy Based on the book with the same title by Richard Adams, The Plague Dogs (1982) is a one of a kind movie. Snitter and Rowf are two dogs who escape from an animal experimentation facility only to find that the outside world is just as cruel.  They try to survive…