ZooScope

Tag: HAR: Animal Agency

  • The Grand Budapest Hotel. Dir Wes Anderson. Fox Searchlight Pictures. 2014

    “Did he just throw my cat out the window?” The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014) uses the death of a domestic animal to drive the dark comedic elements within the film, without accentuating sinister undertones that the audience would expect to accompany the death of a beloved animal. Anderson transforms the cat into a…

  • Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Dir. Quentin Tarantino. Columbia Pictures. 2019

    Quentin Tarantino’s ninth feature film is wistfully reminiscent of a bygone era, a self-reflexive artefact devoted to the zeitgeist of the closing chapter of Hollywood’s golden era. For two hours and forty minutes, the director lays bare his musings on cinema which read less like a narrative and more like a very thorough character study…

  • 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…

  • A Dog’s Journey. Dir. Gail Mancuso. Universal Pictures. 2019.

    They say that dogs are man’s best friend, but what if that best friend who with you from birth stayed longer than a lifetime? Two years after A Dog’s Purpose (2017), we follow again the paw prints of Bailey (voiced by Josh Gad), whose purpose in life is not yet over. In this sequel, Ethan…

  • The Secret of NIMH. Dir. Don Bluth. MGM/UA Entertainment Company. 1982.

    “We can no longer live as rats. We know too much.” The Secret of NIMH is remembered by many as a dark, creepy, and disturbing film, with retrospectives published in recent years referring to it as leaving basically every kid who sees it with a lingering dread. Don Bluth’s directorial debut after leaving the Walt…

  • Waltz with Bashir. Dir. Ari Folman, Sony Pictures Classics. 2008.

    Anonymous soldier: What to do? What to do? Why don’t you tell us what to do? Ari Folman: Shoot. Anonymous soldier: On who? Ari Folman: How should I know on who? Just shoot. Anonymous soldier: Isn’t it better to pray? Ari Folman: Pray and shoot. [1] In 2008 a new style of documentary filmmaking was…

  • The Thing. Dir. John Carpenter. Universal Pictures. 1982.

    The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982) uses dogs as an emotional catalyst to evoke a heightened sympathetic response from its audience. The alien organism – adopting the exterior of a dog – exploited the trustworthy, friendly associations that humans have with dogs in order to infiltrate the research lab after observing human-animal relationships. Clark, a researcher,…

  • Mrs. Doubtfire. Dir. Chris Columbus. 20th Century Fox. 1993.

    In this family comedy directed by Chris Columbus, Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) uses cartoon animals to reflect Daniel’s anarchic behaviour, letting the audience stipulate as to whether he is the antagonist or protagonist in this story of conflicting parenting styles. From the film’s opening scene, Daniel’s conscientious nature is divulged in an over the top performance…

  • Coraline. Dir. Henry Selick. Focus Features. 2009.

    Coraline is a stop-motion animated movie, based on Neil Geiman’s novel with the same title, featuring mice, rats, insects, dogs and a cat. Of all these animals, the nameless black cat (Keith David) is most intriguing. One could say that the cat plays such a role in the story that we could extrapolate it to…

  • A Dog’s Purpose. Dir. Lasse Hallström. Universal Pictures. 2017.

    Lasse Hallström’s film A Dog’s Purpose presents the relationship between a dog and its first owner, Ethan Montgomery (Dennis Quaid as Ethan’s adult version). The intriguing question “what is the real purpose of a dog” becomes for Bailey (Josh Gad) the triggering of a number of adventures which results in the last sequence where the…