Tag: Animation

  • The Little Mermaid. Dir. John Musker and Ron Clements. Buena Vista Pictures. 1989.

    Human ignorance towards carnivorous eating behaviours are challenged in the ‘Les Poissons’ scene of The Little Mermaid, where a flamboyant chef sings about cooking fish as he prepares them. One example is through the physical appearance of the fish. Unlike the individualised, colourful and characterised animals in the rest of the film, the fish to be…

  • Ratatouille. Dir. Brad Bird . Walt Disney Pictures . 2007.

    Ratatouille’s exploration of human cruelty towards rats is encapsulated in the scene where an old lady discovers that her home is infested by rats.   The old lady is introduced through a static frame that captures her sleeping peacefully whilst highlighting her pink garments, both of which depict her as a stereotypical gentle grandma figure. …

  • Ratatouille. Dir. Brad Bird . Walt Disney Pictures . 2007.

    Ratatouille’s exploration of human cruelty towards rats is encapsulated in the scene where an old lady discovers that her home is infested by rats.   The old lady is introduced through a static frame that captures her sleeping peacefully whilst highlighting her pink garments, both of which depict her as a stereotypical gentle grandma figure. …

  • Ratatouille. Dir. Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava. Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. 2007.

    Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava’s 2007 animated family film Ratatouille follows the journey of a rat named Remy who has a dream of becoming a chef.[1] Like most family films, Ratatouille has an underlying moral message it aims to teach its audience. Ratatouille wants its audience to go away from the film with the idea that individuality is a good…

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

    In his 2009 indie comedy, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Wes Anderson blurs the distinctive boundaries between the real and fictional presence of animals within the film. He creates tension between the real animal he is portraying and the anthropomorphised animal he has created in order to repurpose the way we think about animals. Rather than thinking of…

  • Monsters, Inc. Dir. Pete Docter, David Silverman, Lee Unkrich. Buena Vista Pictures. 2001.

    Lovable monsters like Sully and Mike of Pixar’s Monsters, Inc (Docter, Silverman and Unkrich, 2001) manage to make the monster world not so scary. Despite their initial employment as professional children ‘scarers’ for the Monsters Inc. corporation that uses scream- energy to power Monstropolis (the film’s monster-inhabited society), the pair prove themselves to be more…

  • Treasure Planet. Dir. Ron Clements. Disney. 2002.

    In the animated film Treasure Planet anthropomorphism is used as a narrative tool within a wider concept of Hyperrealism which is ‘Disney Studio’s application of realist conventions of narrative, logical causality and character motivations – breaking with the largely non-realist and anarchic dynamics of the cartoon form.’ Anthropomorphism is used throughout this film as many of the…

  • Avatar. Dir. James Cameron. 20th Century Fox. 2009.

    Set in the year 2154, Avatar (Dir. James Cameron, 2009) follows Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic ex-marine who is given the opportunity to take part in a program on the distant moon Pandora. Pandora is inhabited by a wealth of creatures and biodiversity, as well as the desirable mineral ‘unobtanium’ which the humans are attempting to…

  • A Cat’s Life (‘Une Vie de Chat’). Dir. Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli. Gebeka Films. 2010.

    A Cat in Paris (‘Une Vie de Chat’, 2010) is a charmingly funny, aesthetically beautiful and surprisingly thrilling French animated film, directed by Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli. [1] The film tells the story of Dino, a Parisian cat who leads a double life. By day he is a comforting and playful pet to a…

  • Tarzan. Dir. Kevin Lima, Chris Buck. Disney. 1999.

    Tarzan-Two Worlds Tarzan is best characterised by the title of the film’s opening song Two Worlds, sang by Phil Collins. This is the story of flora and fauna, represented by gorillas, colliding with mankind in Disney’s 1999 classic. The film sees an orphaned human baby in Africa adopted into an ape family by a Gorilla mother. The…