ZooScope

Tag: Animation

  • Flushed Away. Dir. David Bowers and Sam Fell. Paramount Pictures. 2006.

    Within Flushed Away, the scene of Roddy meeting Sid for the first time utilises their anthropomorphism to project, not only social class, but bullying societal pressures and to scrutinize those who do not conform. Illustrating Roddy’s adopted social class is the way in which he is anthropomorphised, assuming the role of the upper class. However, Roddy’s upper…

  • Shaun the Sheep The Movie. Dir. Mark Burton and Richard Starzak. Studiocanal. 2015.

    Restaurant scene Starzak and Burton challenge our perceptions of human and animal intelligence in Shaun the Sheep The Movie. Aardman excel in casting the animals as intelligent and exasperated by humans, meanwhile humans are portrayed as less so, and oblivious to animal antics happening directly in front of them. The scene in which the sheep dine…

  • Shaun the Sheep The Movie. Dir. Mark Burton and Richard Starzak. Studiocanal. 2015.

    Shaun the Sheep The Movie trailer Following his introduction in Nick Park’s Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave, the woolly star, Shaun the Sheep, received his own spin off show creatively named Shaun the Sheep. Nearing the 20th anniversary of the nation’s introduction to him, the eponymous sheep was given his own movie. Shaun the Sheep The Movie follows the antics…

  • Beauty and the Beast . Dir. Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise. Buena Vista Pictures. 1991.

    Ostensibly, the transformation of a dog into a footstool in Beauty and the Beast operates as a humorous pun.[1] Visually, it works: Sultan in footstool form is around the right size, his tassels stand in for a head and tail and his decorated legs make convincing paws. Furthermore, the transformation of a dog into a footstool plays on…

  • Ponyo. Dir. Hayao Miyazaki. Toho. 2008.

    ‘What? She is captured by a boy? This is very bad. Is it already dead?’ yells Ponyo’s father Fujimoto when realising his precious daughter is being kept as a pet fish. The line raises an interesting question, does cinema represent animal domestication as kidnapping or an addition of family member? Hayao Miyazaki’s animated fantasy film Ponyo retells…

  • Walking With Dinosaurs: Time of the Titans. Dir. Tim Haines and Jasper James. BBC Worldwide. 1999.

    Walking With Dinosaurs: Time of the Titans is a 1999 BBC animated documentary that brought together paleontologists and animators alike with the aim of bringing the age of dinosaurs to life, giving the audience a feeling of what it was like when dinosaurs roamed the earth. This particular episode is part two of a six episode…

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

    The Jungle Book (1967) Dir, by Wolfgang Reitherman Disney’s The Jungle Book is a film of young boy trying to prove he can survive in the jungle whilst being persuaded by a cast of animals to return to human life. Mowgli is defiant that he belongs in the jungle but the inherently conservative, and ultimately racist, message…

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

    Ariel, a headstrong 16-year-old mermaid, has dreams of living as a human on land, despite her father, King Triton’s, constant reprimands regarding her desire for human/animal (mermaid) interaction. With the help of her friends, Flounder (a loyal, although cowardly, tropical fish), Sebastian (a red Jamaican crab and servant of Triton), and Scuttle (a foolish seagull…

  • Wallace and Gromit in The Curse of the Were-rabbit. Dir. Nick Park. Aardman Animations. 2005.

    Nick Park’s beloved stop motion clay creations have engaged audiences since 1989, with the unexpected friendship becoming British icons. In 2005 Park introduced a full-length feature movie, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Wererabbit. Wallace and Gromit star as Anti-Pesto, a dynamic duo ridding their local village of rabbits in preparation for the vegetable…

  • 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…