ZooScope

Tag: Cats

  • Kiki’s Delivery Service. Dir. Hayao Miyazaki. Studio Ghibli. 1989.

    In Kiki’s Delivery Service one of the representations of animals is Kiki’s cat and familiar, Jiji. A familiar is a supernatural entity that can aid a witch with her magic, often in the form of an animal, and in this film Kiki, the young witch, can communicate with Jiji, an adult male cat, but no one else…

  • Isle of Dogs. Dir. Wes Anderson. Fox Searchlight Pictures. 2018.

    Wes Anderson’s 2018 film Isle of Dogs depicts a dual representation of animals. The film’s plot is largely focused on the escapades of dogs, and for the most part these animals are highly anthropomorphised by Anderson’s direction. On the other hand, the majority of the humour in the film is constructed by Anderson occasionally reversing…

  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Dir. David Yates. Warner Bros. Pictures. 2007.

    In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), Harry contends with his isolation as a result of the ministry of magic, and a large portion of his fellow students, believing him to be lying about his experiences at the end of his last school year. These experiences include the return of the dark wizard, Voldemort,…

  • I am David. Dir. Paul Feig. Lion’s Gate Films. 2003.

    I am David (2003) is a film adaptation of a children’s book of the same name by Anne Holm. The protagonist David must journey north alone after escaping a Bulgarian prison camp, in order to reach Denmark which he has been told is safe. As he is walking through a vineyard in Italy, he is startled…

  • The Shape of Water. Dir. Guillermo Del Toro. Fox Searchlight Pictures. 2017.

    The Shape of Water is a fantastical love story set during The Cold War about Eliza, a mute cleaner at a government laboratory, who falls in love with a hybrid amphibian-man who was captured from the Amazon by the film’s villain, Colonel Strickland. General Hoyt wishes to exploit the amphibian-man to Western advantage in the Space…

  • Shrek 2. Dir. Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, and Conrad Vernon. DreamWorks. 2004.

    The second film in the Shrek franchise, Shrek 2 focuses on a pair of ogres, Shrek and Fiona, and their life as newlyweds: it’s time to meet the in-laws. Fiona’s human parents, King Harold and Queen Lilian, are unpleasantly surprised by the fact their daughter and her husband are ogres, and their marriage has a few magical…

  • White Dog. Dir. Samuel Fuller. Paramount Pictures. 1982.

    Sam Fuller’s final Hollywood film, White Dog (1982), is based on Romain Gary’s 1970 ‘nonfiction’ novel of the same name and tells the story of aspiring actress Julie Sawyer (Kristy McNichol), who after accidentally hitting and injuring him with her car, adopts a seemingly lovable white German shepherd. The plot is complicated when, after two…

  • The Shape of water. Dir. Guillermo del Toro. Fox Searchlight Pictures. 2017.

    In this scene, the development of inter-species love between the film’s main characters, Eliza and the amphibian-man, culminates in their under-water embrace as the amphibian-man magically gives Eliza gills. This scene blurs the human-animal distinction as both individuals are now cross-species and it subverts the hierarchical binary between humans and animals through their cross-species love…

  • Pom Poko. Dir. Isao Takahata. Toho. 1994.

    Pom Poko[1] is a film that follows the tanuki of Tama Hills trying to halt development of their woodland through their folkloric transformation powers. In terms of how it shows the animal; the film establishes the idea that animal-human relationships are characterised by a conflict of two worlds that are equally alien to each other.…

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

    Beauty and the Beast, Disney’s early 90s offering follows the protagonist Belle, a clever and beautiful woman. Frustrated at her small town life, she hungers for adventure. She rejects the relentless advances of Gaston, the loathsome but handsome villain and instead falls in love with a ‘hideous beast’; a former prince who has been cursed…