Tag: Childrens
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The Aristocats. Dir. Wolfgang Reitherman.. Disney. 1970.
Disney’s The Aristocats[1] follows a family of pet cats who are stolen from the house of Madame Bonfamille, a Parisian aristocrat, when her butler, Edgar, discovers that they will inherit the estate before him. Edgar drugs and abandons the cats in the countryside outside of Paris, presuming that they will be lost forever; however he doesn’t count…
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Dumbo. Dir. Sam Armstrong, Norman Ferguson, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, Bill Roberts and Ben Sharpsteen. Disney. 1941.
Walt Disney’s classic animation Dumbo (1941) was successfully released in order to uplift the war time atmosphere. A collaboration of directors worked together in order to make the film such as: Sam Armstrong, Norman Ferguson, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, Bill Roberts (all sequence directors) and Ben Sharpsteen as supervising director. Dumboexplores the life of a baby elephant whose…
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Spirited Away. Dir. Hayao Miyazaki. Studio Ghibli. 2001.
Human and Animal Transformation in Spirited Away When ten year old Chihiro finds herself alone and her parents turned into pigs in the dazzlingly beautiful but dangerous world of the gods and spirits, she must overcome a series of challenges in order to uncover her true strength of character in a vivacious coming of age narrative.…
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Madagascar. Dir. Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath. DreamWorks. 2005.
Synopsis Opening in Central Park Zoo, Madagascar follows the lives of Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, Melman the giraffe and Gloria the hippopotamus. The film explores the ideas which these domesticated animals have concerning their captivity and the great unknown ‘wild’. Marty, who longs for freedom and the open space which he believes the…
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Doctor Dolittle. Dir. Richard Fleischer. 20th-Century Fox. 1967.
The genesis for Richard Fleischer’s 1967 film Doctor Dolittle came from Hugh Lofting’s successful chain of children’s books first published in 1920, and focuses on the character of a veterinarian named John Dolittle (Rex Harrison), who can talk to animals after being taught by his multilingual pet parrot Polynesia. The film is bursting at the seams with…
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Doctor Dolittle. Dir. Betty Thomas. 20th-Century Fox. 1998.
Representation of animals in Betty Thomas’s Doctor Dolittle The animal presence in Doctor Dolittle (1998) is extremely intriguing, using impressive CGI and a vast spectrum of species to depict a humanistic side to animals that was, until then, uncommon in film. Eddie Murphy’s character, John Dolittle, provides audiences with an identity crisis: family man vs…
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Lady and The Tramp. Dir. Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske. Walt Disney. 1955.
Disney’s 1955 film Lady and the Tramp follows its two title characters, a pampered American Cocker Spaniel named Lady and a stray mongrel referred to by the dogs about town as ‘the Tramp’. Lady’s indulgent upper class life is disrupted when a baby arrives in her house. When Aunt Sarah comes to babysit with her malevolent Siamese…
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Princess Mononoke. Dir. Hayao Miyazaki. Studio Ghibli. 1997.
Princess Mononoke (Mononoke-hime) is a Studio Ghibli film, written and directed by co-founder Hayao Miyazaki in 1997. The film takes place in the Muromachi period of Ancient Japan and follows protagonist Ashitaka on his journey to locate the origins of the demon beasts. In this world, Miyazaki has chosen to depict animals, not only in a…
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Brave. Dir. Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, and Steve Purcell. Disney-Pixar. 2012.
The Disney-Pixar film, Brave (2012), directed by Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, and Steve Purcell, is a computer-animated film set in Medieval Scotland featuring Merida, a skilled archer and princess, who is determined to seek freedom from the cultural duties and responsibilities enforced upon her. As the story unfolds, Merida’s mother, Queen Elinor, announces a kingdom-wide competition amongst…