Tag: Comedy
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Antisemitism. The Rat Catcher. Dir. Wes Anderson. Netflix. 2023.
Is, I suppose, how the conversation went between Wes Anderson and his casting agent when searching for an actor to play the titular character. Following Anderson’s success with Fantastic Mr. Fox there is no surprise that Anderson jumped at the opportunity to return to the works of Roald Dahl. The Rat Catcher is a short…
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Earwig and The Witch. Dir. by Gorō Miyazaki. Studio Ghibli. 2020
EARWIG AND THE WITCH : Black Cats in Witchcraft Earwig and the Witch tells the story of Aya, an orphan girl adopted by a witch called Yaga and a demon called Mandrake. All along this adventure, Aya only has one friend, the cat of the house, Thomas. Through making potions, drawing and developing plans to…
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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Dir. James Gunn. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. 2023
James Gunn’s superhero trilogy focuses on the Guardians of the Galaxy, a gang of misfits teaming together to save worlds, whilst morally bettering themselves and learning to grow from their trauma from criminals into heroes. For the trilogy’s final instalment, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3[1], Gunn focused on the origin of Rocket, a violent,…
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Labyrinth. Dir Jim Henson. Warner Bros., Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures, TriStar Pictures, FilmFlex, EMI Films. 1986.
Teaching a Teen, Canine Companions, and the First CGI Animal in Movie History The last Jim Henson release, Labyrinth, a cinema flop but since a cult classic, follows a teenage Jennifer Connelly (Sarah) trying to rescue her baby brother from David Bowie (Jareth) by making her way through a Labyrinth “where everything seems possible and…
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The Rat Catcher. Dir. Wes Anderson. Netflix. 2023.
September 2023 saw Wes Anderson’s return to the works of Roald Dahl with the cinematising of The Rat Catcher. In true Andersonian fashion the film foregrounds aesthetic and framing in order to focus our attention on the visual/character design of The Ratcatcher. Anderson uses animalisation to represent the rat via a human and aided by…
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Alice in Wonderland. Dir. Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, and Jack Kinney. Walt Disney Pictures. 1951.
A distinctive croquet game featuring flamingos as mallets and hedgehogs as balls becomes a symbol of societal norms and power dynamics in human-animal relationships, reflecting the era’s outlook on animal rights. Whimsy deviates from the real-world issues depicted in the original text, becoming rose-tinted rather than a mirror.
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Rushmore. Dir. Wes Anderson. 1998. Buena Vista Pictures.
Bees in Wes Anderson’s Rushmore The swarm of the bees scene in Wes Anderson’s 1998 comedy film Rushmore sees Herman J Blume (Bill Murray) subjected to further revenge for his romantic involvement with Miss Cross (Olivia Williams). Blume is rattled by an infiltration of bees in his hotel suite, orchestrated by the outraged Max Fischer (Jason…
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The Muppet Christmas Carol. Dir. Brian Henson. Walt Disney Pictures. 1992.
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is not only a heart-warming Christmas story from the Victorian period, it also speaks volumes about social class inequalities. In The Muppet Christmas Carol, Director Brian Henson uses the species of rats to emblematise the impoverished, low social class. This contributes to Dickens’s interpretation from the original novel, this…
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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3. Dir. James Gunn. Marvel Studios. 2023
The relationship between humans and animals has evolved throughout history. There are countless cases of humans exhibiting a persistent desire to influence the course of evolution in the animal kingdom. This desire to revolutionize animals is often driven by a complex interplay of scientific curiosity, environmental concerns, and the pursuit of benefits for human society.…
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The Darjeeling Limited. Dir. Wes Anderson. Searchlight Pictures. 2007
Animals Articulating Emotion and Inspiring Growth in The Darjeeling Limited In an attempt to remedy their stagnant relationship, three brothers, Francis (Owen Wilson), Peter (Adrien Brody) and Jack (Jason Schwartzman) board a train travelling around India. Each brother harbours his own inner turmoil which contributes to the complex relationship between the brothers and is often…