Tag: Comedy
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The Lion King. Dir. Roger Allens and Rob Minkoff. Buena Vista Pictures. 1994.
The Lion King[i] tells the story of Simba, a lion cub born into the monarchy and heir to his father Mufasa, ruler of all the animals in the Pride Lands. From learning how to pounce, to going on adventures with his best friend Nala, Simba has the perfect life, up until Mufasa is killed by Scar,…
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Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Dir. Robert Zemeckis. Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc.. 1988.
Robert Zemeckis’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) is set in the ‘Toon’-dominated animated film industry of Hollywood in 1947, 40 years previous to the film’s actual release. [1] Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins), [2] a private investigator and the film’s human protagonist, ends his hiatus from sleuthing, caused by his brother: his professional partner’s Toon-related death, after receiving a…
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The Artist. Dir. Michel Hazanavicius. Warner Brothers. 2011.
Jean Dujardin as George Valentin, Bérénice Bejo as Peppy Miller and Uggie the dog in The Artist The Artist (2011) is a remarkable modern day silent film that explores the transformation of silent movies into talking pictures in 1920s Hollywood. This change in cinema style affects the lives of both the famous silent movie actor George Valentin…
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The Wrong Trousers. Dir. Nick Pick. BBC. 1993.
Hapless Wallace and his faithful dog Gromit appear again on screen for a dramatic adventure in The Wrong Trousers (1993). The inventors’ worldsget thrown upside down by Gromit’s birthday present: a pair of mechanical trousers. These were intended to self-walk Gromit, but when Wallace’s debts lead him to letting out a room to a penguin, the trousers…
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Shrek. Dir. Andrew Adamson & Vicky Jenson. DreamWorks Pictures. 2001.
Shrek (2001) is a film that invests in the fairytale tropes found in literature to create humour. Characters are typecast and stereotypes are flung at the audience in the beginning scenes of the movie. This is important for establishing the roles of animals in the film, because most of them, being objects of fairytale discourse, are…
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Chicken Run. Dir. Peter Lord and Nick Park. Pathe Distribution Ltd.. 2000.
I must have first seen Aardman Animation’s Chicken Run (2000) around the age of seven, not long after its initial release, and I remember frequently quoting it after that. But the film’s self-consciousness about its family audience, manifested in the wonderful attention to detail, has meant that I have kept enjoying, noticing and learning new…
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Ice Age. Dir. Chris Wedge, Carlos Saldanha. 20th Century Fox. 2002.
Set twenty thousand years ago, at a time when animals were migrating to warmer climates, Ice Age follows the story of three animals. Sid, a sloth, is left behind by his family, and meets Manny, a mammoth, who he decides to follow. They come across a human settlement which has been attacked by sabre-toothed cats.…
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Tangled. Dir. Nathan Greno and Bryon Howard. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. 2010.
A modern twist on the traditional fairytale story of Rapunzel, Tangled is an edgy take on a timeless classic. Disney’s 50th animated family film is a fantasy, fairytale, romance, comedy and musical. Set in a fantasy kingdom far-far away, the King and Queen’s baby daughter Rapunzel is stolen by the evil Mother Gothel, who wants to use…
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Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Dir. John Hughes. Paramount. 1986.
(Scene beginning 55:15) ‘Mr. Rooney’s sole motivation is “getting Bueller”,’ claims Media Literacy author Art Silverblatt; ‘To reduce Ferris’ influence over the other students, which would re-establish adults, Rooney, that is, as traditional authority figures.’[1] Rooney does not ‘get Bueller’ however, thus never truly establishes himself as having any executable authority. This is no better exemplified than through…