Tag: Comedy
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Coco. Dir. Lee Unkrich. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. 2017.
Helping Miguel Rivera navigate the Land of the Dead as he seeks to find his great-great-grandfather is Dante, the stray Xoloitzcuintli dog. However, when it is revealed that Dante is instead a “mythical” and “powerful” alebrije or spirit guide, this subsequently exposes a tension between his two identities. This scene in particular sees Miguel use…
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Wiener-Dog. Dir. Todd Solondz. Amazon Films/IFC Films. 2016.
In the opening scenes of Todd Solondz’s Wiener-Dog, we see the unnamed titular character in a very recognisable form of cage as she waits her collection from an animal shelter. After having been killed by a passing lorry in the film’s climax, Wiener-Dog’s taxidermied body is placed in a glass box and becomes part of…
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A Fish Called Wanda. Dir. Charles Crichton. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (US) and United International Pictures (UK). 1988.
The murder of three small dogs one after the other is not what most people would think of as funny. Yet this exact progression becomes a running gag in Charles Crichton’s heist comedy film A Fish Called Wanda, where stuttering animal lover Ken’s failed attempts to kill an old woman (who is witness to the…
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Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Dir. Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones. EMI Films. 1975.
This iconic scene fully exemplifies the film’s absurdist representation of the violence of the crusades, particularly the disproportionate violence of the Western invaders. It explores this using the similarly lopsided power-dynamic of the animal-human relationship, the surreal treatment of which exposes the arbitrary hegemony, and divine mission of the white Christian crusaders as a lie.…
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The Wolf of Wall Street. Dir. Martin Scorsese . Paramount Pictures. 2013.
The Wolf of Wall Street is a biographical dark comedy that follows the life of criminal stock broker, Jordan Belfort. The presence of animals in the film draws attention to human-animal relationships and their differences. More specifically, this scene uses a goldfish to highlight these differences, as well as the film’s message about the greed and…
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Harvey. Dir. Henry Kosta . Universal Pictures . 1950.
In Henry Kosta’s film Harvey (1950), the simple power of the imagination, entwined with the light-hearted childish nature of the protagonist Elwood P. Dowd (James Stewart) acts as a tool to undermine and distinguish the evident psychological disturbances that lie beneath the surface of the plot. Harvey, a six-foot three-and – a – half – inch tall hare,…
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Hannah Montana: The Movie. Dir. Peter Chelsom. Walt Disney Pictures. 2009.
Hannah Montana: The Movie is about Miley Stewart, a secret pop sensation known as Hannah Montana, getting caught up in the perks of her famous life. Her fed-up father, Robby Ray, forces Miley to visit her family on her hometown farm in Crowley Corners, Tennessee. Robby Ray threatens to take away Hannah Montana forever if Miley…
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Beginners. Dir. Mike Mills. Focus Features. 2010.
Beginners (2010) follows a middle-aged man named Oliver and his father’s dog, Arthur, a Jack Russell Terrier, after his father has passed from cancer. Arthur is portrayed in a very non-animalistic way. He never barks, only really making a sound when he is crying as Oliver tries to leave him at home alone. Arthur just…