Tag: Dogs
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The Great Mouse Detective. Dir. Ron Clements, Burny Mattison, David Michener, and John Musker. Walt Disney. 1986.
In the world of the animated feature film The Great Mouse Detective (Clements, Mattison, Michener, and Musker, 1986), Victorian-era London contains a society of talking mice that mirrors the city’s human occupants. When one of these mice, Hiram Flaversham, a single father and toy maker, is kidnapped by a peg-legged bat named Fidget, Flaversham’s daughter Olivia, along…
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All The Little Animals. Dir. Jeremy Thomas. Lionsgate. 1999.
Bobby Platt is twenty-four with learning difficulties due to a car accident from his childhood which he refers to as “the most important thing about me”. Bobby’s stepfather, “The Fat” is the archetypal bully: aggressive and unsympathetic even at the death of Bobby’s mother. After her funeral The Fat instructs Bobby to sign over the…
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Up. Dir. Peter Docter. Disney Pixar. 2009.
Pixar’s 2009 film Up tells the astonishing tale of Carl, a 78 year old who wishes to fulfil his and his late wife’s dream of reaching Paradise Falls in South America. From meeting as kids, Ellie and Carl dream of being adventurers, and share a passion for the explorer C.F. Muntz and his ‘Spirit of…
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Best in Show. Dir. Christopher Guest. Castle Rock Entertainment. 2000.
Get 3,000 show dogs in a room and you’ll have a lot of personality. But get the five show dog owners of Best in Show to the Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show and you’ll have more personality than 3,000 dogs could ever provide. Cameras follow these handlers’ journeys before, after and during their pursuit of the top…
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Hachi: A Dog’s Tale. Dir. Lasse Hallström. Stage 6. 2009.
As the tale goes Akitas are one of the most loyal and loving breeds of dog in the world. You do not choose an Akita an Akita must choose you. Sent from a monastery in Japan an Akita puppy finds himself alone on a train station platform in America, when his shipping crate falls off…
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Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Dir. Rupert Wyatt. 20th Century Fox. 2011.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Photo credit: Wikipedia) An exploration of ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ is a thrilling science fiction film created as a prequel to Franklin Schaffner’s 1968 original film ‘Planet of the Apes’. Rupert Wyatt uses the story of one man…
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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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I Am Legend. Dir. Francis Lawrence. Warner Bros.. 2007.
Synopsis: I Am Legend, a cinematic adaption of a 1954 horror novel of the same name, is a post-apocalyptic “zombie” film with a difference; the genetically-engineered virus which transforms humans into flesh-eating undead is also active in some animals. The survivors we meet, Robert Neville (Will Smith) and his dog, co-exist with these monstrous creatures…
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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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Fish Tank. Dir. Andrea Arnold. BBC Films. 2009.
Fish Tank. Dir. Andrea Arnold. BBC Films. 2009. Jessica Hannington Andrea Arnold’s British drama Fish Tank centres on a fifteen year old tearaway, Mia (Katie Jarvis), whose volatile and distant nature promises to drag her down the same path as her alcoholic, chain-smoking mother, Joanne (Kierston Wareing). Growing up on a bleak Essex council estate, the possibility of…