ZooScope

Tag: Fairytale

  • The Shape of Water. Dir. Guillermo Del Toro. Fox Searchlight Pictures. 2017.

    The Shape of Water is a fantastical love story set during The Cold War about Eliza, a mute cleaner at a government laboratory, who falls in love with a hybrid amphibian-man who was captured from the Amazon by the film’s villain, Colonel Strickland. General Hoyt wishes to exploit the amphibian-man to Western advantage in the Space…

  • Shrek 2. Dir. Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, and Conrad Vernon. DreamWorks. 2004.

    The second film in the Shrek franchise, Shrek 2 focuses on a pair of ogres, Shrek and Fiona, and their life as newlyweds: it’s time to meet the in-laws. Fiona’s human parents, King Harold and Queen Lilian, are unpleasantly surprised by the fact their daughter and her husband are ogres, and their marriage has a few magical…

  • The Shape of water. Dir. Guillermo del Toro. Fox Searchlight Pictures. 2017.

    In this scene, the development of inter-species love between the film’s main characters, Eliza and the amphibian-man, culminates in their under-water embrace as the amphibian-man magically gives Eliza gills. This scene blurs the human-animal distinction as both individuals are now cross-species and it subverts the hierarchical binary between humans and animals through their cross-species love…

  • Roald Dahl’s Esio Trot. Dir. Dearbhla Walsh. Red Arrow International. 2015.

    Slow and steady wins the race……… Dearbhla Walsh’s 2015 television film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Esio Trot depicts the tale of two elderly neighbours, Mrs. Silver (Judi Dench) and Mr. Hoppy (Dustin Hoffman), as they progress towards a romantic relationship. The main obstacle to this relationship is Mrs. Silver’s infatuation with her pet tortoise, Alfie, and her…

  • The Neverending Story. Dir. Wolfgang Petersen. Neue Constantin Film, Warner Bros. Pictures. 1984.

    ZooScope ZOOM: The Neverending Story ‘The animal is distinct, and can never be confused with man. Thus, a power is ascribed to the animal, comparable with human power but never coinciding with it. The animal has secrets which, unlike the secrets of caves, mountains, seas, are specifically addressed to man,’[1] John Berger theorises on our understanding of…

  • Shrek. Dir. Vicky Jenson and Andrew Adamson. Dreamworks. 2001.

    Directed by Vicky Jenson and Andrew Adamson Produced by Jeffrey Katzenberg, Aron Warner, and John H. Williams Production Companies were Dreamworks, Dreamworks Animation, and Pacific Data Images _____________________________________________________ While the 2001 film Shrek has a large cast of animal characters, both mythical and realistic, it is the part of Donkey that is of real interest here. There have been a…

  • Aladdin. Dir. Ron Clements and John Musker. Disney Studios. 1992.

    Ron Clements’ and John Muskers’, Aladdin (1992) [1]  follows the life of a poor street dweller and his sidekick monkey, Abu in the fictional city of Agrabah. After being coerced into entering the subterranean ‘cave of wonders’ by the villain Jafar and his accomplice parrot, Iago, Aladdin retrieves a magic lamp containing a genie. With the…

  • Beauty and the Beast . Dir. Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise. Buena Vista Pictures. 1991.

    Beauty and the Beast, Disney’s early 90s offering follows the protagonist Belle, a clever and beautiful woman. Frustrated at her small town life, she hungers for adventure. She rejects the relentless advances of Gaston, the loathsome but handsome villain and instead falls in love with a ‘hideous beast’; a former prince who has been cursed…

  • Beauty and the Beast . Dir. Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise. Buena Vista Pictures. 1991.

    Ostensibly, the transformation of a dog into a footstool in Beauty and the Beast operates as a humorous pun.[1] Visually, it works: Sultan in footstool form is around the right size, his tassels stand in for a head and tail and his decorated legs make convincing paws. Furthermore, the transformation of a dog into a footstool plays on…

  • Ponyo. Dir. Hayao Miyazaki. Toho. 2008.

    ‘What? She is captured by a boy? This is very bad. Is it already dead?’ yells Ponyo’s father Fujimoto when realising his precious daughter is being kept as a pet fish. The line raises an interesting question, does cinema represent animal domestication as kidnapping or an addition of family member? Hayao Miyazaki’s animated fantasy film Ponyo retells…