Tag: Family
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Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. Dir. Kelly Asbury and Lorna Cook. DreamWorks. 2002.
The eponymous character Spirit in Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002)[1] is a stallion who lives freely in an area that would come to be known as the ‘Old West’. Unusually for an animated film, none of the animal characters partake in any spoken dialogue with eachother -instead expressions, naturalistic animal sounds and movement are used to…
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Madagascar. Dir. Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath. DreamWorks. 2005.
Synopsis Opening in Central Park Zoo, Madagascar follows the lives of Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, Melman the giraffe and Gloria the hippopotamus. The film explores the ideas which these domesticated animals have concerning their captivity and the great unknown ‘wild’. Marty, who longs for freedom and the open space which he believes the…
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Finding Nemo. Dir. Andrew Stanton. Disney Pixar. 2003.
Finding Nemo is a fantastic animated film, directed by Andrew Stanton. It tells the story of an overprotective clownfish, Marlin (Albert Brooks), whose son Nemo (Alexander Gould), is captured by a diver in the Great Barrier Reef and is taken to a dentist’s fish tank in Sydney. Timid Marlin, who usually will not swim more then two…
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Doctor Dolittle. Dir. Richard Fleischer. 20th-Century Fox. 1967.
The genesis for Richard Fleischer’s 1967 film Doctor Dolittle came from Hugh Lofting’s successful chain of children’s books first published in 1920, and focuses on the character of a veterinarian named John Dolittle (Rex Harrison), who can talk to animals after being taught by his multilingual pet parrot Polynesia. The film is bursting at the seams with…
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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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Where the Wild Things Are. Dir. Spike Jonze. Warner Bros. 2009.
In Spike Jonze’s 2009 film Where the Wild Things Are, wildness reigns. Max, a ‘wild’ young boy with an active imagination, is able to connect with his dog but has difficulty doing so with other people, including his mother and sister. Upset that his mother is paying more attention to her new boyfriend, Max puts…
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Life of Pi. Dir. Ang Lee. 20th-Century Fox. 2011.
Ang Lees’s Life of Pi is a shipwreck film that depicts the epic journey of the main character Piscine ‘Pi’ Molitor Patel, whilst addressing many issues along the way such as those of personal loss, racism, survival and many more. Lee is able to achieve this level of depth in his novel chiefly by using the potential…
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A Bug’s Life. Dir. John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton. Disney Pixar. 1998.
A Bug’s Life follows an ant colony in their struggle to keep the peace and tradition of providing food for their oppressors, the grasshoppers. Moments before they arrive to collect the offering, protagonist Flik accidentally causes the food to fall into a river thus leaving the ants with no offering and greatly angering the grasshoppers.…
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Lady and The Tramp. Dir. Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske. Walt Disney. 1955.
Disney’s 1955 film Lady and the Tramp follows its two title characters, a pampered American Cocker Spaniel named Lady and a stray mongrel referred to by the dogs about town as ‘the Tramp’. Lady’s indulgent upper class life is disrupted when a baby arrives in her house. When Aunt Sarah comes to babysit with her malevolent Siamese…
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Princess Mononoke. Dir. Hayao Miyazaki. Studio Ghibli. 1997.
Princess Mononoke (Mononoke-hime) is a Studio Ghibli film, written and directed by co-founder Hayao Miyazaki in 1997. The film takes place in the Muromachi period of Ancient Japan and follows protagonist Ashitaka on his journey to locate the origins of the demon beasts. In this world, Miyazaki has chosen to depict animals, not only in a…