Tag: Fantasy
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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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Beasts Of The Southern Wild. Dir. Benh Zeitlin. Fox Searchlight Pictures. 2012.
Beasts of the Southern Wild is set in Bathtub, a poor and very ethnically-mixed community in the Louisiana Bayou separated from other civilisation by a levee, a backdrop which conjures up the still fresh memory of Hurricane Katrina. The global warming induced flooding of the area and all that ensues are focalised through the imagination of the…
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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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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…
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Brave. Dir. Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, and Steve Purcell. Disney-Pixar. 2012.
The Disney-Pixar film, Brave (2012), directed by Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, and Steve Purcell, is a computer-animated film set in Medieval Scotland featuring Merida, a skilled archer and princess, who is determined to seek freedom from the cultural duties and responsibilities enforced upon her. As the story unfolds, Merida’s mother, Queen Elinor, announces a kingdom-wide competition amongst…