Tag: Feature Length
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Flipper. Dir. James B. Clark. Ivan Tors Productions. 1963.
Flipper is a family film from the 1960s that centres on one fateful summer when 12 year old Sandy has an extraordinary experience with a dolphin. Sandy enjoys helping his father with the family fishing business but unfortunately a disease called the red plague is killing off all of the fish; when their town is hit…
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Bringing up Baby. Dir. Howard Hawks. RKO Radio Pictures. 1938.
Bringing up Baby is a film which explores the relationship between humans and animals through the use of doubling. This is particularly evident in the scene where Susan lets a wild leopard escape from a circus and culminates in the scene where the leopard is wrangled into a jail cell by David. The use of doubling…
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Seabiscuit. Dir. Gary Ross. DreamWorks Pictures. 2003.
‘Seabiscuit’[1] is a 2003 film adapted from Laura Hillenbrand’s 2001 novel Seabiscuit: An American Legend[2].The film follows the life story of an undersized racehorse named Seabiscuit, during the time of the Great Depression in the United States. Seabiscuit is born with the promise of a great future owing to his bloodlines and the stream of success displayed…
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Moonrise Kingdom. Dir. Wes Anderson. Focus Features. 2012.
Wes Anderson’s 2012 Moonrise Kingdom tells the tale of Suzy and Sam as they run away together. Our two young characters are pursued by Suzy’s family and Sam’s scout troop.
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Avatar. Dir. James Cameron. 20th Century Fox. 2009.
Set in the year 2154, Avatar (Dir. James Cameron, 2009) follows Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic ex-marine who is given the opportunity to take part in a program on the distant moon Pandora. Pandora is inhabited by a wealth of creatures and biodiversity, as well as the desirable mineral ‘unobtanium’ which the humans are attempting to…
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Babe. Dir. Chris Noonan. Universal Pictures. 1995.
Babe’s belief in his capability to function within his new identity role as sheep-pig is shattered when he learns his true purpose as bacon for the farm. Deflated of self-worth and betrayed by ‘The Boss’ he descends into a torrent of psychological self-harm, unable to eat at the prospect of his failed ambitions. [1]
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Hannibal. Dir. Ridley Scott. MGM. 2001.
Hannibal the Animal: An Analysis of Animal Presence in Hannibal Fig. 1. Hannibal Lecter. All pictures are taken directly from film unless otherwise stated. The sequel to The Silence of the Lambs, Ridley Scott’s Hannibal is set a decade after FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling (Julienne Moore) closed a serial-murder case with the help of incarcerated cannibal Dr. Hannibal…
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Water for Elephants. Dir. Francis Lawrence. 20th Century Fox. 2011.
Water for Elephants (Dir. Francis Lawrence, 2011), based on the novel of the same name, is a story about a young man Jacob (Robert Pattinson) who joins a travelling circus and is unsurprisingly about confinement and freedom. It’s brimming with animals from horses to lions to the star of the show, Rosie the elephant, all of…
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The Cat From Outer Space. Dir. Norman Tokar. Buena Vista Distribution. 1978.
As we see a feline descend from the tongue-like walkway of a cat-shaped spaceship, Disney’s 1978 film The Cat From Outer Space opens, invoking a science-fiction both familiar and alien. It is difficult to not subscribe to the film’s endearing nature of a developed animal companionship as a bond forms between human and cat that goes beyond…
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The Black Stallion. Dir. Carroll Ballard. Twentieth Century Fox. 1979.
The Black Stallion (1979) Dir. Carroll Ballard Pulled to the tropical shores of a desert island by a wild Arabian horse following a shipwreck, The Black Stallion follows the narrative of an unbreakable bond between boy and horse, man and beast. The only remnants of the shipwreck that remain are the black stallion (The Black), the boy (Alec)…