Major Genre: Adventure

Kubo and the Two Strings. Dir. Travis Knight. Laika. 2016

Kubo and the Two Strings. Dir. Travis Knight. Laika. 2016 1454 620 Louise Smith

Figure 1: Kubo lifted in the air by wings made of origami birds. Kubo and the Two Strings follows a boy whose life is made even more extraordinary when a…

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Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. Dir. Jake Kasdan. Sony Pictures Releasing. 2017.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. Dir. Jake Kasdan. Sony Pictures Releasing. 2017. 1280 720 Alison Johnston

Trapped in a tropical jungle with wild animals and no allergy spray; what could possibly go wrong? Oh, and also, you are now in a different body and have to…

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Song of the Sea. Dir. Tomm Moore. StudioCanal. 2014

Song of the Sea. Dir. Tomm Moore. StudioCanal. 2014 1920 1040 Kirsty Laverack

Figure 1 – Film poster Song of the Sea is full of magic, mystery and mayhem. Ben, a ten year old Irish boy, discovers that his mute sister Saoirse is…

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Porco Rosso. Dir. Hayao Miyazaki. Studio Ghibli. 1992.

Porco Rosso. Dir. Hayao Miyazaki. Studio Ghibli. 1992. 555 298 Catriona Keep

Porco Rosso follows a former fighter pilot who abandoned the Italian military, transformed into a pig, and becomes a bounty hunter that fights pirates. One day he meets American pilot…

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Spirited Away. Dir Hayao Miyazaki. Toho Company Ltd. 2001.

Spirited Away. Dir Hayao Miyazaki. Toho Company Ltd. 2001. 560 360 Eve Bayliss

Miyazaki’s 2001 Spirited Away, blurs the binary of human, animal, mythology, and spirit. Each character has its own version of this intersectionality, creating different presentations of ontology that in turn…

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Porco Rosso. Dir Hayao Miyazaki. Studio Ghibli. 1992.

Porco Rosso. Dir Hayao Miyazaki. Studio Ghibli. 1992. 150 150 Catriona Keep

The cinema scene in Porco Rosso tells us a lot about how stereotypes are assigned onto animals through media to serve specific agendas, in this case they are largely political.…

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The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, Dir.Jay Russell, Sony Pictures Releasing, 2007, U.S.

The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, Dir.Jay Russell, Sony Pictures Releasing, 2007, U.S. 150 150 Louise Smith

Figure 1: ‘The Surgeon’s Photograph’ of the Loch Ness Monster. A blurry, dark figure emerges out of the water. GETTY IMAGES [1] The filmmakers of The Water Horse: Legend of…

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