Tag: HAR: Metamorphosis/Transformation
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The Craft. Dir. Andrew Fleming. Columbia Pictures. 1996.
‘Big animals steal from little ones’ – Bonnie Harper (Neve Campbell) The Craft (1996) epitomises the intensity of teenage female friendships, and how quickly and violently these bonds can be broken. This kind of teenage sisterhood and its potential for moments of both great beauty and disaster is played out through the use of animals…
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A Whisker Away. Dir. Junichi Sato & Tomotaka Shibayama. Studio Colorido, Netflix. 2020.
In their 2020 film A Whisker Away, Junichi Sato and Tomotaka Shibayama explore the story of 14-year-old Miyo Sasaki, who transforms into a cat with the help of a Noh mask. Provided by a mysterious mask seller in a cat body, the mask enables Miyo to be close to her school crush, Hinode, who rejects…
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Tusk. Dir. Kevin Smith. Smodcast Pictures. 2014
The film opens with Wallace and Teddy who host a popular podcast where they discuss viral videos and interview internet celebrities. Wallace travels to Canada to interview someone, however upon arrival it is clear they have committed suicide. Annoyed he flew to Canada for nothing, he stumbles across a letter in a pub’s bathroom stall…
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A Whisker Away. Dir. Junichi Sato & Tomotaka Shibayama. Studio Colorido, Netflix. 2020.
In A Whisker Away, the 14-year-old Miyo Sasaki takes extreme measures in order to be close to her school crush Kento Hinode, even accepting a cat mask from a dubious mask seller to be able to transform into a cat. Upon closer examination, it quickly becomes apparent that Junichi Sato & Tomotaka Shibayama tackle much…
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Babar, King of the Elephants. Dir. Raymond Jafelice, Alliance Communications. 1999.
Babar: King of the Elephants (1999) is an animated film adaptation of Jean de Brunhoff’s popular children’s books. Written and directed by Raymond Jafelice the story tells the tale of Babar who witnesses his mother killed by poachers. Babar manages to escape and leaves the jungle (an unnamed fictitious South African jungle) , visits the…
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A Dog’s Journey. Dir. Gail Mancuso. Universal Pictures. 2019.
They say that dogs are man’s best friend, but what if that best friend who with you from birth stayed longer than a lifetime? Two years after A Dog’s Purpose (2017), we follow again the paw prints of Bailey (voiced by Josh Gad), whose purpose in life is not yet over. In this sequel, Ethan…
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The Thing. Dir. John Carpenter. Universal Pictures. 1982.
The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982) uses dogs as an emotional catalyst to evoke a heightened sympathetic response from its audience. The alien organism – adopting the exterior of a dog – exploited the trustworthy, friendly associations that humans have with dogs in order to infiltrate the research lab after observing human-animal relationships. Clark, a researcher,…
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Pet Sematary. Dir. Mary Lambert. Paramount Pictures. 1989.
Mary Lambert’s 1989 adaptation of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary is a horror film that supplants the blood-thirsty killer with a household pet – one which becomes increasingly unfamiliar as the film progresses. Aided by a combination of practical and special effects, the Creeds’ ghostly cat Church transitions into an object of the uncanny, and thus…
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Sorry to Bother You. Dir. Boots Riley. Annapurna Pictures. 2018.
Boots Riley’s debut feature has been praised for its portrayal of the callous nature of capitalism in modern America. The overarching message throughout is that the efficiency of the labourer is paramount to economic success and is valued more than human life, with this ideology being brought to life with the Equisapians, a half-human/half-horse hybrid,…
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Brother Bear. Dir. Aaron Blaise, Robert Walker. Walt Disney Pictures. 2003.
Brother Bear works to trouble the relationship between humans and bears through destabilising the idea that bears are inherently threatening and monstrous. The children’s animation follows Kenai, a young human boy who is transformed into a bear by spirits after killing a bear to avenge his brother’s death. Within this scene, Blaise and Walker use…