Tag: HAR: Military
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Watchers. Dir. Jon Hess. Universal Pictures, Alliance Releasing. 1988.
How are human-animal relationships redefined when the lines dividing their respective humanity and animality are warped for scientific advancements? Director Jon Hess explores these altered dynamics within the 1988 science fiction horror film Watchers. When a devastating fire rips through the Banodyne Research Laboratories, the ongoing chaos is manipulated into an escape by two genetically-engineered…
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Watchers. Dir. Jon Hess. Universal Pictures, Alliance Releasing. 1988.
If humans and animals navigate separate spheres within their shared world, then what becomes of creatures whose existence crosses into both realms? Jon Hess’s 1988 science fiction horror film Watchers queries the animal presence within humanity through the camera techniques used during the genetically-engineered OXCOM’s first attack on Travis Cornell. (Above) Humanity’s Fascination with Human-Animal…
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An American Tail. Dir. Don Bluth. Universal Pictures.1986
An American Tail tracks the adventures of Fievel Mousekewitz a brave (and reckless) little mouse, his Russian-Jewish family, and their treacherous journey from Russia to New York in the search for the American Dream that will put some distance between them and cats… or so they thought. The film tells a story within a story,…
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Big Miracle. Dir. Ken Kwapis. Universal Pictures. 2012.
”And we ache for them cause they are so much like us”. Rachel Kramer. The film Big Miracle is a drama directed by Ken Kwapis and distributed by Universal Pictures in 2012. It is based on the book Freeing the Whales written by Tom Rose in 1989, which narrates the 1988 Operation Breakthrough to rescue…
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Kubo and the Two Strings. Dir. Travis Knight. Laika. 2016
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 perilous adventure, which his mother has tried to save him from, accidentally finds him. Kubo can tell stories using the magical music of his shamisen…
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An American Tail. Dir. Don Bluth. Universal Pictures.1986
“There are no cats in America“ Don Bluth’s An American Tail is a 2D animation family film in which the human drama of religious persecution, poverty and immigration at the end of the 19th century is narrated through the eyes of a Russian Jewish family of mice, the Mousekewitz, and particularly through Fievel, the seven-year-old…
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The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, Dir.Jay Russell, Sony Pictures Releasing, 2007, U.S.
The filmmakers of The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep present audiences with the idea that a wild, Scottish mythological creature can (a) exist, (b) be a pet, and (c) a friend, to a young boy. Angus and the water horse’s friendship makes the point that not only can dogs be ‘man’s best friend’, but…
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Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Dir. Michael Dougherty. Warner Bros. Pictures. 2019.
“Good thing he’s on our side” … “For now” How do we define the term ‘Monster’? Or perhaps, how should we define it? Is there ever a possibility that the monster we feared can end up being the hero we never knew we needed? This is the question posed within Michael Dougherty’s 2019 Action film…
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Wolfwalkers. Dir Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart. Apple TV+. 2020.
The woods are getting smaller every day. At the core of 2020’s Wolfwalkers is a fable about environmental degradation: the mounting destruction of the natural world, and the subjugation of those who live in tune with it. From its very beginning, the film seeks to examine and even disrupt the human/animal boundary in a unique…