Tag: Monkey(s)

  • Rio. Dir. by Carlos Saldanha. Blue Sky Studios and 20th Century Animation. 2011.

    Rio. Dir. by Carlos Saldanha. Blue Sky Studios and 20th Century Animation. 2011.

    Opening with the vibrant celebration of colours and exotic sounds of the Brazilian rainforest, our focus is drawn to a nervous exotic baby macaw bird called Blu who plucks up the courage to attempt his maiden flight. Predictably he tumbles towards the ground, making a soft spongy safe landing, before commotion strikes and an attack…

  • Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!. Dir. By. Peter Lord. Columbia Pictures. 2012.

    Aardman never shy away from the ludicrous. So when a crew of incompetent pirates endeavour for protagonist The Pirate Captain to win the Pirate of the Year Award by relying on the commercial value of his prized dodo companion Polly (who should have been extinct for 150 years and is believed to be a parrot)…

  • Dumbo. Dir. Tim Burton. Walt Disney Studios. 2019.

    Magic. Mayhem. Friendship. Freedom. Come on down to Medici’s circus, where the newest attraction is an adorable baby elephant with ears too big to handle. Watch him soar above and follow his heart as he dreams of being reunited with his mother, so tragically torn apart! Follow him to Vandevere’s circus, where he is a…

  • The Simpsons Movie. Dir. David Silverman. 20th Century Fox. 2007.

    Why does everything I whip leave me? – Homer Simpson, The Simpsons Movie The Simpsons Movie is characterised by imprisonment vs agency – the central plot revolves around the incarceration of the town of Springfield using a giant glass dome as a punishment for environmental damage – therefore it seems only right to extend the…

  • Twelve Monkeys. Dir. Terry Gilliam. Universal Pictures . 1996.

    Twelve Monkeys begins: human beings whoop and rattle in cages, buried deep underground. Wild animals roam free in the streets; in the churches, on top of this underground prison. But who dug the hole? The animals or the human… …beings? The deadly virus which forced the survivors to flee underground came from the animals. But the…

  • Jumanji. Dir. Joe Johnson . TriStar Pictures . 1996.

    Ever felt like your life was just one long game, and everything to happen was caused by the roll of a dice? No? Well try living 26 years inside Jumanji, a game where all of your psychological fears and anxieties manifest in the shape of wild animals, whether they are excessively oversized mosquitos and spiders,…

  • Alice in Wonderland. Dir. Tim Burton. Walt Disney Pictures. 2010.

    The film draws on the viewer’s knowledge of the Disney original in the tea party scene, making it a ruin of what it once was, and presenting the Hatter as even more ‘mad’. He is seen for the first time in a close up shot, slowly looking up towards the camera, vacantly staring into the…

  • The Wolf of Wall Street. Dir. Martin Scorsese . Paramount Pictures. 2013.

    The Wolf of Wall Street is a biographical dark comedy that follows the life of criminal stock broker, Jordan Belfort. The presence of animals in the film draws attention to human-animal relationships and their differences. More specifically, this scene uses a goldfish to highlight these differences, as well as the film’s message about the greed and…

  • The Golden Compass. Dir. Chris Weitz. Warner Bros. Pictures. 2007.

    The Golden Compass is set in a parallel universe where old fashioned styles (like cars and dresswear) mixes with modern technology, such as electric motors. In this universe everyone has what is called a daemon, who act as guides to their masters. These daemons take form in a specific animal that best represents their master’s personality.…

  • White Dog. Dir. Samuel Fuller. Paramount Pictures. 1982.

    Sam Fuller’s final Hollywood film, White Dog (1982), is based on Romain Gary’s 1970 ‘nonfiction’ novel of the same name and tells the story of aspiring actress Julie Sawyer (Kristy McNichol), who after accidentally hitting and injuring him with her car, adopts a seemingly lovable white German shepherd. The plot is complicated when, after two…