ZooScope

Tag: Mythology

  • The Sea Beast. Dir. Chris Williams. Netflix. 2022.

    Chris Williams’ Netflix movie The Sea Beast is a film which follows the generational indoctrination of a society, in which the ruling classes have fabricated a war against sea beasts in order to maintain their power and control of humans and animals alike. In this scene however, the human/animal relationship of mistrust and antagonism begins to break…

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

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

    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 create varying perceptions. The film encourages us to reflect on how our own perceptions of fear in cinematic animal species are moulded through the presentation…

  • Wolfwalkers. Dir Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart. Apple TV+. 2020.

    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…

  • Howl’s Moving Castle. Dir. Hayao Miyazaki. Studio Ghibli. 2004.

    There is a surprising lack of non-human animal representation in Studio Ghibli’s 2004 film Howl’s Moving Castle, despite an overarching theme which frequently pits an idyllic pastoral version of Japan against a threateningly industrial one. The major depiction of human-animal relations is that of secondary protagonist Howl as he gradually transforms into a bird-like creature…