Tag: Sheep(s)

Zootopia. Dir. Byron Howard and Rich Moore. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. 2016.

Zootopia [1] presents a story about the first rabbit police officer teaming up with a fox confidence trickster to stop their city descending into anarchy. The film is a modern take on a classic animal fable, using Aesopian tropes of animals representing certain personalities alongside a technology rich, modern setting.

23rd January 2017
Animal Farm. Dir. John Halas, Joy Batchelor. Pathe, Universal, RKO . 1954.

Halas and Batchelor’s 1954 Animal Farm holds a firm place in cinematic history as Britain’s second animated feature. The film is based on the 1945 novella by George Orwell and is often read as an allegory for communism and Stalinism. The unrest of the animals and desire for revolution also has echoes of Marxist ideas about the…

18th January 2017
Aladdin. Dir. Ron Clements and John Musker. Disney Studios. 1992.

Ron Clements’ and John Muskers’, Aladdin (1992) [1] follows the life of a poor street dweller and his sidekick monkey, Abu in the fictional city of Agrabah. After being coerced into entering the subterranean ‘cave of wonders’ by the villain Jafar and his accomplice parrot, Iago, Aladdin retrieves a magic lamp containing a genie. With the…

16th January 2017
Shaun the Sheep The Movie. Dir. Mark Burton and Richard Starzak. Studiocanal. 2015.

Restaurant scene Starzak and Burton challenge our perceptions of human and animal intelligence in Shaun the Sheep The Movie. Aardman excel in casting the animals as intelligent and exasperated by humans, meanwhile humans are portrayed as less so, and oblivious to animal antics happening directly in front of them. The scene in which the sheep dine…

16th January 2017
Shaun the Sheep The Movie. Dir. Mark Burton and Richard Starzak. Studiocanal. 2015.

Shaun the Sheep The Movie trailer Following his introduction in Nick Park’s Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave, the woolly star, Shaun the Sheep, received his own spin off show creatively named Shaun the Sheep. Nearing the 20th anniversary of the nation’s introduction to him, the eponymous sheep was given his own movie. Shaun the Sheep The Movie follows the antics…

16th January 2017
Babe. Dir. Chris Noonan. Universal Pictures. 1995.

Babe’s belief in his capability to function within his new identity role as sheep-pig is shattered when he learns his true purpose as bacon for the farm. Deflated of self-worth and betrayed by ‘The Boss’ he descends into a torrent of psychological self-harm, unable to eat at the prospect of his failed ambitions. [1]

25th January 2016
Sweetgrass. Dir. Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Ilisa Barbash. Cinema Guild. 2009.

Spend three years following some Montana shepherds, then five years editing over 200 hours of footage, and you end up with Sweetgrass.1 This documentary film examines the reality of the human-animal relationship between a shepherd and his flock – a relationship in which both parties are completely dependent upon each other. With an unflinching eye and slow…

25th January 2016
Charlotte’s Web. Dir. Gary Winick. Paramount Pictures. 2006.

Based on the classic children’s story by E. B. White, Charlotte’s Web (2006) follows the journey of a runty piglet, Wilbur (Dominic Scott Kay), saved by the farmer’s daughter Fern (Dakota Fanning) and raised on the nearby farm. Wilbur remains friendless until he meets Charlotte (Julia Roberts), the spider who lives in the barn. Although initially…

25th January 2016
How to Train Your Dragon 2. Dir. Dean DeBlois. 20th Century Fox. 2014.

Five years after Hiccup successfully ended the war between humans and dragons, he faces many new conflicts. He and his village of both species are living happily until they learn that the cruel and brutal Drago Bludvist is building a dragon army and will soon come to take them over. While rushing out to stop him, Hiccup…

23rd January 2016
Belle and Sébastien. Dir. Nicolas Vanier. Gaumont. 2013.

Belle and Sébastien is an action and adventure children’s film that touches on animal bond and servitude. During the era of German soldiers raiding French towns for Jewish refugees, the townsmen of a southern French town are hunting for a beast – Belle, a Great Pyrenees dog gone feral. They believed she was the killer…

21st January 2016