ZooScope

Tag: HAR: Trade

  • Shrek. Dir. Vicky Jenson and Andrew Adamson. Dreamworks. 2001.

    Directed by Vicky Jenson and Andrew Adamson Produced by Jeffrey Katzenberg, Aron Warner, and John H. Williams Production Companies were Dreamworks, Dreamworks Animation, and Pacific Data Images _____________________________________________________ While the 2001 film Shrek has a large cast of animal characters, both mythical and realistic, it is the part of Donkey that is of real interest here. There have been a…

  • Au Hasard Balthazar. Dir. Robert Bresson. Cinema Ventures. 1966.

    Au Hasard Balthazar (dir. Robert Bresson, 1966) juxtaposes the human treatment of animals with animal camaraderie between different species, emphasising a human/animal divide and how we think of animals as one homogeneous group that we are not apart of, despite biological taxonomy saying otherwise.

  • Two Brothers . Dir. Jean-Jacques Annaud. Universal Studios. 2004.

    ean-Jacques Annaud transports us to the richly beautiful Cambodian jungle in the early 1920s , where two tiger cubs, Sangha and Kumal, are born to their stable and loving family unit. Their playful brotherly bond creates many adventures until violence and greed removes the two from the wild and forces them into the human domain…

  • 102 Dalmatians. Dir. Kevin Lima. Walt Disney Pictures. 2000.

    Feathers Amongst the Furs: The Revival of Power Dynamic in 102 Dalmatians The visuals of the original 1961 animation and the 1996 live-action adaption have become iconic to those familiar with the story of 101 Dalmatians. The sea of black spots dispersed across endless white furs. The gangly, striking screen presence of the archetypal villain,…

  • Project X. Dir. Jonathan Kaplan . Twentieth Century Fox. 1987.

    Project X explores the journey of a chimpanzee named Virgil, taking him from the safety of his home with psychologist Teri Macdonald to an Air Force base where he participates in a secret experiment named Project X that trains chimps as pilots.  We learn that Teri has taught Virgil to communicate with humans via American Sign…

  • Outbreak. Dir. Wolfgang Peterson. Warner Bros. 1995.

    Outbreak forewarns of the devastating consequences of animal exploitation, encapsulating them in the scene where Jimbo delivers Betsy, host monkey for the deadly Motaba virus, to a pet shop where she will be sold illegally. The camera employs an establishing shot of Jimbo’s car on a road surrounded by a forest, juxtaposing road and forest in…

  • Wir sind im Zoo. Dir. Bruno Kleberg. Progress Film-Verleih. 1953.

    We are at the zoo is an 1953 Film about a class of pioneers visiting the Leipziger Zoo in the German Democratic Republic. On their visit the class is being accompanied by an Off-Speaker, who comments on the action and introduces the animals while the pioneers walk through the park. In most cases this is…

  • Mighty Joe Young. Dir. Ron Underwood. Buena Vista Pictures. 1998.

    Film provides a platform for racial stereotypes to indoctrinate its viewers and relay social prejudices. Lester and Ross argue that ‘the predominant juxtaposition of images of blacks and social problems- welfare, crime, poverty, drugs, violence…implicitly helps to activate long-existing stereotypes of blacks as sambo and savage’ [1]. The black African poachers in Mighty Joe Young…

  • Samsara. Dir. Ron Fricke. Oscilloscope Laboratories. 2011.

    Samsara (2011) is a non-narrative documentary directed by Ron Fricke.[1] “Samsara” is a Sanskrit word for the cycle of birth, life and death. Through this theme, the film aims to ‘illuminate the links between humanity and the rest of nature, showing how our life cycle mirrors the rhythm of the planet’.[2] One particular sequence depicts the different…

  • Chicken Run. Dir. Peter Lord and Nick Park. Pathe Distribution Ltd.. 2000.

    I must have first seen Aardman Animation’s Chicken Run (2000) around the age of seven, not long after its initial release, and I remember frequently quoting it after that. But the film’s self-consciousness about its family audience, manifested in the wonderful attention to detail, has meant that I have kept enjoying, noticing and learning new…