Tag: Wolf(s)
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The Grey. Dir. Joe Carnahan. Inferno. 2012.
‘You are going to die. That is what’s happening.’ After spending five monotonous weeks working as a hired wolf exterminator ‘doing some of that sniper shit’[i] at an oil refinery in Alaska, near suicidal John Ottoway (Liam Neeson) boards a plane bound for home, along with his fellow men ‘unfit for mankind.’[ii] When their flight clashes violently…
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Shrek. Dir. Andrew Adamson & Vicky Jenson. DreamWorks Pictures. 2001.
Shrek (2001) is a film that invests in the fairytale tropes found in literature to create humour. Characters are typecast and stereotypes are flung at the audience in the beginning scenes of the movie. This is important for establishing the roles of animals in the film, because most of them, being objects of fairytale discourse, are…
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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…
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Fantastic Mr. Fox. Dir. Wes Anderson. 20th Century Fox. 2009.
Mr. Fox in Fantastic Mr. Fox is a charismatic selfish father that puts his own wants and needs before his family. The narrative follows Mr. Fox and his many escapades of stealing chickens and putting his family and town into harm’s way by interfering with three powerful corporate farmers. After being fooled one too many times, the…
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Belle and Sébastien. Dir. Nicolas Vanier. Gaumont. 2013.
Belle and Sébastien Synopsis It is the summer of 1943 in a small village in France and there is something disturbing the livestock of the area. Sébastian, a young orphaned boy, continues his usual wildlife exploring and accidently runs into the ‘beast’ everyone was talking about – a Great Pyrenees – whom he later names…
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We Bought a Zoo. Dir. Cameron Crowe. 20th Century Fox. 2011.
We Bought a Zoo is a film loosely based on a memoir of the same name by Benjamin Mee which describes his purchase and restoration of the failing Dartmoor Wildlife Park – subsequently renamed Dartmoor Zoological Park – in preparation for its reopening. In the film, the death of Benjamin’s wife has led to a…
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Earthlings. Dir. Shaun Monson. Nation Earth. 2005.
Fig. 1 The original release poster for Earthlings, the film’s oft repeated challenge to the viewer to ‘make the connection’ features prominently alongside pictures of plants, animals and the evil emperor Commodus (representing humankind). ‘How do you know if someone is Vegan? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you’. So proclaims an increasingly popular meme. Type preachy into…
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Fantastic Mr. Fox. Dir. Wes Anderson. 20th Century Fox . 2009.
2009 saw Wes Anderson turn his unique eye for detail and style to stop motion animation, with his adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. The film has a distinct and consistent colour scheme of warm oranges and browns, changing only to show the warehouses and homes of the evil farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean.…
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The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe . Dir. Andrew Adamson. Buena Vista Pictures. 2005.
In an old house in the midst of the Second World War, entry to the magical world of Narnia is discovered hidden away in a dusty wardrobe behind even dustier coats. Once in this magical land, whose rule by the omniscient lion Aslan has been overthrown, the Pevensie children must help restore Narnia to its former…