KidLit Forum

Valiant
UK & USA (Disney), 2005,
CGI animation



Story based upon the real history of homing pigeons used by the British in World War II to secretly communicate with the French resistance just before the invasion in Normandy. The scheme worked fine, until the Germans started bringing hawks, specially trained to kill pigeons.

This is the story of an unlikely war hero. Valiant is smaller than other pigeons, and, when all the other fighters have fallen, he is sent out, after very little fight training, to accomplish a difficult mission. His band is an assortment of losers and anti-heroes. And the germann SS Haks are waiting...

bird, honing pigeon, animals helping humans,
size-does-not-matter, unlikely heroism,
pastiche of war movie

Chicken Run
UK, 2000
stop-motion animation (clay animation or claynimation) - all handmade!
by Peter Lord, Nick Park, the authors of the "Wallace and Gromit" series.





Great film by the authors of "Wallace and Gromit",
A poultry farm, that resembles worryingly a Nazi concentration camp from WWII, is to be changed from an egg farm to a meat farm for meat pies. The inmates are... well... chicken, so they are scared to do anything. A group starts to the make plans for the rescue of the prisoners. A legendary hero seems to be the catalyst of this rebellion...

poultry, domestic animals, community and individual, heroism,
industrial animal farm vs traditional farm,
parody of war film, parody of PoW camp film

Animators Nick Park and Peter Lord with their real-life clay chicken:

Garfield: The Movie
USA, 2004
combination animation (cat) plus live film (humans)



Garfield 2
2006


Before becoming a movie hero, Garfield had long been hte hero of a comics strip created by Jim Davis, like this one:


Garfield is a lazy fat tomcat that hates exercise and loves lasagna con carne.
In the first film he mingles into his master's love life, he gets into a heap of trouble and discovers who his real friends could be.

The second film has some sort of "Prince and Pauper" plot, with a Garfield-look-alike who has claims to nobility. Garfield travels to England for a story full of quiproquo and mistaken identites...

cat, pet, cat owner, feral cat, animal rights, cruelty to animals

Zambezia (2012) - Animation, adventure, comedy
Triggerfish Animation
Kai, a falcon who lives with his father in the middle of nowhere, finds one day that there is a land of birds called Zambezia, and he decides to go there and find the truth about his origins.

Keywords: falcon, birds.

Open Season (2006) - Animation, comedy, adventure.
Sony Pictures Animation

Keywords: forest, bear, hunter.

Tarzan
Disney
animation (hand-drawn)
music by Phil Collins



Classical Disney animation of Richard Rice Burrough's story.
A human boy is adopted by a family of great apes who have just lost their own cub.
He grows into a member of their herd, and then strangers arrive in the jungle, who are disquietingly alike him.
Tarzan has to decide about his true identity and to learn to distinguish the good humans (Jane and her natural scientist father) from the bad ones.

feral child, enfant sauvage, child adopted by animals,
ape, monkey, jungle, hunting, cruelty to animals.
wilderness vs civilization

Tarzan series
starring Johnny Weissmüller (born in Banat, Romania, see (url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0919321/?ref_=tt_cl_t1] IMDB[/url]
story inspired by teh novel series by William Rice Burroughs





The ultimate classic: Tarzan played by Romanian-born American actor Johnny Weismüller, who had won 5 gold medals in swimming in the 1924 and 1928 Olympic games.
Weismüller created a credible athletic hero, played all of the dangerous stunts, interacted with animaks and launched the unmistacable "Tarzan yell".

There are 12 movies in the Tarzan series:

1932 - Tarzan the Ape Man
1934 - Tarzan and His Mate
1936 - Tarzan Escapes
1939 - Tarzan Finds a Son!
1941 - Tarzan's Secret Treasure
1942 - Tarzan's New York Adventure
1943 - Tarzan Triumphs
1943 - Tarzan's Desert Mystery
1945 - Tarzan and the Amazons
1946 - Tarzan and the Leopard Woman
1947 - Tarzan and the Huntress
1948 - Tarzan and the Mermaids

feral child, jungle, enfant sauvage,
wildwenwss vs civilization

Kangoroo Jack
Warner bros., USA / Australia, 2003
CGI animation (Kangarooo) plus live (humans)



A wacky adventure film, full of zany dialogues and cartoonesque action. Two men are pursuing a kangaroo who has stolen some money they owed in a less-than-clean operation. The chase takes place across Australia outback...

comedy. kangaroo. Australia. smart animal. animal outwitting humans

The Jungle Book
Disney, USA, 1967



The Jungle Book 2
Disney 2003



The definitive adaptation of Rudyard Kipling great classic story.
Mowgli, the lost child raised by the animals of the jungle is coming of age. He begins to learn more about his true nature, and to ask questions about humans.

All interspersed with pieces of animal wisdom, with funny music and dance, and peppered with witty dialogues.

feral child, enfant sauvage, jungle, animal wisdom, animals outwit humans.

It’s an American remake of the 1987 Japanese film Hachiko Monogatari. Hachi is directed by Lasse Hallstrom, starring Richard Gere, Joan Allen and Sarah Roemer. The story is based on a true story of the faithful Japanese dog named Hachiko.


http://dragon.mixrmedia.com/wp-uploads/ ... /hachi.jpg