Culture
Now Playing: When Your Best Friend is a Monster
By: Gordon Briggs
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Now Playing is a column by film scholar Dr. Gordon Briggs. This installment in the series corresponds to the Now Playing column that ran on Tuesday, May 20 about The Legend of Ochi.
Many of us were taught to be afraid of monsters throughout childhood. However, the fantasy film The Legend of Ochi is just one of many recent fantasy movies that teach children that friendship is more powerful than fear.
Here are three examples:
Wolfwalkers (2020)
The first is an animated film for the whole family. Where Pixar’s films are soft and huggable, Wolfwalkers is sharp, angular, and coarse. The third installment in the animated Irish Folklore Trilogy follows a young hunter who befriends a native girl who can transform into a wolf. Even if fantasy is not your bag, this film could still be enjoyed for its distinctive visual style. Seriously, folks, there isn’t a dull shot in this entire film. Influenced by various art forms, including woodblock printing, watercolor, and traditional 2D animation techniques, this story unfolds in a vibrant style that contrasts the rigid, boxy town of humans with the fluid, vibrant forest of the wolves. In keeping with similar works like Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea, Wolfwalkers delivers a moral tale through a dazzling mix of color, history, and magic.
Rating: ★★★1/2
MPAA Rating: PG
Hatching (2022)
The second movie is a dark fairy tale named Hatching. I enjoy it when a horror film unfolds from a child’s perspective. Because children still believe in monsters, the movie’s blood and gore are given a fairy-tale quality. Here, we meet Tinja, a prim and proper 12-year-old gymnast whose blissful upper-class life is interrupted when she takes a mysterious bird egg into her home. After her strange egg grows and hatches, there’s literally a monster living in her closet. The neighborhood pets start to disappear, and this polite little girl starts to become a strange creature herself. This bizarre Finnish horror fantasy can be enjoyed as a fine entry into the “my friend is a monster” genre or simply as a story of a young girl so pressured into perfection that she slowly becomes a monster.
Rating: ★ ★ ★1/2
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Where the Wild Things Are (2009)
Lastly is Where the Wild Things Are. Upon its initial release back in 2009, I was lukewarm to it, but over the years, I’ve come to appreciate the offbeat weirdness of this adaptation of the classic Maurice Sendak book. Here we follow Max, a young kid who, after getting into trouble and being sent to bed, uses his imagination to transform his room into a jungle land inhabited by ferocious creatures called the Wild Things. Where other films glamorize children’s fantasy worlds, this story has a darkness and pessimism that feels true to a young character who is slowly realizing that his childhood is ending. I particularly like the film’s use of handheld cameras, which makes the computer-generated creatures look much more realistic.
Rating: ★★★
MPAA Rating: PG