Animal Themes in Film/Literature

[Blackhawkeye]

Help me think of some movies and books that have extensive animal themes, symbolism, metaphors, etc... Got a paper to write, but I'm not asking for ideas on the thesis or key points, just need a fertile piece to focus on.

[Blackhawkeye]

Oh yeah, and not Jaws.

[Aankh]

the ultimate animal metaphor books:
George Orwell - Animal Farm
Richard Bach - Jonathan Livingston Seagull

then there's...hmm...
Jack London - Call of the Wild, and White Fang (not so much metaphorical, as narrative)

can't think of others off the top of my head.

[Ranchoth]

Well, it's a well known fact that "Mrs. Frisby and the rats of NIMH" was an allegory of the struggle between Trotskyism and Leninism, albeit with a "happy ending" tacked on to appease the publisher.

And, oddly enough, "Rio Bravo" was based on a study on Herbivore-Carnivore relations.

[MLS]

Yes, Animal Farm is the best example. See also Watership Down.

Not exactly all-animal, but The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe has symbolism associated with Aslan.

The Lion King, Bambi and all the other Disney and Disney-esque animated movies. Mostly they are coming-of-age movies with the young animal being comparable to a young child.

Charlotte's Web.

[Tangent]

Watership Down. Excellent book.

[Humble Servant]

Kafka's Metamorphosis is the Mother of the "Oh Dear, I Seem to Have Turned Into a Giant Cockroach," genre.

TH White's The Once and Future King includes a bunch of episodes where the young King Arthur is turned into different kinds of animals to learn lessons from them.

[No Me Ayudes Compadre]

Amores Perros is all about dogs, and also pays artistic tribute to numerous other movies with "Dog" in the title.

[Ellen Cherry]

Moby Dick comes to mind also, but I highly recommend Watership Down.

[Hello Again]

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell -- I'm pretty sure the book was intended as a treatise against certain forms of animal cruelty (overwork and inhumane harness contraptions spring to mind).

Old Yeller by Fred Gipson

The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

[noodler]

Maus (ok, not a novel, but still universally accepted as literature)

[Zebra]

Some Films

King Kong

The Bear

The Black Stallion

Babe the Gallant Pig

[Archergal]

Beast fables:

The Book of the Dun Cow and The Book of Sorrows by Walter Wangerin.

Both have something of a Christian theme, in the way that the Narnia books do. All the characters are animals though.

They're very good too.

[scotandrsn]

Picnic at Hanging Rock
Secret of Roan Inish
The Birds
The Incredible Mr. Limpet
Lair of the White Worm

(okay, okay,...)

[Zebra]

and I forgot one

Project X

existentialism + monkeys + Matthew Broderick = chaminging little movie.

[Foolonthehill]

Aesop Fables?
Man has been using "animal as metaphor" probably as long as we have had a structured language.

[KinSaba]

To the above I would add other books by Richard Adams - The Plague Dogs and Shardik leap to mind. As well as The Red Pony by John Steinbeck.

[Blake]

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents; Terry Pratchett
Last Chance To See; Douglas Adams (both narrative and symbolic/metaphorical)
Gulliver's Travels (particularly the Houyhnhnms chapter); Jonathon Swift

[Laughing Lagomorph]

Lord of the Flies? It's been a loooong time since I read it, but I seem to remember some imagery with the pigs (not to mention the flies).

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck has some parts comparing the community of animals in a tide pool to a community of people, and also some symbolism in a chapter about a gopher.

I third/fourth/whatever Watership Down.

Wind in the Willows. Different animals have different human character traits, depending on what species they are (weasels and stoats are evil, Mole is loyal, etc.).

Winnie the Pooh. Same idea here.

The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemmingway. Pretty much everything with the bullfights is a metaphor for, well, something. Life or something. I think I was out that day.