Animal Rights and Narrative Films

Abstract

This chapter on animal rights and narrative films approaches storytelling as an effective way of moving an audience, changing their lifestyle and motivating them to take action against the abuse of farmed animals. The cinematic portrayals of horror and hope range from flibbertigibbet animated ones to those filled with pathos and others that expose the cruelties found on farms and in the awfulness of some humans. Some end happily ever after in something of a fairy-tale mode whereas others are suffused with sadness. The role of the screenwriter is shown to be important, with screenplays often written by or in concert with the director. The seventeen films discussed here were made between 1936 (Be human) and 2017 (Ferdinand, Okja, and Carnage: Swallowing the past) in English, French, Japanese, Korean and Tamil, and have been divided into five categories: adaptations from novels, animated antics, the quest, docudrama and downers.