Beasts of the Southern wild, a movie well known with glowing reviews, now why has this movie seen so much success? This is most effectively shown when comparing it as an environmental movie with Wall-e another very successful environmental movie.
When comparing the two movies there are some obvious and significant differences. Firstly, there is a big difference in styles. Wall-e is an animated movie whilst beasts of the Southern Wild is live-action. This is important as I believe that being animated somewhat downplays the meaningfulness of the movie, although neither of the stories actually occurred it becomes more obvious that the Wall-e isn’t real. That version of the earth does not exist. Whilst a live-action movie inspires thoughts such as “Could this happen?” and “why has this happened?”, an animated movie undoubtedly did not happen. Despite this there is a benefit to being animated, live-action films such as “Beast of the Southern wild” appear imposing or heavy in information whilst animation feels less threatening and almost disarms the audience making it more engaging and allowing the audience to retain a greater amount of information. In other words, there is merit to both styles.
This ties into the next difference which is a difference in the intended audience. Wall-e is a family film created by Pixar with its main demographic being young children. Personally, I remember watching this movie at the age of 5 and thought it was very moving and helped me become more aware and mindful of environmental waste at a young age. I could see how this type of movie would have a similar impact on other children my age, with the emotional aspect of the movie being very strong. The message of the movie is on commercialism and environmental impact, “We create too many non-biodegradable things which will cause our planet to be overwhelmed with toxicity and threaten extinction amongst all life”. This was quite obvious and easy to understand, a clear warning for the young children who will become the future of our world.
The messages on the environment made throughout “Beasts of the southern wild” are more subtle and abstract. It requires the audience to seek behind the surface and look for deeper meaning. There are also darker themes such as the father suffering from a disease most similar to sickle cell anemia which can be fatal. Themes such as abandonment, injustice, climate change and poverty. This is most likely to get the effect of the audience trying a new worldview and hopefully expand their own. As these themes are darker, the intended audience is likely more mature, such as adults. I think the messages behind the movie played a major part in its success.
The movie “Beasts of the southern wild” played with the audience’s emotions, through character development. At first, the father appears aggressive and even violent, gaining sympathy for Hushpuppy. He also appears quite hedonistic and selfish yelling at his child and forcing them to stay in their shelter throughout the devastating storm. This not only endangered his life but also Hushpuppy’s and appeared self-serving however throughout the movie it is shown that he genuinely wants what’s best for Hushpuppy. His actions may be considered unwise however his intentions are good, this is shown when he doesn’t want Hushpuppy to witness his death. So by the end of the movie when he’s on his deathbed and his heart finally stops beating, I almost felt sad and sympathetic to this character who at first appeared uncivilized and irritating. The way each of the characters progressed and evolved throughout the movie was very interesting and kept the movie engaging.
Overall, the movie was very intricate and well thought out. It attempted to widen the audience's viewpoint and give a new perspective from both Wink a poor father suffering from a fatal disease and Hushpuppy, a naïve child following his father and his ideals. The movie had a good ending as well with a conclusion to Wink’s long battle with his disease and showing the progression that Hushpuppy has made to maturity.
Bibliography:
Franz Lidz (2012) How Benh Zeitlin Made Beasts of the Southern Wild
Benh Zeitlin (2012) Beasts of the Southern wild
