Films Research

Avatar 

Avatar is a 2009 American epic science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron, and starring Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana. The film is set in the mid-22nd century, when humans are mining a precious mineral called unobtanium on Pandora, a lush habitable moon of a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri star system. The expansion of the mining colony threatens the continued existence of a local tribe of Na'vi – a humanoid species indigenous to Pandora. The film's title refers to a genetically engineered Na'vi body with the mind of a remotely located human, and is used to interact with the natives of Pandora.

Setting

The movie takes place on Pandora, a fictional moon orbiting the planet Polyphemus in the Alpha Centauri star system. Pandora is a planet set 200 years into the future which reflects old-fashioned jungle  with an environmental conscience.

For the film's mountain ranges, the designers drew inspiration from "many different types of mountains, but mainly the karst limestone formations in China." According to production designer Dylan Cole, the fictional floating rocks were inspired by Mount Huang (also known as Huangshan), Guilin, Zhangjiajie, among others around the world. Director Cameron had noted the influence of the Chinese peaks on the design of the floating mountains.

To create the interiors of the human mining colony on Pandora, production designers visited the Noble Clyde Boudreaux oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico during June 2007. They photographed, measured and filmed every aspect of the platform, which was later replicated on-screen with photorealistic CGI during post-production.

Horton Hears a Who

Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! is a 2008 American computer-animated adventure comedy film based on the Dr. Seuss' book of the same name. The film was directed by Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino. It features the voices of Jim Carrey and Steve Carell.  The film tells the story of Horton the Elephant who, in the afternoon of May 15 while splashing in a pool located in the Jungle of Nool, hears a small speck of dust talking to him. Horton discovers that the speck of dust is actually a tiny planet, home to a microscopic community called Whoville, where the Whos reside. The Whos are led by a character known as the Mayor.

Setting

The Jungle of Nool is a safe, normal jungle. It's beautiful and filled with lush scenery. Most important, though, it is all that the jungle animals know. They've grown up here and this is the reality that they see. So when they hear about Who-ville—which is definitely not a jungle—they feel like they have to destroy it. We're definitely getting some Cold War vibes, here.

The use of a very natural setting makes it an even more interesting contrast to the Whos, who live in a place with lots of technology and doo-dads that aren't around in jungle land. 

How to train your Dragon

How to Train Your Dragon is a 2010 American 3D computer-animated fantasy film by DreamWorks Animation loosely based on the English 2003 book of the same name by Cressida Cowell. The film was directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois. It stars the voices of Jay Baruchel and Gerard Butler.

The story takes place in a mythical Viking world where a young Viking teenager named Hiccup aspires to follow his tribe's tradition of becoming a dragon slayer. After finally capturing his first dragon, and with his chance at finally gaining the tribe's acceptance, he finds that he no longer has the desire to kill it and instead befriends it.

Setting

How to Train Your Dragon is set on the frozen scottish island of Berk, a constant theatre of war fought over by a variety of colourful flying beasties and a cheerfully violent tribe of Vikings.

Rango

Rango is a 2011 American computer-animated action comedy western film directed by Gore Verbinski and produced by Graham King. Rango was a critical and commercial success, and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

In the film, Rango, a chameleon, accidentally ends up in the town of Dirt, an outpost that is in desperate need of a new sheriff. It features the voices of actors Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Bill Nighy, Abigail Breslin, Alfred Molina, Harry Dean Stanton, Ray Winstone, Timothy Olyphant and Ned Beatty. It was released to theaters on March 4, 2011.

Setting

Rango is set in a dusty frontier town where all the inhabitants are animals - talking animals. The citizens of dirt live in human-like homes.

Frankenweenie

Frankenweenie is a 2012 3D stop motion sci-fi family film directed by Tim Burton. It is a remake of Burton's 1984 short film of the same name and is a parody of and a homage to the 1931 film Frankenstein based on Mary Shelley's book of the same name. 

Like both those films, Frankenweenie is in black and white. It is also the fourth stop-motion film produced by Burton and the first of those four that is not a musical. In the film, a boy named Victor loses his dog, named Sparky, and uses the power of science to resurrect him.

Setting

Compared to other stop-motion animation sets, Frankenweenie's set is much larger. As IGN notes, the main character Sparky had to be "'dog-size' compared to the other human characters.  The film has a similar off-key suburban setting like Burton's earlier film "Edward Scissorhands" and shares the same balance of that film's darkness. 

Metropolis

Metropolis is a 2001 anime film loosely based on the 1949 Metropolis manga created by the late Osamu Tezuka, itself inspired by the 1927 German silent film of the same name, though the two do not share plot elements. The anime, however, does draw aspects of its storyline directly from the 1927 film. The anime had an all-star production team, including renowned anime director Rintaro, Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo as script writer, and animation by Madhouse Studios with conceptual support from Tezuka Productions.

In this story, also set in an astoundingly beautiful futuristic city, with three tiers of inhabitants - the elite, the human working class, and all the way at the bottom, the slave-like robots. The powerful corporate leader who runs Metropolis, Duke Red, has created a structure called the Ziggurat, a huge tower designed to control all information and machines in the world. To make this possible, he hires Dr. Laughton, a genius criminal scientist to make a an super-android focal point of the Ziggurat, who is designed in the image of his daughter.

Setting

Metropolis is a futuristic city where humans and robots coexist. Robots are discriminated against, and segregated to the city's lower levels. A lot of Metropolis human population is unemployed and deprived; many people blame the robots for taking their jobs.

Fantastic Mr Fox

Fantastic Mr. Fox is a 2009 American stop-motion animated fantasy-comedy film based on the Roald Dahl children's novel of the same name. This story is about a fox who steals food each night from three mean and wealthy farmers. The farmers are fed up with Mr Fox's theft and try to kill him, so they dig their way into the foxes' home. However, the animals are able to outwit the farmers and live underground.

Setting

Fantastic Mr Fox is set on a farm in the Uk/ Europe.

District 9

District 9 is a 2009 action/thriller film directed by Neill Blomkamp. It was written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham. The film stars Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, and David James. In 1982, a massive star ship bearing a bedraggled alien population, nicknamed "The Prawns," appeared over Johannesburg, South Africa. Twenty-eight years later, the initial welcome by the human population has faded. The refugee camp where the aliens were located has deteriorated into a militarized ghetto called District 9, where they are confined and exploited in squalor. In 2010, the munitions corporation, Multi-National United, is contracted to forcibly evict the population with operative Wikus van der Merwe in charge. In this operation, Wikus is exposed to a strange alien chemical and must rely on the help of his only two new 'Prawn' friends.

Setting

The setting of District 9 is inspired by historical events that took place in South Africa during the apartheid era, with the film's title particularly referencing District Six. District Six, an inner-city residential area in Cape Town, was declared a "whites only" area by the government in 1966, with 60,000 people forcibly removed and relocated to Cape Flats, 25 km (15 mi) away. The film also refers to contemporary evictions and forced removals to new suburban ghettos in post-apartheid South Africa as well as the resistance of its residents. This includes the high profile attempted forced removal of the Joe Slovo informal settlement in Cape Town to temporary relocation areas in Delft, plus the attempted evictions of Abahlali baseMjondolo and evictions in the shack settlement, Chiawelo, where the film was actually shot. The temporary relocation area dubbed Blikkiesdorp, has also been compared with the District 9 camp earning a front page spread in the Daily Voice.