Fido

Time: 1 Hour and 31 Minutes

Box Office: $304K

Film Analysis

Step 1: Pre-Viewing

1. Title of film: Fido
2. Director & Producer: Andrew Currie
3. Release Date: June 15, 2007
4. Film Genre: Horror, Comedy

Step 2: Viewing

1. Important moments: An important moment in the film is when the Robinson's buy Fido, the family's first zombie pet that is kept under control by a Zomcon collar. Timmy Robinson becomes best friends with Fido and at the same time their neighbor owns a young female zombie named Tammy as his girlfriend. Another important moment is when there is a malfunction with the Zomcon collar and Fido accidentally eats their neighbor. There is a zombie riot at Zomcon which leads to the death of Timmy's father for when Zomcon's security chief tries to throw Timmy to the zombies in order to keep the company's secrets safe. Fido however, rescues Timmy and kills the evil chief. Timmy's mom then discovers that she is happier with Fido than with her previous husband and Fido is restored into the family. 

2. Atmosphere of the Film: The film uses establishing shots, close ups, and medium shots. In the beginning, an establishing shot is used to show the classroom being shown a video about Zomcon and another is used to show the home of Timmy Robinson. Close ups are used to show the character's reactions and emotions. Happy tunes are used throughout the film to give it an oldies sort of feel. The lighting is bright and sunny to add to the result of the society being content with the zombie pets. 
3. What is the mood or tone of the film? The mood of the film is happy and cheerful.
4. Explain the look of the film: The look of the film is vintage and family oriented. 

5. Explain the use of sound/music and/or sound effects in the film: The sounds used in the film are silly which adds to the family oriented quality. The music in the film has more of a happy tune to it more than anything. 

6. Physical qualities presented in the film: The physical qualities presented in the film are black and white, color, music, and background noise.  Black and white was used for the video that was shown to the class in the beginning of the film, as it zoomed out of the video, the rest of the film was in color.  Background noise and cheerful music was often used whenever Fido and Timmy were spending time together around town. 

Step 3: Post-Viewing

1. What is the central message of this motion picture? The central message of this film could be about American culture and values and how it's absolutely ridiculous. 

2. Consider the effectiveness of this film communicating its message. As a tool of communication, what are its strengths and weaknesses? The film communicates this message effectively because of the way their society is shown with everyone wanting zombie house pets and the Robinson's simply owning one because everyone else has one. 

3. How do you think the filmmakers wanted the audience to respond? I think the filmmakers wanted the audience to laugh and be heart-warmed with the type of bond/relationship between Fido and Timmy and Fido and Timmy's mother.

4. Does this film appeal more to the viewer’s emotion? How does it make you feel? Yes, it does appeal to the viewer's emotion. It made me feel happy with what the outcome was at the end of the film on how Fido was re-welcomed into the family after saving Timmy from the riot. 

5. Write a question to the filmmaker that is left unanswered by the motion picture: How did the war between the humans and zombies begin?

6. Would you recommend this movie to your friends? (Y/N)? Yes, I would recommend this movie to my friends. 

7. How would you grade this movie? (E-NC) I would give this film and AE for its creativity and for what it had to say about our cultural values. I found it interesting because of the time and the setting it took place in. The movie was also funny and cute.