Our Project

We are a group of researchers affiliated with the Faculty of Modern Languages, Institute of English Studies at the University of Warsaw, Poland. Our animal studies project, funded by Poland’s National Science Centre and titled Animal Adaptations: Film Adaptations of Literary Animal Characters, from the Silent Screen to Hollywood’s Golden Age, explores book adaptations featuring animals actors.

Specifically, we explore the fascinating world of adapting animal fiction into film, focusing on movies made between 1919 and 1970. While some of the novels we are looking at have won Pulitzers and some movies have been nominated for Oscars, others are considered a form of popular entertainment or are intended for a purely juvenile audience. What unites them all is the presence of major animal characters.

When a story moves from the page to the screen, especially a story featuring animals, everything changes. The way animals are portrayed, the kind of scenes they are involved in, and even the fact that in films we hear their sounds and see their movement changes our reception of the text. So, what happens to these animal characters during this transformation?

Our project aims to answer some intriguing questions: How do filmmakers decide which parts of an animal’s story to keep and which to change and how do the limitations of working with animal actors influence such choices? How do literary techniques of depicting an animal’s mind (free indirect discourse, first-person narration) translate into film techniques? Are some aesthetic categories (for example, cuteness) associated only with one of the two media? How does having a live animal (or multiple animals) on set affect the way a movie is made? And what ethical issues arise when using real animals in film production?

We are not just looking at the fun stuff—we are also digging into the serious side: the ethical issues related to the process of making movies with animals. One reason why we are looking at non-animated movies, is because it is the liveness of the actors that is key for our approach. For example, did you know that real horses died during the filming of “Jesse James” (1939), which led to the creation of the American Humane Association’s label “No animals were harmed during the making of this movie”? There are also many instances where the behavior of animal in the movie is meant to be read one way (e.g. the animal is happy), while an ethologist’s eye can easily spot that this interpretation is incorrect (e.g. the animal is highly stressed).

This project is not just about the past; it is about understanding how we treat animals in entertainment today. Even though modern movies often use CGI, real animals are still sometimes used, and controversies can arise if they’re mistreated. By looking back at Hollywood’s Golden Age, we can learn how to do better now and in the future.