Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Listening to Nonhuman Animals in Science Fiction Film: Establishing Empathy Through Dinosaur Voices in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

2024; Springer International Publishing; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/978-3-031-41695-8_6

2634-6346

Jerika Sanderson,

Environmental Philosophy and Ethics

The genre of science fiction (sf) can allow us to explore the potential impacts of biotechnological interventions on nonhuman animals. Through depictions of nonhuman animals in sf film, we can determine which audiovisual methods effectively encourage audiences to empathize with nonhuman animals. This chapter addresses this question by investigating depictions of dinosaurs in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018). Several techniques are employed to encourage the audience to empathize with the dinosaurs, including carefully designed "voices" through which the dinosaurs communicate with each other and with humans, and an elocutionary approach to the dinosaur voices in the film provides insight into the effects these voices have on the audience. This chapter demonstrates that the dinosaur voices and the reactions of the human characters to these voices frame the audience's perspective on the environmental issues presented in the film and the ethical implications arising from the creation of biotechnologically altered animals.