Mannequin (1987)
Just because Jonathan's fallen in love with a piece of wood, it doesn't make him a dummy.
Jonathan Switcher, an unemployed artist, finds a job as an assistant window dresser for a department store. When Jonathan happens upon a beautiful mannequin he previously designed, she springs to life and introduces herself as Emmy, an Egyptian under an ancient spell. Despite interference from the store's devious manager, Jonathan and his mannequin fall in love while creating eye-catching window displays to keep the struggling store in business.
In Mannequin, consciousness is carried by toys and objects — a plane of “store-window romance”. The story fights on E8/E11 of the E0–E14 reality ladder, compressing love, art, exploitation, identity.
Same rung, same subject
Films fighting at the same level of reality, about the same things.
Same subject, different rung
The same preoccupations examined at another scale — one mind versus a nation.
Also hides consciousness here
Other films that move a human interior onto the same kind of thing.
The Happytime Murders (2018)consciousness in objects · puppet noir
Barbie in the Nutcracker (2001)consciousness in objects · toy-kingdom adventure
Christopher Robin (2018)consciousness in objects · toy-wood reality
Once Upon a Snowman (2020)consciousness in objects · snowman odyssey
Hawaiian Vacation (2011)consciousness in objects · toy bedroom
Air Doll (2009)consciousness in objects · air dollSame subject, different mask
The same preoccupations carried by a different kind of thing — grief told through the dead, an animal, a machine.
Bolt (2008)consciousness in animals · exploitation, identity
Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000)consciousness carried elsewhere · exploitation, identity
Swamp Thing (1982)consciousness in monsters · exploitation, identity
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)consciousness in animals · exploitation, identity
Venom (2018)consciousness in aliens · exploitation, identity
Venom: The Last Dance (2024)consciousness in aliens · exploitation, identity
