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Just as in life, animals have always been part of the movies…especially dogs. In the current Superman film (highly recommended) the Man of Steel’s dog Krypto has a major role. Krypto first appeared in Adventure Comics in 1955. He proved so popular he became part of the Superboy universe. The fact that he is amazingly all CGI (I could not tell) makes his contribution to this version remarkable. He’s comic relief and rescuer in chief. And fun to watch.
Dogs are universally loved and have had many successes in cinema. The first known appearance by our furry friends was in 1905 when a collie named Blair starred in a silent British film, Rescued by Rover. A German Shepherd named Rin Tin Tin became an international star and went on to make 27 films and a vaultful of money for Warner Bros. Although the original “Rinny” died in 1932, other dogs took his moniker for serials and the popular 1950s TV show The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin.
In the Thin Man movies we had Asta, the playful fox terrier (real name Skippy) of married sleuths Nick (William Powell) and Nora (Myrna Loy) Charles. Skippy has some impressive credits to his name; he was in two Cary Grant films, The Awful Truth and Bringing Up Baby, as well as Topper Takes a Trip.
1943 brought us a charismatic collie in Lassie Come Home and the public fell in love. In 1954 Lassie made her television debut and lasted 19 years on the small screen. In 1955 the TV sitcom The People’s Choice premiered and introduced Cleo, a basset hound whose thoughts were heard commenting on the latest predicament star Jackie Cooper got into. Cleo was voiced by Mary Jane Croft, who later became better known through her many appearances on all the incarnations of Lucille Ball’s TV shows, starting with I Love Lucy. Another famous TV dog is Jack Russell Terrier Eddie from the NBC comedy Frasier. If you can steal scenes from Kelsey Grammar, you know you’ve made it.
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In Disney’s The Shaggy Dog from 1959, teenager Tommy Kirk is turned into a sheepdog and hilarity ensues. Four years later, Disney came out with The Incredible Journey, a tale of two dogs and a cat traveling over 250 miles to get home. In fact, Disney is probably the number one employer of our four-legged friends. They have released Old Yeller, The Ugly Dachshund, Benji the Hunted, Turner & Hooch, White Fang, Iron Will, Eight Below, and many more…including Air Bud and its many sequels (14 if you count Air Buddies).
Cartoons also got into the canine act. Dogs were featured in some early cartoons in the 1920s. Later, Disney had Goofy and Pluto; M-G-M had Droopy, a basset hound created by Tex Avery; and Charlie Dog, Sam the sheepdog, and Hector the bulldog were among the Looney Tunes menagerie at Warners.
On the small screen, 1962’s The Jetsons gave us Astro; from 1964-67 we had Underdog, voiced by Wally Cox; and starting in 1969 there was Scooby-Doo, a Great Dane with a penchant for mystery solving. When Charlie Brown became animated we got Snoopy. And we have had the fake intellectual Brian Griffin of Family Guy for 23 seasons and counting. My favorite is Santa’s Little Helper, whose origin story was in the very first episode of the long-running The Simpsons (I know it’s fashionable to hate on the show after 36 seasons, but there’s still some smart social commentary going on in it).
If you are looking for good cries based on true stories I suggest Marley & Me, and especially Hachi: A Dog’s Tale, a truly beautiful film (check out my article about Hachi here). For laughs watch Christopher Guest’s mockumentary Best in Show, with a stellar cast that includes Parker Posey, Jane Lynch, Fred Willard, and Eugene Levy. Or for more family oriented fare there are the eight(!) Beethoven films, My Dog Skip, Clifford’s Really Big Movie, All Dogs Go to Heaven, and The Secret Life of Pets.
For serious adult themes there’s 1982’s controversial White Dog starring Kristy McNichol, who plays an actress who inherits a dog that has been trained to attack black people. Paramount got cold feet about releasing it (“Nooo…not Paramount,” he says sarcastically) fearing reprisals from the African-American community. It was eventually released for one week and then shelved, but was shown in the United Kingdom to positive reviews. The uncut DVD version is available from Criterion. There’s also 1974’s A Boy and His Dog, a sci-fi black comedy based on a novella by Harlan Ellison and featuring a pre-Miami Vice Don Johnson and his telepathic canine companion, Blood.
If you want to go really dark, there’s Stephen King’s killer St. Bernard in 1983’s Cujo. More recently, 2023 brought Strays to the cinema. An acerbic comedy about an abandoned (SHAME!!!) dog who seeks revenge on his abusive owner, it features the voices of Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx.
The most famous cinematic pooch–and probably the most memorable–is Toto from The Wizard of Oz. Toto, whose real name was Terry. A female Cairn Terrier, Terry made her film debut with Shirley Temple in 1934’s Bright Eyes and went on to make many more films. It is said for The Wizard of Oz she made $125 dollars a week…more than the Munchkins were paid. What can I say? She had animal magnetism.
Even though this is a post about man’s best friend, I can’t end it without mentioning a few of the contributions the feline set has made on the silver screen. Disney (them again!) gave us That Darn Cat, The Aristocats, and The Cat from Outer Space. The Austin Powers franchise introduced Dr. Evil’s follicly challenged Mr. Bigglesworth. Alien had Ripley’s cat Jones. And my personal favorite, Pyewacket, debuted in the bewitching Kim Novak/James Stewart starrer Bell, Book and Candle. Who are some of your favorites? All species included.