Reel Dogs in Art Week 3

The hero’s journey has been a major theme of Reel Dogs since 1943, when one of the most famed and beloved dog movies of all time was released, Lassie Come Home.

From Lassie to Benji to Bingo, it seems dogs on the big screen are always trying to get somewhere. And it’s always very, very difficult. They’re attacked by wild animals, struck by cars, kidnapped, and abused. They battle against starvation, blizzards, raging rivers, city streets, and animal control officers in their fight to find their people, or simply to stay alive. Here are just a few of these journey hounds celebrated in art:

The modern classic of animal journey movies is Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993), a remake of the 1963 film and based on Sheila Burnford’s beloved novel. This sketch portrait of “Chance” (American Bulldog, Sure-Grip’s Rattler) by GoldieRetriever captures the enduring personality behind one of these three unforgettable characters.

Japanese classic Nankyoku monogatari (Antarctica, 1983), follows an epic journey, not of travel, but of survival at the bottom of the world for a sled dog team of fourteen Sakhalin Huskies and one Alaskan Malamute. The heroes of this true story, Taro and Jiro, are painted here by SanctuaryWarrior.

In Fluke (1995), a dog is on a quest to find his family. But he’s not a dog. And it’s not his family. Fluke, seen in this emotive portrait by Wolfinden, is a man reincarnated in a canine body and recalling only flickering images and feelings of his past life. Yet some of those images prompt him to set out in search of that life.

The artwork above is published here by kind permission of the artists; GoldieRetriever, SanctuaryWarrior, and Wolfinden of deviantART.

Watch for more Reel Dogs art next week!

Daily Reel - Benji (1974)

Joe Camp tried hard to sell his idea—but who would pay to see a scrawny mutt running around town, making friends and rescuing children for 86 minutes? Camp was laughed out of Hollywood. He made the movie himself. He’s still having the last laugh.

The budget for Benji was around $500,000. The film grossed about $40,000,000 when released in the U.S. Benji, trained by the legendary Frank Inn, made history and goes on today to delight audiences both young and old with half a dozen feature films, a TV show, and many TV specials and documentaries.

It turns out moviegoers really are in search of simple stories, no thrills productions, and adorable mutts taking center stage. At least every now and then. A new Benji film is currently in pre-production and we can look forward to many more years of being inthralled by “America’s most huggable hero.”

Produced by Mulberry Square Productions