Reel Dogs in Art Week 4

More than comedy, tragedy or danger, journeys home or lost dogs, dog movies reinforce something we already know: human beings have no greater friend and companion than the dog.

These three beautiful portraits show us heroes of modern canine films. Dogs who work for us, believe in us, love us, and never give up on us.

Fly and Rex became canine celebrities when Babe (1995) was the first major motion picture to allow animals to speak with anthropomorphic mouth movements using CGI. These Border Collie heroes, painted by Chicamiau, not only put in a 40+ hour week for their farmer, they shape the destiny of a little pig who longs to grow up and be just like them.

In 1987, Japan’s most famous dog, Hachikō, a cream Akita, was immortalized with a beautiful film paying tribute to the dog who waited for his dead guardian to return to their meeting point at Shibuya Station. For ten years.

In 2009 Hollywood released a new adaptation of the Hachikō story with Hachi: A Dog's Tale. In this portrait by Cederin, Hachikō waits through the winter.

Another true story, Red Dog (2011) is an Australian film celebrating the life of a Kelpie who traveled Western Australia in search of the one man he had claimed as his own. BooYeh here captures the spirit of this rugged traveler and the red desert he called home. See a Reel Dogs review of Red Dog here. 

The artwork above is published here by kind permission of the artists; Chicamiau, Cederin, and BooYeh of deviantART.

Thanks for following along with Reel Dogs’ Art Weeks!

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!

Reel Dogs in Art Week 1

For the next three Wednesdays, we’re exploring dog movies through art.

In 1895 the first film exhibited to a paying audience featured two dogs: Employees Leaving the Lumière Factory a.k.a. La Sortie des usines Lumière (1895). It wasn’t until ten years later that a dog starred in a his own short. Rescued by Rover (1905) was a sensation in Great Britain and the idea of a dog playing a dramatic role in motion pictures was born.

Years later, movie dogs began appearing regularly in short films from New York, then Hollywood. Throughout the 1910s Hollywood dogs were mostly comedic players, from Keystone Teddy to Luke and Brownie. The legendary Charlie Chaplin was one of many stars to recognize the tremendous comic potential of dogs on screen.

This piece from The Champion (1915), by LaurasMuse, shows Chaplin with Bulldog sidekick in one of his early dog films. The Champion was later overshadowed by A Dog's Life (1918) as a true dog centered comedy, juxtaposing a stray dog’s life with that of a human tramp. The Gold Rush (1925) features more comic canines adding laughs throughout the script.

Strongheart was largely responsible for recasting Reel Dogs as dramatic players in the 1920s: heroes of the silver screen who rescued women and children, drove away bad guys, and were wrongly accused of something or other (often sheep killing) in every single film. This portrait sketch of Strongheart is by amberchrome. You can see Strongheart today in one surviving film from the era: The Return of Boston Blackie (1927).

After Strongheart and Rin-Tin-Tin paved the way for feature films wholly centered around canine characters, dog hero wannabes popped up in nearly every studio. Many did become well known and by the 1930s there were dozens of A- and B-list dog stars and their equally famed trainers.

One of the top Hollywood canines of the 1930s was another comedic actor with an impeccable sense of timing and devilish twinkle in his eye: Skippy, a Wire Fox Terrier, was rechristened Asta after the famous character he played in the Thin Man series. This striking sketch card portrait of Asta is by drewerd.

The artwork above is published here by kind permission of the artists; LaurasMuse, amberchrome, and drewerd of deviantART.

Watch for more Reel Dogs art next week!