Red Dog - L'inizio

Animal abandonment hits me hard.

I did not see the first movie and I do not know the story about this dog.

I was lured in by the description. Boy finds scruffy dirty puppy that later becomes a legend.

I waited all movie to find out when the legend part was going to happen only to see a broken hearted dog chasing the helicopter the boy was in as he left to live with his mom.

The boy who is now a man with his own family narrates the story.

As the movie ends he reveals that he never seen his dog again. Which means the dog wandered for the rest of his life looking for the boy and was never reunited.

Meanwhile the boy grew up and had a fulfilled life. Lots of great education, fell in love, got a great job and had his own children.

The first movie of Red Dog tells more of the adventures of the Red dog which shows him helping people. Yet the dog searched for his boy until he died.

Good family movie and sad at the end....................

Just saw this tonight -- it was the opening film for this year's Berlin Berlinale. Went with my 8-yr. old daughter and two friends, one adult, one 14-yr. old, and we all enjoyed ourselves. It's a basic coming-of-age film -- not particularly out-of-the ordinary in terms of genre, but well-done, professional and very likable. Some good writing, good characters, beautiful Western Australian locations, and Phoenix -- the dog lead -- is just great. The film was recommended for 8 & up at the Berlinale, and I thought it worked well for my daughter. The film also hints at a few more thorny issues -- colonialism, abandonment, adult relations -- but also manages to keep the basic Boy meets Dog story at the center. For me it was a welcome relief to watch a good-quality live-action children's film, rather than another animated one.

I feel bad having to give only a five rating as the lead character was a young person who acted his heart out and did so well but the movie doesn't deserve a higher ranking. I would have enjoyed it ever so much more if it didn't have the feel of movie-making by numbers: we must have some homosexual characters, we must knock Christians (this time mission nuns), we must have mystical Aboriginals etc... political correctness will be the death of good story telling. There is nothing wrong with each of these individually but it felt contrived as if the director had to get them on screen somehow.

And as much as I love stories about dogs I felt this one tried to milk that good will too much. The dog chasing the plane when the boy leaves, it was all too much. Maybe I would give it a higher rating if it hadn't been called Red Dog as it felt like a blatant cashing-in on that crazily enjoyable film.

This wasn't a story about the dog it was a story about a boy becoming a man. Great scenery, great acting and great dog it just didn't come together as a good story.

This was a nice "doggie" story but fairly predictable and did not seem to relate much to the original story in the book.

One question that comes to mind also is how much research did the film crew do on props? This was a period story set in the late sixties / early seventies. The cars and (e.g.) suitcases looked authentic, but what about the guitar that Stemple (the young stock man) was often seen playing? This looked to me like a modern Maton guitar! There are are hundreds of vintage Maton guitars out there, so why not use one from the correct period?.

These days if you are going to make a period story set forty years ago, at least make a bit more effort with the props!