Stubby

"Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero" (PG, 1:24) is an animated adventure, based on the true story of an American Army unit's canine mascot during World War I. Stubby (so named because of his small tail) was a stray and hadn't received formal training as a military working dog, but his contributions to his unit during the trench warfare at the Western Front during the Great War made him the first canine promoted to the rank of sergeant and, ultimately, the most decorated dog in U.S. military history. This computer-animated movie is directed and co-written by Richard Lanni, whose resume includes writing and directing big and small screen depictions of the final year of World War II. Lanni's co-writer, Mike Stokey, is a combat veteran who has served as a military advisor for numerous films and TV shows.

The titular mutt latches onto Army private Robert Conroy (voice by Logan Lerman) after Robert tosses him a cookie during a military parade. Stubby follows Robert to the make-shift basic training area for the Connecticut National Guard on the grounds of Yale University and won't leave him alone. Robert is afraid that Stubby's presence will get him and his tentmates, Elmer Olsen (Jordan Beck) and Hans Schroeder (Jim Pharr), in trouble, but Stubby charms their drill sergeant (Jason Ezzell) and gets to stay.

When the unit prepares to go fight, Robert bids Stubby a sad farewell, but Stubby refuses to let his best friend leave him behind. Stubby manages to jump on the troop train and then stow away on the ship taking the soldiers to France. Stubby continually manages to charm everyone around him - including the military powers-that-be - to whom he also demonstrates his usefulness - and stays with New England's 26th Infantry Division all the way to the front. When Robert is assigned to join a burly French soldier named Gaston Baptiste (Oscar nominee Gérard Depardieu) on his scouting missions, Stubby comes along, which is just the beginning of the pooch's exciting, dangerous and heroic wartime adventures.

"Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero" is an engaging and educational animated adventure. In spite of the horrors of war surrounding him, Stubby's charming, happy and loving nature clearly shines through. Meanwhile, there's a lot of educational value here (aided by sparse narration by Oscar nominee Helena Bonham Carter as Robert's older sister) - especially for younger Movie Fans who don't yet understand what war is (or know much about history), but are too young to be exposed to more graphic or complex depictions of man's inhumanity to man. That all makes this an unusual, but valuable and entertaining animated movie which is likely to appeal to kids, dog lovers and history buffs of all ages. "B+"

I usually watch violent crime dramas and so this is a radical departure from my usual taste in films. I loved Sgt. Stubby,. The animation is incredible and the story a great tale (or tail) of doggy heroism during WWI. Stubby was a mutt from New Haven, Connecticut who was adopted by a military unit in 1918. America sent troops to France to fight the Germans and the doggy was hidden on a ship. Stubby had an uncanny ability to sense danger and warn his human masters. He also found wounded soldiers and alerted his caretakers as to their location. I have added this movie to my ten best list of 2018.

I unfairly thought it would be obnoxious, corny & vanilla, like a Christian Redbox rental. Instead, it's an authentic & beautifully storied family film, & probably the greatest kid's war movie of all time. It was such a smart idea to not overly personify Stubby, making his incredible story all the more endearing. Even with a noticeable lack-of-budget in the animation & vocal performances, this heartfelt true story is better than anything Dreamworks, Illumination, or Blue Sky have put out in years.

You don't very often see kids movie which are based on true stories or war. But that's what this film is about. And surprisingly, it works.

The strengths are the score, the story and the fact that it doesn't have one of the likely endings one might predict. I suspect the outcome is largely due to this being based on a true story. I'm unaware how accurate this portrayal is to the real story, but it seemed like a respectable adaptation to me. The way they managed to show the awful reality of The Great War, while keeping it G rated is really a difficult triumph. It's important for kids to have movies that highlight errors in war, as opposed to just the victories and heroism. This film highlights both.

The weaknesses: the voice acting doesn't stand out as great. The dialogue isn't a strength. But they get a longer leash (no pun intended) because it's a kids movie. The animation is great in the 2D segments, and much of the 3D animation is fine. However there are clips where I can tell they didn't have the funds to make the animation as good as they'd like it to be. The clips of the soldiers marching seem noticeably too synchronized and took me out of the story.

Overall, I recommend this film to anyone. It's not a film expect to win Oscars or nominations. But, It's a distinctive likable real-story dog movie. And the film is especially good if you want a mostly uplifting real story for kids about a subject they likely know little about: World War 1.

I'm probably in the minority, but I find the history of World War 1 to be just interesting and important as World War 2. It seems the average person knows 10 times more about World War 2 than World War 1 and there's about 10 World War 2 movies for each World War 1 movie. World War 1 highlights how futile and unnecessarily evil war can be even for the victors. World War 2 on the other-hand, often enables the attitude of supporting war, because a lot of the losses to world war 2 seem worth it or necessary because of what was gained and what was at stake. A lot of wars are more like WW1 than WW2, and this is something we should all understand.

This historically accurate, non bloody, non gore children's film perfectly captures the horrrors of war in a perfect 90 minutes. The film is based on the experiences of a small dog called Stubby and several key characters in his life during the later stage of World War I. I would have to say it's perfect for elementary aged kids if you wanted to show them how the war was fought and how it impacted the lives of civilians. My 9 year old loved the film and wishes to see it again.