Dogs go to Hollywood!

It's another fact universally acknowledged that if you are watching a movie or a TV show and a dog comes onscreen, your neighbor will lean over to you and whisper "If the dog dies I'm turning this off".

If this is you, worry not! Check out doesthedogdie.com to look up "emotional spoilers". While that particular function seems a little silly to me, it turns out this is also good to screen for things that could potentially be triggering, such as suicide or torture scenes.

 

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So, dog movies. I personally refuse to watch things that have dogs in them. At their best, they are tacky and rely too much on slapstick humor (think Hotel for Dogs), and at their worst, nearly pornographic in their absurd heartstring-tugging and tear-jerking (A Dog's Purpose, Homeward Bound). 

"Is this a Dog Movie?"

Generous exception made for Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs. Because his style is so wry and direct, it cuts through the overdone Boy and His Dog thing. 

 

What I am curious about is how they train dogs to act in movies. I always thought that they must hate it, but it sounds like Wegmann's dogs really liked to pose for photoshoots, and apparently retired service dogs get jealous of the new recruits, so maybe acting isn't a bad gig. 

I found an NPR article about a Hollywood dog trainer who explains that she can get dogs to display certain emotions just by modulating her tone of voice. For instance, if she wants her dog to look sad, she talks "very slow". She says that getting a dog to show emotion is more like having a conversation with a dog you know very well and who can mirror your body language rather than giving direct commands. 

She also says that "a dog is the only animal that genuinely wants your attention and affection and praise", rather than working for food. Apparently, when there's a cat in a movie, it has to be played by 4 or 5 cats, because once one gets full, it refuses to act anymore. 

 

Mr. Ed

It also seems like a lot of practical effects with animals are being replaced with CGI. For instance, when animals "talk" in movies, their mouths are animated to make it look like they're moving to the words instead of just putting peanut butter in their mouths so that they have to move their jaws (source). Furthermore, in the Chronicles of Narnia movies, the wolves' tails were digitally edited to look more threatening because they were so excited to be in a movie they couldn't stop wagging (source). 

Now we're getting all these "live action" animal movies that are all super-realistic CGI, such as Lion King, Dr. Doolittle, and The Jungle Book. Although I know that this is just the direction animation is going, I don't like the way that so many movies are just faces on green screens. I love the creativity of practical effects and I feel like it's becoming something of a dying art.  Anyways, I promise I like movies, I'm just old fashioned.