Okay, I admit, most of you (especially Liz’s fans) probably already love animals, but what’s your favorite movie with an animal in a starring or major supporting role?
Jessie: I have two but they don’t seem to have a lot on common. I love Babe! Every year when I find myself out shopping during the holiday season I can hear the voice of the duck from the movie shouting in my head “Christmas is carnage!”. I also adore The March of the Penguins. After we watched it the first time my husband and I headed to the kitchen and used a grapefruit to practice passing it back and forth with our feet as if we were penguin parents sharing the safekeeping of our egg. After several tragic losses we managed it!
Julie: Real, live animals? I’ve got to admit, I avoid animal movies. When I was in 8th grade we took a class trip to NYC, and went to Radio City Musical Hall toward the end of the trip. We saw some Scottish (Welsh?) movie about a mine town, and a pony that saves people then runs back into the mine to die. I have likely misremembered the whole thing. What I don’t forget is the sobbing. My father has an Old Yeller (or was it Shane) trauma in his past, so every time the “Wonderful World of Disney” was an animal story, he changed the channel. So, I’ve got nothing.
Sherry: Jaws? Just kidding I typed “movies with animals” into a search engine and it was the first movie that popped up. I love 101 Dalmatians. When my daughter was three she watched it a lot and took to calling me mother like the puppies called their mom. Also when I’m outside and hear one dog bark, then another, then Lily, I always think of it too.
Liz: Does Kung Fu Panda count?? I love that movie! I’m afraid to watch some of the more poignant ones like A Dog’s Purpose or Marley and Me, because I know they’ll make me cry. (No, it doesn’t matter how many people are killed in a movie, as long as the dog lives.) But going back to childhood, I loved 101 Dalmatians too, but Lady and the Tramp was my favorite.
Barb: In 1989 we were camping in Maine and on a rainy day Bill and I took our two kids, ages eight and five to see a Disney Movie, Turner and Hooch. It’s a lighthearted movie about a cop, Tom Hanks, who must care for a murder victim’s dog in order to solve the crime, all while wooing the local vet (Mare Winningham). (Spoiler alert.) The dog gets shot and dies! Heroically. Bill and I are sitting there stunned, with two little kids. It was a big deal at Disney, where they believed the movie would have made a lot more money if the dog had lived. There is even the legend of a sign up at Disney studios that said, “Don’t Kill the Dog!” a reminder to their writers. But here’s the thing. I loved the movie. I love it to this day. It had a strong emotional resonance. I’m not one for “Don’t Kill the Dog.” Pets die. It engendered some really good conversation in our family.
Edith: Wracking my brain. Movie with animal, movie with animal. Nothing, so I’ll go along with Lady and the Tramp, and March of the Penguins. Ooh, wait — Charlotte’s Web! Yeah, that would be my favorite.
Readers: Add yours!
Hmm The Incredible Journey (I think it is called) about two dogs and a cat finding their family – but really I am more into cartoon/animation so Zootropolis or The Rescuers!
Incredible Journey. Great book, too!
The Red Pony…I cried and I never cried at movies at that age.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it. Must fix this.
Incredible Journey for sure, and Warhorse, and The Yearling and Winn Dixie.
The Yearling! How did we leave that one out?
Hmmm. Hard to think of any recently unless you count How to Train Your Dragon, but as a kid in the 1950s, I was a big fan of both Lassie and Rin Tin Tin on TV and Roy Rogers had a dog named Bullet and I liked the horses, Trigger and Buttermilk, too. I could never bear to watch Old Yeller. Bambi was hard enough😳
I loved Lassie, too. “Timmy’s down the well!”
Flipper
Oh my goodness, yes!
I’ll go with Edith on Lady and the Tramp–that’s one of the first ones I remember. But it’s hard to forget Old Yeller (1957 Disney film), largely because of it’s very non-cozy ending (I won’t spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it).
Lady and Tramp and Old Yeller seem to be touchstones for people.
Haachi and A Dog’s Purpose both make me cry in a good way. A Dog Named Christmas is also wonderfully heartwarming. And Turner & Hooch hits all the right elements.
Another Turner and Hooch fan! A Dog’s Purpose is On Demand now and I have been considering…
Babe. Homeward Bound (the Incredible Journey movie). The Yearling. Secondhand Lions. Milo and Otis. The Black Stallion. Iron Will. My Dog Skip. Saving Shiloh. War Horse.
Except for War Horse, all of those came from my DVD collection–a perk of having kids. We spent a lot of hours curled up together watching movies. I still watch Babe every time it plays.
Another habitual Babe watcher. It’s like a cult!
I love Bambi (1942), and So Dear to My Heart (1949), both Walt Disney movies. And I agree that The Incredible Journey is a great animal movie. Charlotte’s Web and Babe round out my list of animal movies I love. Nice to think about these – will have to introduce my granddaughter to all of these!
Great idea. Me, too.
I loved the movie Eight Below. Paul Walker was in it, but the dogs were the stars.
I also loved Lassie, the one with a very young Elizabeth Taylor in it.
I’ve never seen Eight Below. Thinking I must fix that…
It’s amazing. I love the dogs in it.
How did I forget Homeward Bound and Eight Below? Both heartwarming movies.
Yes, definitely thinking I need to find Eight Below.
Men in Black II, Frank the Pug! I love his version of “I Will Survive.”
So funny!
Add me to the Homeward Bound and 101 Dalmatians fans. Must admit, my only connection to Turner and Hooch is the line in Castle. “You do remind me a little of Hooch.”
🙂
I avoid movies that animals are in except animated movies. I’m always too scared something will happen to the animal – I just can’t take that.
I saw some tv movie once upon a time that had a girl injured in an accident where a horse trailer slid off the side of a mountain road and dragged the truck down with it and … JUST NOPE!
That said, I love me some Zootopia and Sing! 😀
Sing! How is that just making the list now.
Forgot Seabiscuit!
How did we forget that one?
I’m with Aimee and others about live animal movies. Something awful happens. Just can’t watch that. I cried so hard (from fear) during Lady and the Tramp my parents had to take me out of the theatre. Madagascar was a great animated film.
Madagascar!
Homeward Bound, Charlotte’s Web, all the Disney cartoon movies with animals, Balto for sure and oh so many more. As long as the dog doesnt die of course (or whatever animal it is). Animals make everything better!
Balto! We are creating quite a list.