What's you favorite animal book or movie?

One of my favorite childhood books was called Where the Red Fern Grows. It was about a poor boy living in the Ozark mountains who works to buy a pair of hound puppies and trains them to hunt. An incredible story, but a real tear-jerker! I also constantly read books about horses as a kid - way too many to list. A movie that I loved that comes to mind featuring an animal was The Black Stallion (I also read and loved the book series). Are there any animal-featured movies that bring back good memories for you? I also watched a British show called Black Beauty that was syndicated on Nickelodean years ago.

 

I grew up with Lassie. It was a TV show with a collie dog that could solve problems and find missing people.
"Lassie get help"

 

I collect Snoopy books. I just love the wit and spunk of Snoopy and his friendship with Charlie Brown. I also love The Black Stallion. Other of my favorites includes Old Yeller, White Fang, Call of the Wild and Mr. James Herriot’s books. I also watched Black Beauty and Lassie when I was younger. Too bad there are no dog or horse TV series nowadays. Old and young would definitely love that. But at least these animals still fair in the movies. And also the old dog and horse TV series are already uploaded in Youtube where one can watch. I wonder if there are other networks where we can clearly and regularly watch them.

 

I totally forgot about Snoopy. Then I remembered Dog in a Footrot flats comic strip which was made into a movie. I just loved Dog. Here is the song and some clips of the movie.
http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/footrot-flats-a-dogs-tale-1986

 

Wow! Thanks for the link, argon. This is a new one for me to keep me occupied while I'm at liberty from work. I'm also going to search for the strips. Normally the wonderful stories or personalities of the dog character are there.

 

I also like that Snoopy comic books.
I do have several favorite movies about dogs/animals like 101 Dalmatians, Eight Below, Babe and Black Beauty.

 

There was one time when I was writing content for a site about movies which starred cats and dogs. So I watched a lot of such movies and read up about cats and dogs.

Some movies I remember but not very significantly. Like the Buddies series. Enjoyable but not too memorable. Some movies made me think about them even a long time afterwards. One such movie is Turner and Hooch. What stuck in my mind about that movie was that the director killed the canine star at the end.

Another one that I remember well is The Plague Dogs. It's an animated movie but the story is very brutal. I doubt if it would have been released to public viewing if it was live action.

 

Now, this got me curious (although every movie where a dog has to die is brutal to me). Does this movie is somehow related to societal issues?

 

Not sure if I had watched any of those movies mentioned since I am not familiar with those titles.
The movies that I can hardly appreciate usually had sad or bad endings.

 

Here's Turner and Hooch. Guess which one is Hooch?

 

LOL I actually do a little research online to know who is Hooch.
I am now sure that I have not watched this movie yet. The dog look really nice and not scary even he was huge.

 

Hooch is the one on the right.

His real name is Beasley and he is a French Bullmastiff or Dogue de Bordeaux, ie a Dog of Bordeaux, where the breed originated from. Other than being a world-class slobberer, a Dogue de Bordeaux also has the biggest head in all of caninedom, with matching jaws. So imagine what it's like to have a Dogue de Bordeaux with its jaws firmly clamped on your throat.

That's what Tom Hanks, who played Turner in the movie, had to find out early in the movie.

btw if you are thinking of getting a Dogue de Bordeaux, please keep in mind that its normal life span is only about 5 to 6 years.

 

My husband really wants a Hooch. I don't know if I could deal with that drooling - I grew up with a Basset Hound and she was bad enough.

 

I also adore Snoopy! I still watch all the holiday Peanuts shows on T.V. whenever they're on, and I'm 40 years old. Some things you never outgrow.

 

That’s sad. It’s bad enough that you only got to be with your dog at most 12-15 years and with this dog you only have 5-6 years. But like they say, “Life is made up of years that mean nothing and moments that mean it all.”

 

Life is made up of years that mean nothing and moments that mean it all.

That's a very good quote. Where did you get it from? I like it.

 

I don’t remember where I get it, sir. From time to time I search for a quote about something to serve as a reminder to me or when I’m looking for the right word to say to someone and can’t find it in my brain I would search for old sayings or quotes then I would soon find myself encountering a memorable one like it.

 

The movie Hachiko is one of my favorite movies about dogs.. But when it comes to birds,nothing beats the movie Paulie.

 

Here's another movie which I like. It's not about a dog. It's about a wolf (well, the wolf is the dog's ancestor, right?) and a lamb. This is the poster of the movie:


One word of advice.
Buy a very big box of tissues before you watch this movie.

 

Has anyone read The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein? It's supposed to be an awesome book about dogs, but I've never had my hands on it before.

My favorite book about a dog will probably always be Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. I know it is children's fiction, but I read it when I was younger and it has always stuck with me. I actually met Kate DiCamillo a few years ago at a literary festival. She was such a nice person!