A short while ago I mentioned animal adventure movies, a type I find best exemplified by the likes of “Homeward Bound,” “Milo and Otis,” or “Babe.” Not many movies belong to this subgenre of pet films, but that shouldn’t matter because as a pet lover I ought to revel in all animal films, right?
Wrong. Pet adventure movies are just about the only animal films I can take. I find most other pet films soppy or overly sentimental. I don’t mean to insult those who love them, I just can’t watch them.
I think it’s because many other pet movies fall resoundingly into the “heart strings-tugging” film category. I don’t mind crying at movies; I’ve made no efforts to hide how most Pixar films cause me to tear up. But the problem is I think I’d cry the whole way through pet movies, and that’s just too exhausting.
Those Humane Society commercials on the television that flash pictures of sad warm eyes pleading with viewers behind the bars of a shelter cage nearly cause me to sob. I’ve talked before about how worked up I get watching many shows on Animal Planet. So a whole movie dedicated to the poignant relationship between pets and their owners, one that usually ends with the pet’s inevitable demise, cushioned as it is by a happy long life, would simply destroy me.
Take, for instance, recent hit “Marley and Me.” A best selling book about a dog and his family turned into a Hollywood movie starring famous names, filmed in the area my parents live and around which I grew up, it ought to be perfect for me. Although I know that most of the movie revolves around adorable puppy Marley’s actions, I also know how the story ends. Everyone around me says “the end is so sad!” and then they wonder why I don’t want to see it. I’d rather not think about that particular aspect of pet ownership until I absolutely must.
And then there’s 2009’s “Hachi: A Dog’s Tale,” starring Richard Gere and remaking a Japanese film. Man finds abandoned dog, man keeps and grows to love dog, dog waits at the train station for man to get home from work every day, man dies while away one day and obviously never returns, every day for nine years until its death dog still goes to and waits for man at the train platform.
Now for the knockout: based on a true story. I’m still traumatized by the time they did a plot like this on sci-fi cartoon “Futurama” and that was years ago, and now you’re telling me that something like this actually happened, and you want me to watch a live-action retelling of it? What sorts of sadists run the pet movie industry anyway?
I realize there are a couple other types of animal movies I’m leaving out, but as they’re both less common and yet more subgenres to themselves, I thought I’d leave them for another day. Today I thought I’d just focus on the main reason why despite the fact that I love animals, I usually dislike animal movies.
What types of animal movies do you like?
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