Marley & Harley

[Shining Raichu]

This thread is inspired by Harlequin's current emotional breakdown over his most recent masochistic viewing of Marley & Me.

How do you feel about movies which feature or star animals? Invariably the animal in question will die at the end unless it's a kid's movie, so do you tend to stay away from them like I do, or do you go with a box of tissues at the ready?

[Scarf]

I was just talking Disney movies last night and how I don't like the animal ones - 101 Dalmatians, Dumbo, The Fox and the Hound.

I really don't like animal movies. I especially don't like talking animal movies. They're just too... simple. Like the watered down Discovery Channel specials. If I want to see animals struggling in the wild I'll watch the actual Discovery Channel. If I want to see something with drama I'll watch a real movie with real actors.

And when I read about what went on in the making of Milo and Otis... ohgod, never again.

[Harlequin]

Originally Posted by Shining Raichu

This thread is inspired by Harlequin's current emotional breakdown over his most recent masochistic viewing of Marley & Me.

I MAY BE MASOCHISTIC BUT AT LEAST I'M NOT A HEARTLESS ASS LIKE YOU ANDY
YOU HATE KIDS AND YOU HATE PETS
YOU HAVE NO HEART
YOUR HEART IS ACTUALLY A PIECE OF SULFUR THAT LEAKS INTO YOUR BLOODSTREAM

Spoiler:

SEE????? LOOK HOW UNHELPFUL HE IS DURING THIS TRYING TIME IN MY LIFE

I don't tend to watch animal movies very often, simply because a) I'm not up for crying for three hours after watching the movie and b) the plots don't tend to entertain me. An exception to this is Marley and Me, as you have seen, but most of the time I just stay away from the animal movies and let my siblings watch them. I do want to see the movie about Hachiko aka THE MOST FAITHFUL DOG EVER AND I AM GOING TO CRY AND THIS WHOLE SITUATION WILL HAPPEN ALL OVER AGAIN

[dunnjean]

I love to watch animal movies. I watch them all the time. But seriously, you never kill the dog. EVER. It doesn't matter to me when the protagonist or some other human dies, but the DOG is a no-no (unless you love to crush peoples' feelings).

[GolurkIsDaBomb]

OMG OH MY GOD HACHI WAS SUCH A SAD MOVIE!!! I saw that a couple years ago, in school. Like really, what were you thinking school!?!? I almost cried after watching that, it was so sad!


(*spoiler but not really) And he was abandoned as a puppy. :(((

Anyway, I watch animal movies if they seem like good movies. However, most of the time I scoff at them as they are all very similar and can be cheesy, and a lot of times the acting isn't great; it's all left up to the dog. And then they always have to die! :(

But yeah, they're so sad because it reminds you of your pets, and you get to see good friends grow old together (or at least one of them does) and it can be touching if done right.


But most of the time they're just too predictable.

[Forever]

lmao poor Harley :(

I love animal movies, they're sad but I think they're more touching because they're sad. If it's like, a war movie and the dog dies, then that's stupid, if it's a movie dedicated to the dog and it dies, well, that's sad but a good kind of sad, it's heartless if it's another type of movie. Plus I love dogs so I like to see them being adorable. I don't mind crying over them since nothing else really gets me crying. Omg imagine if Napoleon died! It'd be so much deeper then, omg.

[Mr Cat Dog]

I love animals, but I have no real fascination for films where animals feature prominently. The only one I can think of that I have any attachment to is Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco, and that's only because it was played on repeat on TV when I was a lot younger, so most of the characters are seared on my brain. I haven't seen the first film, but I gather it was along the lines of them getting lost, somehow... but in a less glamorous location than San Francisco. (Although, reading its Wikipedia page in preparation for this post, I never realised that two of the critters were voiced by Sally Field and Michael J. Fox. You do learn something new every day!)

Apart from that, I can't really think of any live-action animal movies that I've seen. I made a conscious effort NOT to see War Horse in either its stage or film adaptation, as I don't really care all that much about war or horses, but that's honestly all I can think of.

[Toujours]

The dog didn't die in that movie with the volcano erupting and the old woman whose legs were eaten off by acid!

I like animal movies just like any other I think. I don't have any affinity for them, but I don't avoid them either, haha.

[Sydian]

I like animal movies actually. I don't like animal movies with talking real animals, though. That weirds me out to see an animal with it's mouth moving, and those types of movies tend to be really ******. I don't mind animated talking animals though, which applies to Disney movies.

But yeah, most animal movies are sad and considering I have a pet and have lost many in my life, death of a sweet animal in a movie makes me so upset. :(

And about the plots not being entertaining...there are a few animal movies with quite nice plots, I think. My Dog Skip and Marley and Me come to mind when I say that, but unfortunately, both are sad. Homeward Bound is good too, which was a talking real animal movie iirc, but their mouths didn't actually move, so it's safe. I don't care for generic stories that have an animal and little to nothing engaging. I noticed that there are a lot of animal Christmas movies in the DVD section at Walmart that just looked...generic and rushed out just for mild entertainment of children. Waste of a disc really lol. But there are tons of animal movies that are crappy, so I can understand the sentiment behind people dismissing them because they have a bad plot.

Edit: OH. Babe was a great movie. I don't think the animals moved their mouths to talk but even if they DID it is the best animal movie. It was my favorite growing up.