As a devotee of both Disney and dogs, I was delighted to discover Disney’s Dogs
on a recent library excursion. At nearly 200 pages, this book looks
more daunting than it actually is. Apart from a four-page index of
illustrations, only seven pages feature any text to speak of. One is an
introduction from Roy E. Disney, one is an acknowledgments page at the
end of the book and the other five are introductions to each of the five
main chapters. You could easily peruse the entirety of the book in less
than an hour. However, while its size – 7.25 by 7.25 inches – makes it
rather small for a coffee table book, the abundance of cheerful artwork
renders it appropriate for prominent public placement.
Disney’s Dogs
is essentially just a collection of artwork, from sketches and concept
art to full-blown production stills, from Disney shorts and movies
featuring dogs. The mix of media makes for more interesting “reading,”
as does the fact that along with well-established characters like Pluto
and Pongo, the editors sprinkle in more obscure pooches like the St.
Bernard from the short Alpine Climbers and Dr. Doppler from the movie Treasure Planet.
This is where the index, which lists the characters shown on each page
and the movie or short in which they are featured, comes in especially
handy.
In the first chapter, Old Dogs, New Tricks, we
mostly find Pluto in a variety of scenarios, sometimes alongside
characters like sweethearts Fifi and Dinah, pup Pluto Jr. and nemesis
Butch. The introduction to this chapter mentions that Pluto appeared on
nearly 50 military insignias during World War II, which I’d never heard
before. Along with Pluto, we also get to see early Disney dogs like
slobbery kitten babysitter Toliver from 1936’s More Kittens and enthusiastic Bowser from 1952’s Man’s Best Friend.
Most of the artwork has a fairly rough or sketchy quality to it, with
different types of media showing various sides of these furry fellows.
My favorite is probably the first piece of artwork in this chapter, a
drawing from 1936’s Mother Pluto in which a black-and-white penciled Pluto guards 19 fuzzy yellow chicks.
In Hot Dogs, we move into the movies, zeroing in on 101 Dalmatians, Lady and the Tramp, Oliver and Company and The Fox and the Hound.
The artwork in this chapter is generally more involved than in the
previous one. We have several full-blown production stills, including
one from the spaghetti scene in Lady and the Tramp, widely
regarded as one of the most romantic moments in all of film, animated or
not. (This scene, incidentally, is one of two that appears later in the
form of an 11-page flip book between the fifth chapter and the index. A
cool idea, though the pages are too large to make for easy flipping,
and there are too few of them to truly create the illusion of movement.)
I also love the series of wobbly drawings preceding this still,
especially the one in which a wide-eyed Tramp nearly chokes on his
spaghetti after receiving an unexpected nuzzle from Lady. The most
interesting artwork here, though, is the series of highly stylized
paintings featuring Dalmatians Pongo and Perdita setting off across the
snowy countryside in search of their pups. Also fascinating is the size
comparison sheet showing all of the dogs and Oliver in relation to each
other.
Their Bark Is Bigger Than Their Bite deals with
dogs who go above and beyond the call of duty, acting in ways that are
almost human. Nana, the enormous dog who serves as a nanny to the
Darlings in Peter Pan, and Toby, the bloodhound who helps Basil and Dawson crack the case in The Great Mouse Detective,
turn up here, with the latter looking especially endearing in a soft
drawing that has Basil whispering in his ear. We also see exuberant
sheepdog Max from The Little Mermaid and persnickety pug Percy from Pocahontas.
This section includes a greater variety of individual dogs than the
previous chapter, also featuring supporting canine players from Cinderella, The Aristocats, Mulan, The Sword in the Stone, Robin Hood, Home on the Range and Fantasia 2000.
Off the Leash
features dogs who don’t quite fit the mold, whether because, like
Goofy, they are basically humans with a few canine features or, like
Stitch, they are merely posing as dogs. In this section, you will find
the footstool from Beauty and the Beast, the brush-dog from Alice in Wonderland and Slinky Dog from Toy Story, among others. I think my favorite illustration here is the stately portrait of Treasure Planet’s sophisticated Dr. Doppler. In fact, it makes me want to see the movie again.
Speaking of which, the final chapter, the shortest of the bunch, focuses entirely upon Bolt,
which had just been released when this book hit shelves. I enjoyed the
movie, but it doesn’t seem to make much sense for this one dog to have a
chapter all to himself. He’s not that big a deal. I get the idea
that the main point of this chapter is to encourage people to go out
and see the movie in theaters. Still, it’s a nice little section, and
the two-page spread of Bolt, scraggly cat Mittens and hyper hamster
Rhino is especially eye-catching.
Scattered throughout the book
are quotes, most of them anonymous, about the joys of sharing one’s life
with a dog. For instance, I love the anonymous “My goal in life is to
be as good a person as my dog already thinks I am” and am amused by the
query, “When a dog wags its tail and barks at the same time, how do you
know which end to believe?” This is a nice addition for a book with very
little text, and those who appreciate dogs enough to want this book
will probably find the quotes a nice bonus.
“Outside of a dog, a
book is man’s best friend. Inside a dog, it’s too dark to read,”
Groucho Marx once quipped. Inside this book, you will find dozens of
examples of man’s best friend of the furry variety, so make sure you
have plenty of light by which to read. This is an outstanding collection
for dog lovers and Disney fans of all ages.
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