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| Directed by Kevin Brodi; Starring Jeremy James Kissner, Jon Voight, Jesse James, Jack Warden, Farren Monet, Madylin Sweeten, Andrew Bicknell, Bruce McGill, Cheryl Ladd, Steven Hartley, and Antje de Boeck |
I’ll be the first person at my age to admit to liking a kid’s film. I’ve spent many hours of my life trying to get people to see films like Anastasia, The Iron Giant, Beauty and the Beast, Oliver and Company, and Babe. But in the same way that I’m quick to admire a family oriented film, I’m also very quick to dislike and find fault in ones that I find to be rather poorly done. Just look at my treatment of recent cartoons that are miserably bad Doug’s 1st Movie, A Rugrats Movie, and The King and I. as much as I’d like to say different, A Dog of Flanders is a film for the latter list. Not only is the film barely watchable from an adult perspective, it is also way too dark for most small children. I think that it is actually well-meaning for the most part, just that it is so poorly done that there is really little reason to care.
The film is a remake of a 1959 family oddity about a poor boy that has aspirations of becoming an artist. If you want to be technical, there is really no reason for the film to be titled so since the dog is barely in the film. The whole movie is about a boy that is wrongfully accused of things and punished for reasons that only go as far as how little cash his family has. Even when a famed artist takes the boy under his wing, he is still unable to make a mark at the township since he is not near as well dressed or rich as the other boys.
The film is sappy and dreary at the same, and I have no earthly idea how they pulled that off. It stands as one of the worst costume drama family films since, maybe, Newsies. One must remember that it was these costume drama family films that caused problems for Disney back in the 1970’s. I found the film to be a bore and terribly uninteresting. It was not endearing, but more depressing. A Dog of Flanders could only be fun if it was taken up by Mystery Science Theater 3000.
