NGM Blog Central - A Dog of Flanders Sits Up, Enchants Today's Kids - National Geographic Magazine

Almost 50 years after it debuted in theaters, the 1960 version of A Dog of Flanders, starring Spike (of Old Yeller fame) as the rescued pet "Patrasche," is back as a digitally restored and remastered DVD. The question I asked myself as I began to watch with my five-year-old daughter and ten-year-old son: Would my 21st-century kids, who had just been watching a Malcolm in the Middle rerun, sit still for an earnest, heart-warming tale of a boy with a funny-looking cap (not the baseball kind) in a part of Europe they've never heard of? Answer: They would.

The movie is sweet, but with its straightforward depictions of poverty and death (also alcoholism and dog beating), not saccharine. The dog keeps kids interested, even though, unlike Lassie, say, Patrasche is not always at the center of the action. The film, one of a half-dozen based on the 19th-century novel by the English writer Ouida (Maria Louise Rame), provides marvelous scenes of the Belgian countryside and city of Antwerp, as well as glimpses into another place and time, when there were no cars, just people and dogs pulling carts, when boys worked instead of going to school, and when the poor were denied even the pleasure of seeing a painting in the church—in this case Rubens' "Elevation of the Cross" in the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp. They had to pay so a screen would be raised for a few minutes to allow them to view the masterpiece.

Even though the young hero Nello and his grandfather can barely feed themselves and the dog by delivering farmers' milk, the boy wants to become an artist. As the film moves toward its climax, it's on track with the book, which has a very sad ending. (Spoiler alert: Nello and Patrasche freeze to death on Christmas Eve.) But this is an American movie for kids—Twentieth Century-Fox filmed it in English. So just when it looks as if all is lost, everything turns out okay. Whether that's a weakness I don't know. The novel's ending would have been hard for my youngest to take. Apparently, the Japanese love A Dog of Flanders and their adaptation as an anime series is faithful to the book. In Japan, death and failure are considered appropriate endings for children's stories. In America, we like success achieved, dreams fulfilled, and death averted.

—Karen Lange

Posted by Marc Silver | Comments (0)
Filed Under: Animals, Film, Pop Omnivore

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