Product Details

• Actors: Christopher Plummer, Lynn Redgrave, Isabella Rossellini
• Directors: Paul and Sandra Fierlinger
• Format: Anamorphic, Animated, Color, NTSC, Surround Sound, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: New Yorker Video
• DVD Release Date: August 2, 2011
• Run Time: 82 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B004V6JQCC
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #89,793 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Review

I was absolutely swept away by this film. It is witty and wise and brilliantly animated... A work of art. --Mel Brooks

Obviously the year's best animated film. --Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

A beautifully illustrated love letter to dogs and the people who own them... A dryly witty, keenly observant celebration of life one that's better lived and enjoyed, no matter one's circumstances otherwise, with a dog or two around the house. --Rene Rodriguez, THE MIAMI HERALD

Product Description

Strikingly animated and featuring the voices of Christopher Plummer, the late Lynn Redgrave and Isabella Rossellini, MY DOG TULIP is a bittersweet retrospective account of author J. R. Ackerley's 16-year relationship with his beautiful yet intolerable German shepherd, Tulip. To Ackerley's surprise, Tulip turned out to be the love of his life, the ideal friend he had been searching for in vain for so many years.

Special Features: MAKING TULIP, a making-of featurette; Theatrical trailer; MUTTS Shelter Stories; Sneak peek at the filmmakers' latest project SLOCUM AT SEA WITH HIMSELF; Downloadable materials; Optional 5.1 soundtrack; Subtitles for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars What is...unconditional love? A Man's Affection for his Dog April 27, 2011

By Gerard D. Launay TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:DVD

This is a story about the cure of loneliness...in a sense not remarkable, and yet told simply and with great heart. An unhappy bachelor (middle aged and middle class) has always felt unfulfilled in his love life. Then in his 50's he takes a chance and brings home an abused female German shepherd dog as his friend.

And so what we have are the daily routines - so to speak - of a man and his dog. Taking her out to the park, finding a mate for her, cleaning up after her. Tulip (the name of the dog) loves Mr. Ackerley unconditionally and through that love, he learns to love her the same way. There are no madcap adventures...no maudlin sentimentalities - no heroics - just the developing affection that the two share, as both of them get older.

What makes this film work so well is the marvelous artwork...No, it is not precise, bright, or boldly drawn. Instead, the art resembles child painting experimenting with watercolors. A street scene, a park, or the interior of the house reflects reality such as trash in the foreground. The shapes blend and mix and bend in messy ways which is a beautiful metaphor for love itself where emotions blend and mix and bend in messy ways. Love is becoming part of another - opening oneself up to another. These drawings make that emotion feel real- in a way that a perfect photographic image might not.

I cannot imagine any animal lover - particularly a dog owner - who will not (immediately) relate to the experience being detailed in this film. "My Dog Tulip" teaches us, as well as any other film, how unconditional love is a transformative power, perhaps THE transformative power in nature.

Christopher Plummer is a standout voice as the man in love with the dog. So if this film strikes your fancy, absolutely get your hands on another wonderful animation treasure, "The Man Who Planted Trees" also narrated by Mr. Plummer.

All those who have had a great relationship with a pet will want to watch this film.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Unique and memorable May 14, 2011

By I. Sondel VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

Based on the acclaimed memoir of out writer J. R. Ackerley (a hero of mine), "My Dog Tulip" is a love letter to dog owners everywhere, and belongs to a select group of animated features made for and about adults.

About as far away in substance and style as you can get from Disney's "Lady and the Tramp," this film follows a lonely old man (voiced by Christopher Plummer) who finds the ideal companion in an Alsatian bitch named Queenie. Ill behaved and overly protective, Queenie quickly establishes herself as a lovingly disruptive fixture in Ackerley's life and home. Brian Murray, Isabella Rossellini and the late Lynn Redgrave give voice to the other human characters (no, the dog does not speak!).

This is strange material that will not appeal to everyone. There is an inordinate amount of attention paid to the dog's bodily functions, from bowel movements to estrous cycles. Still, this is filled with droll humor and acidic wit; it is like nothing you've ever seen before or are likely to see again; and I should add how refreshing it was to see animation outside of the Disney/Pixar vein.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful and intelligent film January 31, 2011

By Shaun Greenleaf

Amazon Verified Purchase

"My Dog Tulip" has been called "the best book ever written about a man's love for his dog", and this delightful film serves it exceptionally well. I withold the 5th star only because the film makers chose not to treat the supremely joyful, transcendent final scene in which Tulip rejoins Nature. This medium would have been ideally suited to that tranformation, and I was disappointed not to experience it. The film retains a literary affect, with Christopher Plummer voicing the curmudgeonly older gay man who found the unconditional love he longed for all his life only with this magnificent, unruly dog. Isabella Rosselini and Lynn Redgrave, in what I believe was her last work, are also splendid.

A caveat for parents (among others): a very significant part of the film reviolves, as does the book, around dog poop and how to deal with it, and misguided efforts to breed Tulip. Much contemporary criticism of the book, including by the Sitwells, indignantly noted this. If these topics are offensive to you, you will find them hard to overlook here. Children will find much to giggle about, but nothing remotely Disneyesque. This isn't sumptuous eye candy.