 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. |
 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
A Dog of Flanders
- Review Date: August 2, 2005
- NR
- Genre: Family and Kids
- 1959
Common Sense Media says
Old-fashioned, sentimental tale of determination.
Parents say
Kids say
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that this video shows many deeply affecting scenes involving a beaten dog, and the death of a grandfather. It also depicts the death of a dog-abuser by a windmill blade, which some younger children may not understand.
What's the story?
While struggling with poverty and becoming an artist, a poor orphaned Flemish boy named Nello (David Ladd) rescues and befriends a dog.
Is it any good?
A DOG OF FLANDERS is a fine, though unabashedly sentimental, story of triumph over adversity, but children expecting the dog to play a major role may be disappointed. This earlier version of the classic novel is slightly better than the more recent movie. Ladd, as the young hero of the movie, speaks his lines too carefully, but the rest of the cast, including Theodore Bikel, does a convincing job. It moves slowly, imparting lots of information about 19th-century Flanders and the training and work of an artist, but the material is always interesting and well integrated into the story.
An 11-year-old viewer wondered aloud about the title of A Dog of Flanders when so much of the movie is about Nello's determination to become a painter rather than his rescue of the dog. But she was entirely engrossed in the movie and cried -- hard -- when the grandfather died, leaving Nello and his dog alone and hungry. Although it is slow-paced, this is fine family fare, old-fashioned in its sentimentality and fairly educational.
What families can talk about
Families can talk about the tragedy here. Many popular films for kids have sad elements -- like Bambi or Finding Nemo. Why do you think that is? Do kids gain anything from this painful plotting?
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| Studio: | Paramount Pictures |
| Director: | James B. Clark |
| Cast: | David Ladd, Donald Crisp, Theodore Bikel |
| Genre: | Family and Kids |
| Run time: | 96 minutes |
| Theatrical release date: | March 17, 1959 |
| DVD release date: | September 12, 1991 |
| MPAA rating: | NR |
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