«It was a dark and stormy night…», wrote Snoopy at the beginning of his stories, typed on top of the doghouse. Who does not know the story of the sharp beagle and his best friend Charlie Brown, protagonists of 'Peanuts'? The comic strip was created by Charles M. Schulz from 1950 to 2000, the starting point for animated series, musicals and five feature films, up to the recent
'Snoopy & Friends – The Peanuts Movie' of 2015.
But there are many films and cartoons dedicated to the adventures of human puppies and puppies tout court, to relationships of mutual affection, models of courage, respect and maturation. Excellent examples are
'Cool dog' of 2011, the story of the German shepherd Rain and the ten-year-old Jimm, and '
Belle & Sebastien ' (2013, 2015 and 2018), inspired by the screenplay of the same name and the stories by Cécile Aubry, with the friendship between a little boy and a Pyrenean mountain dog.
Among the most famous film and television dogs, the timeless must be mentioned:
Rin Tin Tin , who with his best friend Rusty was the hero of comics, series and films;
Lassie , the collie star of seven feature films and three TV series, since 1943;
Spank , little Aika's little dog friend, around which revolve a manga and an anime series that was also very popular in Italy between the 80s and 90s.
Leaving dogs for other species, the first to mention are
cats , protagonists of animal-child relationships especially in past cartoons. Here then is
'Doraemon', manga, animated series, film and video game focused, since the 60s, on the adventures of a robot cat and the young Nobita Nobi; or
'The enchanting Creamy', the story of Yū, his alter ego and two magical kittens, Posi and Nega, and
'Kiss me Licia', in which we find little Andrea and his big cat Giuliano.
And if Disney has dealt with animals (real or animated) throughout its long cinematic life, only sometimes has it depicted them in inseparable pair with a child. Among the titles par excellence, three animated films:
'Alice in Wonderland' from 1951, with its proliferation of real and imaginary beasts,
'The Jungle Book' from 1967 and
'The Adventures of White and Bernie' of '77, in which the two intrepid mice-agents save the orphan Penny. Other protagonist animals, with their child friends? For animation, two products signed by Miyazaki: the '74 series
'Heidi', in which the little girl protagonist has the faithful St. Bernard Nebbia and the goat Snowflake as inseparable companions, and the film
'My Neighbor Totoro' by '88, a masterpiece that tells of two little sisters and a good troll, a funny mix between mole and bear; and how can we forget
'Ferdinand', from 2017, about the bull who loves flowers and hates fighting, a friend of little Nina?
Finally, among the films, we remember
'Flicka - A free spirit' of 2006, set on a ranch,
'The fox and the girl' of 2007 and
'The incredible story of Winter the dolphin' of 2011, based on a true story .
By Tea Guidi taken from Born Mom
