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MovieMail's Review
A worthy companion piece to Chomet's Tati-inspired The Illusionist, this story of the bond between a man and his dog is the most grown-up love story you’ll see all year, says Milo Wakelin.
'Unable to love each other, the English turn to dogs', wrote J.R. Ackerley in his 1956 memoir about his 15-year relationship with his beloved Alsatian bitch.
Voiced by Christopher Plummer, with contributions from Isabella Rossellini and Lynn Redgrave, My Dog Tulip is an exquisite animation, an evocative time-capsule of postwar life, and a celebration of man’s best friend. Above all, it’s the most grown-up love story you’ll see all year.
Like Studio Ghibli’s Grave of the Fireflies (1988) and Chomet's The Illusionist (2011), My Dog Tulip relates a story that would be moving in any medium, and whose characters feel as vivid and real as any live-action performance. Rich in emotional honesty but entirely shorn of sentiment, director Paul Fierlinger has created a film that's a world away from the traditional animated tropes of fantasy, fairytales and wisecracking anthropomorphic animals.
In conversation with Andy Warhol, Truman Capote described Ackerley’s original novel as 'one of the greatest books ever written by anybody in the world... [it’s] all about a love affair with a dog, in which it is a totally sexual thing. They don’t have sex, but it’s... the most astonishing book you’ve ever read, and so beautifully written.'
With its lonely protagonist and keen eye for period detail, My Dog Tulip is a fine companion piece to The Illusionist, but Ackerley’s writing is the antithesis to Tati's bittersweet sentimentalism. Whilst The Illusionist depicted a conspicuously sexless companionship between a young Scottish girl and a French magician many years her senior, Ackerley’s account of his relationship with Tulip drips with unconsummated desire. The happy couple roll on the bed like lovers, he marvels over her every emission, and his determined attempts to pimp her out to a succession of suitable breeding partners is a brazen form of displacement that would leave Freud and Pavlov drooling.
With an expressive art style that moves between a meticulous recreation of postwar Britain to freer, sketchbook-style doodles, the film’s animation is impressive, but when one discovers it was entirely drawn by two artists, husband and wife team Paul and Sandra Fierlinger, it's sensational. Their painstaking work was made possible through an electronic drawing surface, allowing over 100,000 drawings to be sketched without touching a single sheet of paper.
Ackerley's novel is a highly personal account, and it feels apt that it should be brought to life, over five years, entirely by hand. In doing so, the Fierlingers have captured not only the physicality of a man and his dog, but the spirit of their bond.
Collector's booklet featuring an essay by J.R. Ackerely biographer Peter Parker
Stills gallery
Theatrical trailer
Film Description
Beautifully animated and featuring an all-star cast voiced by Christopher Plummer, the late Lynn Redgrave and Isabella Rossellini, My Dog Tulip is a touching, bittersweet adaptation of the late British author J. R. Ackerley’s enduring memoir, exploring the 16-year relationship with his adopted German Shepherd dog, Tulip.
The middle-aged Ackerley (voiced by Christopher Plummer) has never considered himself to be a dog lover. But when he comes into possession of Tulip, an affectionate yet capricious German Shepherd, a deep and enduring relationship unfolds between the two that leads Ackerley to reflect on the subtle intricacies of friendship, love and happiness.
Written and directed by the award-winning filmmakers Paul and Sandra Fierlinger.
