My Dog Tulip (2009) | Man's Best Friend As Bitch

author and bitch pal

From the minds of co-directors and co-screenwriters, husband-and-wife team Paul and Sandra Fierlinger, springs forth an animated adaptation of J. R. Ackerley's novel of the same name, an ode to the timeless relationship between man and canine.  

Having adopted Tulip, an energetic german shepherd bitch, while well into his middle age, Ackerley's emotional attachment to his pet serves not only, to paraphrase Ackerley, to subsume his unquenched yearnings for a life companion, but also grows into something that gives rise to the beautiful, thoughtful, and lucidly composed prose that is essentially the screenplay of this film.

In this way, My Dog Tulip plays like an animated spoken word performance, but it is one that occurs with such mastery of the language and with such observationally derived insight that somehow you feel transported, mentally elevated by some higher level of (symbolic) communication.  

With Ackerley's text as their base, the Fierlinger's visual interpretation of the spoken word is so clever as to add great depth to the inner dialogue provoked as Tulip unfolds.  Collars, for instance, are shown leashed to humans as a symbol of our tendency to want to control loved ones not too dissimilarly from the expected manner we do with our four-legged friends. 

Stylistically speaking, great visual innovations were not obtained, though the Fierlinger's use of the paperless production process known as TVPaint Animation to produce this level quality a feature length film does bear mentioning. 

Notably, Isabella Rosellini lends her voice to the work, as does the late Lynn Redgrave, who died in May of this year and for whom the picture is dedicated, all quite befitting what is a consummately tender, compelling, and erudite poem of love. 

dir. Paul and Sandra Fierlinger

My Dog Tulip official site.