My Dog Tulip Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

My Dog Tulip Blu-ray Movie Review

The Special Relationship

Reviewed by Michael Reuben May 28, 2013

When people hear the term "computer animation", they usually think of Pixar and the revolution brought to the world of animated motion pictures by Steve Jobs's and John Lasseter's entertainment behemoth (now part of Disney). But Pixar's application of digital techniques is only one possibility. An entirely different direction is represented by independent artisans Paul and Sandra Fierlinger, whose My Dog Tulip is so defiantly antiquarian that its creators compare some of its images to New Yorker cartoons. Though much of My Dog Tulip looks like it came from an artist's notebook, not one frame was drawn on paper. The Fierlingers have taken the venerable art of sketching into the digital realm.

The film's style is appropriate to its subject, an autobiographical novel by English writer J.R. Ackerley based on his more than fifteen-year ownership of a female Alsatian (commonly known as a German Shepherd) named Queenie, rechristened "Tulip" for Ackerley's book. As told in the author's dryly irreverent prose, his relationship with the temperamental pet was the most emotionally satisfying he ever knew. (Given Ackerley's turbulent family history and difficult private life, it's not hard to understand why.) But even in portraying something so personally meaningful, Ackerley remained the formal English man of letters. My Dog Tulip is replete with detailed descriptions of its canine heroine's less attractive behavior—Paul Fierlinger once described it as a book that's "all about dog poop"—as well as her sexual encounters, but it doesn't contain a single R-rated word. Neither does the film.

"Unable to love each other", Ackerley writes, "the English turn naturally to dogs." The quotation appears in print at the beginning of the film, but most of Ackerley's account is spoken by Christopher Plummer, who gives the writer a gently irascible voice that keeps the listener interested but at a distance, just as Ackerley himself seemed to hold the world at arm's length. Over 50 and a bachelor (in fact, Ackerley was gay when that was still a crime in Britain), the author and editor finds himself adopting the young Tulip from a couple that has kept her cooped up indoors, then beaten her for wreaking havoc because Alsatians rebel at confinement. Man and dog bond almost immediately, although Tulip's behavior toward the rest of the world is stand-offish and hostile. When Ackerley's sister, Nancy (Lynn Redgrave, in her final film performance), comes to stay with him as a daytime caretaker for Tulip while Ackerley attends to work at his office, the two females engage in a vicious battle for the affections of the man of the house. There is never any doubt who will win.

Early on, Ackerley is lucky enough to connect with a veterinarian of remarkable insight, Miss Canvenini (Isabella Rossellini, whose exotic intonation is perfect for the part). "Tulip is a good girl", she tells him. "You are the trouble. She is in love with you."

Between Tulip and her master, love finds odd forms of expression. Some viewers have complained that My Dog Tulip indulges in "bathroom humor", but Ackerley's and the film's detailed focus on Tulip's excretory practices are not meant to be comedic. After all, much of dog ownership is involved with the pet's "business", and as Ackerley comes to realize, a sensitive animal like Tulip communicates volumes through these basic functions. A shrewish shopkeeper and her bickering husband are punished with a large deposit in front of their store. (It's possible that they remind Tulip of her original owners.) A former military buddy who invites Ackerley and Tulip for the weekend incurs Tulip's suspicion, possibly because he owns cats. To protect her master against any incursion, she booby-traps the communicating door between the host's room and Ackerley's with a large deposit. In his description and categorization of Tulip's various forms of urination and their significance, Ackerley becomes positively scientific.

Complications arise when Ackerley decides that his beloved companion should have an opportunity to enjoy the pleasures of maternity. The search for an appropriate breeding companion puts him in contact with interesting oddballs and several Alsatians whose temperaments are quite different from Tulip's. She does eventually bear a litter, but then Ackerley has to decide what to do with eight puppies that he cannot possibly keep in his small apartment.

Like Ackerley's book, the film wisely elides the details of Tulip's death and simply reflects on the depth of feeling she evoked in her master. (In real life, Ackerley never fully recovered from the loss.) Movies about dogs usually elicit easy tears and treacly sentiment, but My Dog Tulip offers an antidote. Filtered through Ackerly's tart prose, delivered in Plummer's restrained reading and illustrated by the Fierlingers' minimalist art, the emotion arrives with everything easy and artificial stripped away. Like its author, the film is a quiet affair that doesn't need to shout about how intensely its narrator felt about Tulip. It states the matter directly, indeed almost casually, as if you already knew—because, by that point, you already do.

My Dog Tulip Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The usual criteria for a evaluating a Blu-ray presentation are difficult to apply to New Yorker Films' 1080p, AVC-encoded disc, because My Dog Tulip has relatively little motion in the frame as compared to a live-action film and even as compared to typical computer animation. A second or two may pass without any change in the image; motion, when it occurs, may be confined to one small area within the frame (usually where Tulip is located). This accounts for the extremely low bitrate (7.28 Mbps). One doesn't need a lot of information to repeat an image.

Statistics aside, New Yorker's debut Blu-ray is a pleasure to watch, with sharply drawn, precisely outlined figures (except, of course, where the outlines have been purposely blurred for effect), beautifully balanced washes of color (Sandra Fierlinger's special area of expertise), and no apparent artifacts to distract from the exquisite compositions meticulously composed, tinted and shifted from frame to frame. Of the various distinct styles employed in My Dog Tulip (described in the "Film Notes" extra), none are even remotely photo-realistic; so they cannot be judged by such common criteria as natural fleshtones, facial detail and clothing texture. One presumes, however, that the Blu-ray was sourced from digital files. Since no apparent interference has intruded along the way, the Blu-ray appears to deliver exactly what the Fierlingers "drew".

My Dog Tulip Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Just as the visuals for My Dog Tulip are a sketch, so is the audio track, presented here as lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1. (An English Dolby Digital 2.0 option is also available.) No attempt has been made to create a realistic soundfield. Instead, the primary components are Christopher Plummer's narration, which is centered but leans slightly forward so that it remains detached from the screen; occasional interjections from other characters, including Tulip herself; a few key sound effects, usually of something being knocked over by Tulip; and the protean score by John Avarese, who seems able to supply whatever mood the moment demands, from jazz to classical. The track has excellent dynamic range, with bass extension that does full justice to the instruments, and its clarity is flawless, conveying every nuance of Plummer's remarkable performance.

My Dog Tulip Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Items marked with an asterisk are new to Blu-ray.

• Making Tulip (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 26:55): This informative featurette is alternately narrated by Paul Fierlinger and composer John Avarese. It provides a close look at the Fierlingers' working methods—their home is their "studio"—and the nearly three-year process of creating My Dog Tulip. Also included is footage of Christopher Plummer recording the film's narration.



• *Ebert Presents At the Movies: Roger's Office Clip Featuring Werner Herzog (720p; 1.78:1; 2:29): In light of Ebert's recent passing, there's a special poignance in the inclusion of this clip from his short-lived effort to revive a movie review show on PBS. Ebert would usually deliver one review per episode, borrowing the voice of another speaker because cancer had deprived him of his own. Here, he delivers his review of My Dog Tulip in the voice of German director Werner Herzog.



• *Friday Arts (WHYY): Animating My Dog Tulip and More . . . (1080i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 6:21): WHYY is the PBS station in Philadelphia, where the Fierlingers are based. In this broadcast, the couple discussed My Dog Tulip, their current work-in-progress, Slocum at Sea with Himself, and their use of technology for animation.



• Theatrical Trailer (1080i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 2:05): "For as long as I could remember, I had been searching for an ideal friend."



• *Film Notes (1080p; 1.78:1; 11:30): The time marker simply records the interval during which the disc "plays" through the various text screens when left to its own devices. Individual screens can be skipped with the chapter forward button or paused for close reading. The text includes comments by Paul Fierlinger on the various graphical styles employed in the film, as well as biographical notes on Ackerley and the Fierlingers. The brief overview of Ackerley's life barely scratches the surface of its complexity, which would be enough to turn anyone into an eccentric.



• Mutts: Shelter Stories (1080i; 1.85:1, centered in HD rectangle; 2:51): A series of PSAs produced for The Shelter Pet Project.



• Slocum at Sea with Himself (720p; 1.78:1; 9:41): An excerpt from the Fierlingers' next project, which recounts the tale of another eccentric, Captain Joshua Slocum, the first man to sail around the world single-handedly.

My Dog Tulip Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Though animated and a film about a dog, My Dog Tulip is not for kids. They won't understand much of the language, and I suspect they will quickly become bored waiting for something to happen. This is an adult film with adult themes and an art house sensibility. The last point is probably the most important to stress. Art house films typically demand more work from the viewer, in the sense of becoming an active participant in the viewing experience. My Dog Tulip is certainly such a film. Anyone acquiring it simply to be dazzled by the animation will almost certainly be disappointed. The animation is beautiful, but it's in service of a quirky story about an eccentric intellectual and his dog. If that doesn't interest you, the animation won't save the day, but if you are, this disc is highly recommended.