This Week’s Creature Feature … A Terrific Year for Terriers
If you want to stand out in movies, never work with dogs or children. This Oscar season, however, films featuring terriers are racking up the nominations.
First popular in screwball films of the 1930s, such as The Thin Man and Bringing Up Baby, terriers dropped back to the relative obscurity of television shows such as Fraiser and Wishbone.
Now, the breed seems to be making a comeback, appearing in three of the biggest award-season films of 2011. In Beginners, Cosmo the terrier plays the perfect companion to Christopher Plummer’s newly out and proud senior citizen.
Hollywood mogul Stephen Spielberg has been charmed by the tenacious breed, featuring Snowy, a white fox terrier, in his blockbuster film The Adventures of Tintin. True, the spunky dog was animated, but it earned some of the film’s best reviews.
The star in the mix is Uggie, costar of Oscar frontrunner The Artist. Uggie’s performance was so beloved that Internet groups campaigned for a best supporting actor Oscar nomination.
Though he didn’t score a nomination, Uggie is expected to walk the red carpet at the Academy Awards this month. It will be his cinematic swan song, since at 10 Uggie is retiring. Look for him on stage with host Billy Crystal, and perhaps trying to bury the golden statue, if The Artist wins any big awards.
Good Dogs.