vchimpanzee During a terrible winter storm, Mary is dying and must see that her baby Nello is taken care of. She leaves him with his grandfather Jehan, who is poor but loving.Several years later, Nello is old enough to help Jehan with his milk deliveries in Antwerp. The two have little money and must strive to stay one step ahead of the evil landlord. But they are happy with their lives. It's quite unusual to see a young boy work hard and demand little without complaining. Nello considers William the Blacksmith to be a friend.On one of his deliveries, Nello sees "a dog of Flanders" who appears to be dead. He is not, but we saw the dog being beaten by its cruel owner (for parents, I should point out the dog is not visible during the beating, but it is obvious what is going on). Nello revives the dog and takes him home.Nello's mother was a talented artist, and Nello has inherited his mother's ability. Years later, Nello considers his neighbor Aloise Cogez not just a pretty model for his drawings, but also a potential girlfriend. Aloise's father Nicholas will not accept his daughter having anything to do with a poor boy; Nicholas grew up the poor son of a tinker but worked hard building the farm of his wife Anna into a successful business that by this time includes a mill. Anna is more willing to accept Nello but feels she must obey her husband.The former owner of the dog recognizes the animal he abandoned and demands his return. Nello will not do it, which results in a fight that some children might find disturbing.Artist Michel LeGrand believes Nello has the ability to become a great painter, and he teaches Nello what he needs to know. Eventually, Nello decides to enter a contest which will help him pay his mounting bills. The death of his grandfather leaves him with no family and no other means of income other than his art (although he is still able to deliver milk, supposedly).This is a very good family film. Most of the leading performers do a good job. There is a minimum of offensive content. Most importantly, the movie teaches lessons about determination and hard work, and being happy regardless of your situation. Not that hard work always leads to rewards, but that just makes determination that much more important.

Movie-12 A DOG OF FLANDERS / (1999) ** (out of four)By Blake French: "A Dog of Flanders" is a sweet, gentle, lovely motion picture about a young boy's desires and relationships with his everyday neighbors. It is the kind of movie that has its heart in the right place, but the quality of filmmaking is just not present. I feel a subtle guilt for giving the film a negative review because "A Dog of Flanders," directed by Kevin Brodie, is of such innocence and kindness. But the movie has an appearance quality of an callow amateur-contrived dialogue, typical costume designs, shameless sets-not surprisingly its filmmakers are fairly new at this business. Bruce McGill ("The Legend of Bagger Vance") and the veteran actor Jon Voight are a few of the recognizable names in the cast. Many of the remaining performers are either not remotely popular or dried out has-beens, even though they do a considerably good job at portraying the tender characters. "A Dog of Flanders" has been done before, on TV and in the movies. This is not to say there's no reason to refresh Ouida's sentimental fable since most of us probably have not seen any of the previous versions. Here, we get the same kind of sappy scenes and heavyhearted noble messages, dealing with issues like poverty, trust, death, passion, self confidence, following your dreams, hopelessness, regret, mistakes, and or course, love. The film is not really about a dog, though but about a boy who lost his mother at an early age and raised by his poor elderly grandfather. The boy, named Nello (Jeremy James Kissner), finds a dog left for dead in the snow and adopts him (her?) and falls in love with both the dog and a rich girl named Aloise (Madylin Sweeten). Because of his social status, her philistine father wants his daughter to have no part with Nello. Nello also becomes friends with an proficient artist, Michel de la Grande (Jon Voight), who takes an interest in the boy's drawings and encourages him to enter a big art contest. Jon Voight is good in his role, feeling confident and classy, a major step up from his performance in the painfully rotten horror flick "Anaconda." Jeremy James Kissner provides the film with an empathetic performance that is sweet and sweet-tempered. Jack Warden portrays a character with frailty and charm. However, there are just too many familiar clichés in the plot to recommend the picture. Many kids will find it boring and tedious, as will many adults. "A Dog of Flanders" has enough spirit and the right attitude, but the rest of the essential elements of a successful movie just are not here.

Schlomo4 Upon going into the theatre to see this film, i had my doubts as to its quality; it was after all billed as somewhat of a childrens film. My original reason for seeing this movie was because i own a Bouvier des Flandres; the breed of dog featured in it. All i can say now is its a good thing i bought a Bouvier or i would have missed one of, in my opinion, the best films in years. Go on all you want about whatever other films you enjoyed in the past few years; for me "A Dog of Flanders" tops them all. Not in a long time has a film touched me emotionally as well as "pleased the eye". Im not a great reviewer of movies, but i know a good one when i see it and this is definately one of this years best.

Matt T The scenery is pretty and the dog is cute. Other than that, this film has absolutely nothing to recommend it. Jack Warden is pleasantly genial as usual, but the script is so awful that even he comes off badly. The plot makes no sense, the dialogue is dumb, and there are numerous smaller faults. But the dog is cute...