My Dog Tulip
| My Dog Tulip | |
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| Directed by | Paul Fierlinger |
| Produced by |
Howard Kaminsky Frank Pellegrino Norman Twain |
| Written by |
J. R. Ackerley Paul Fierlinger |
| Starring |
Christopher Plummer Lynn Redgrave Isabella Rossellini Brian Murray Paul Hecht Euan Morton |
| Music by | John Avarese |
| Edited by | Paul Fierlinger |
| Distributed by |
Axiom Films (UK and Ireland) New Yorker Films |
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Release date
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Running time
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83 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Axiom Films (UK and Ireland)
My Dog Tulip is an American independent animated feature film based on the 1956 memoir of the same name by J. R. Ackerley, BBC editor, novelist and memoirist. The film tells the story of Ackerley's fifteen-year relationship with his Alsatian dog (German Shepherd) Queenie, who had been renamed Tulip for the book. The film – geared toward an adult audience – was adapted, directed and animated by Paul Fierlinger with backgrounds and characters painted by his wife, Sandra Fierlinger.
Christopher Plummer narrated Ackerley's voice, Isabella Rossellini provided the voice of the veterinarian, and Lynn Redgrave provided the voice (in her last film performance) of Ackerley's sister Nancy.
The film premiered at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival on June 10, 2009 and received Honourable Mention for Best Animated Film at the 2009 Ottawa International Animation Festival. The film won Grand Prix - best feature film award at the World Festival of Animated Film Zagreb - Animafest Zagreb in 2011.
As with the original book, the film gives detailed descriptions of the dog's bowel movements and sex life – received as "positively juvenile" and helping the film achieve realism and avoid anthropomorphism.
In 1988, Colin Gregg had filmed Ackerley's We Think the World of You (1960) – also about Ackerley's relationship with his dog Queenie.
Fierlinger and his wife divided the movie into fourteen sections, making the movie over a two and half year period using TVPaint, a French, bitmap-based digital animation software package. No paper was used in the production.
The film alternates between several animation styles: fully rendered scenes, simple drawings, black and white line illustrations and quick notepad sketches.
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Wikipedia