Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero Review

Animation fans there have been alot of films that i've been looking forward to watching over the past few years some have been good others not so much but most of them have been made by a big studio but today I present to you that rare film that i've been looking forward to seeing that's an independent film and that film is Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero.

The set up of the movie is it's the true story of a stray dog who joins his new master on the battlefields of the First World War. For his valorous actions Sgt. Stubby is still recognized as the most decorated dog in American history. Yeah I know I said set up well that's because there is no real story to speak of just a bunch of scenes that detail some events in the first world war and I have to knock the film for that because i've seen films based of true events that still had a plot so this film really has no excuse in my eyes.

The film stars Logan Lerman as Robert Conroy , Helena Bonham Carter as Margaret Conroy , Gérard Depardieu as Gaston Baptiste , Jim Pharr as Hans Schroeder , Jordan Beck as Elmer Olsen and Jason Ezzell as Sgt. Ray Casburn. What makes this film stand is that Sgt. Stubby himself doesn't speak at all in the film all of his motivations are conveyed by how he acts in certain situations in my eyes he is the truest dog character seen in an animated film.

As for the acting I thought that the actors did the best with the script that they were given and that's not a knock on the script but it must have been hard to have a scene with a non talking dog so the actors would have had to imagine how the dog would have said it and what emotion he was trying to convey.

The Animation for the film was done by Mikros Image and I have to say given that the film had a budget of $25 million you'd be surprised to know that the animation in the film is actually really good it's not Disney levels of good by any means but for what was an independent film the quality of the animation is actually quite high and you can tell that the team working on the film really did care about what they were trying to tell because it shows on screen.

I can't recall the last time I saw an animated film that was based on a true story and while I can't tell if they stuck to that story or not I have to applaud the team for taking that chance since it's not something that's really done alot at least in animated films but it is a shame that the film only made $3.2 million since this is a film that I believe both kids and adults should go and see.

                                                                                    

I'm a huge dog lover so I might be a little bias when I say this but Stubby himself is so freaking adorable it's beyond believe I know that the real Stubby most likely died during the second world war or even before it but gosh darn it his animated counterpart is so freaking cute that I wish he was real just so I could take him home with me.

What really shocked me about this kids film because yes this is a kids film is the fact that it doesn't stray away from the struggles that the people of France went through and even the people of America and the people in the actual army i'm not going to spoil what happens but I hope to god that this film was rated PG because kids are going to ask alot of questions when this film is over and i'm glad that they didn't stray away from showing those struggles since to me that says that they are treating this audience with respect.

The film is ultimately about friendship between a man and a dog and like I said before I can't think of a film that's done that and it's such a shame that judging by the box office this film flopped hard but it's a message that I think needed to be told since we live in a world were both humans and dogs are at times treated horribly by each other so every once in a while we need reminding that in order to survive this thing called life we need to be friends with each other.

 Guys I cannot stress enough how much you need to see this film will it change your life no it won't but it will give you a great heartwarming tale between a man and his dog and it will remind you of the hard times that our world had to go through just to get to where we are today and that to me makes this film seem very special.

Overall just look at my above statement that right there is the perfect way to summarize what I thought of the film and while it did get overshadowed by Isle of Dogs , Rampage and Truth or Dare this is a film that you should check out so it gets an 8.5 out of 10 from me.