Review of Finding Rin Tin Tin (2007) by Virginia P — 14 May 2016

This film was a great disappointment. There is so much material to the story of this dog, the war situation, the post war and early movie industry life of Lee Duncan and the very special canine. Film does a great disservice to the story.

Of this very special canine.Adult actors were stiff and phony, dog was humanized to be like a smart, bratty child and the essence of this human -animal bond was reduced to a superficial shallow connection. As a teacher, I think the audience for this film would be pre-schoolers through lower elementary. You can't fool kids, it comes across a a comedy.

National Velvet, Warhorse, Pig in the City and Lassie Come Home (with Roddy McDowell) still stay in my head as wonderful animal stories with great meaning.

I have just finished reading RinTin Tin by Susan Orleans. It's too bad a film hasn't been made that parallels that biography.Similar to Seabisquit.

The dog is humanized to being like a smart bratty child , the humans have stilted conversations and I couldn't see any genuine acting on their part. I thin it would amuse early elementary and pre-schoolers but upper level primary kids would be sceptics for sure. . Teens might mock it. I watched about 1/3 of it but couldn't stand it any more. I still have Lassie Come Home with Roddy McDowell, Pig in the City, National Velvet and Warhorse in my head. This Rin Tin Tin film comes off as silly.

I've taught school for almost 30 years and this film would be suitable for kindergarten-1st grade. The true message of this animal's life has been sadly ignored in this film.