Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment
The 1985 “in your face” comedy sequel featured the least likely of additions to the police force: Officer Vinnie Schtulman (Peter Van Norden) and his K-9 Newfoundland dog, Lou. Of course, Officer Lou is the exact opposite of your traditional police dog – slow, cumbersome, clumsy, messy, and seemingly unintelligent (in reality Newfies can be smart). The K-9 compliments Officer Schtulman who is also messy, slow, less intelligent than the others, and quite stubborn. Of course, it hads to the comedy when they both eat form the same plate.
Officer Lou was played by the most titled Newfloundland dogs to date, Kodiak (aka VN Ch. Riptide’s Brown Kodiak Bear, CD, WRD, DD). Of course the dog was a big teddy bear on the set and was quite stubborn – quite often dictating how many takes he’s want for a shoot. Don’t let this get you, though, he did alert his owner, Kathie Cullen, to a dangerous fire that was burning in her home. Kodiak has also earned the Newfoundland club’s prestigious “Versatility” award. Continue reading
Stand By Me
The 1986 future-star studded film was about four young boys on their way to find a dead body. Their journey proves difficult for them and they come across many tests of courage during their trip. One of them was to face “Chopper”, a guard dog at a junkyard where they took refuge one afternoon. There is a rumor that the owner of the dog taught him a command that would strike the fear into any young man’s heart – “Chopper – sick balls”.
Chopper was a golden retriever named Popeye who was also in the films “War of the Roses” (1989 as “Benny”) and “Out of Bounds” (1986 – as Barney the Dog). Golden retrievers love to play fetch, catch, and any other “game” that requires retrieving. They are also trained to retrieve shot-down foul for hunters. They can easily be made to look like a dangerous mutt with good speed and agility – and when needed, to bite Corey Feldman in the rear end.
The Day After Tomorrow
In the 2004 film, “The Day After Tomorrow”, a homeless man named Luther (played by Glenn Plummer) always had his best friend by his side – a border collie named “Buddha”. Ian Doig was the animal trainer for this film.
The wolves in the movie were CGI but during shooting, real trained wolves were used and during post-production CGI animated wolves were inserted over the real wolves (presumably to make them look bigger and badder).
K-9
K-9 was a 1989 film starring James Belushi (as Officer Mike Dooley) and “Koton” (as K-9 Officer Jerry Lee) about an officer (Mike Dooley) who needs to find, and bring to justice, a drug dealer who tried to kill him. He is given a German shepherd who is trained as a narcotics dog to assist him. Of course, Mike has never worked with a K-9 before and his lack of experience comes out when Jerry Lee starts off very independent. K-9 also had a sequel, the 1999 film K911 also starring James Belushi and another German shepherd, “Mac”.
Koton also starred in TV series, K-9 where he starred as “Rondo the Dog”.
Marley & Me
The film “Marley & Me” stars Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston. It is a biography (based on a true story book), from the point of view, of a dog that they receive as a puppy (a yellow lab named Grogan – played by “Jonah” (he was also in the 2007 documentary “Zoo“) and have the dog for a pet for 13 years. The puppy is a typical dog in many ways – untrained, high energy, destructive (but not though malice), and eager to please his humans (from a dog’s point of view).
As the family and their canine family member grow, the humans have children as they accept (and love) Marley the way he is until his dying days. Continue reading