Sighthounds in Movies/Television

[grizabella]

Saw the fantastic new Pixar film 'Brave' twice over the past couple of days, I just loved that they included a pair of animated Deerhounds- very Scottish! I've heard some people refer to them as Irish Wolfies, but to me they look more 'wiry', like a Deerie, and at any rate it would make much more sense for a film set in Scotland to have Scottish Deerhounds than Irish Wolfhounds.

I think the only other Deerhound I've seen in a film is Sirius Black's canine form in 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'. (I always imagined him looking more like a Belgian Groenendael, but that's just me!).

[Gazinghound]

Hoooooooooo boy, I just got back from Brave (which I loved in so many ways!), and every time the Deerhounds were onscreen, I smiled so big! ;D They looked way cool--very recognizable! And they were so cute at the end with the triplets, lol! They were most definitely Deerhounds; everything about their builds, coats, and faces totally said Deerhound. I love that they picked a Scottish breed--way to be authentic! A royal Scottish family owning them is historically realistic. (It was as if they'd said, "Let's see, how could Merida possibly be any more awesome? Oh, I know, we could give her family a couple of Deerhounds!") XD They kind of reminded me of Sir Ector's two energetic dogs (Tiger and Talbot) from The Sword in the Stone. I wished they'd had a little bigger part, and almost expected them to recognize Elinor during the hunt, being dogs and all--but I guess she smelled too much like a real bear.

I noted the one that appeared briefly as Sirius' Animagus form, too. That was cool, even if we only got to see the dog for a split second, and it wasn't how I imagine Sirius, either. I've always pictured him like the illustration in the book, and the first time we saw him (much more wolf- or shepherd-like; I didn't understand why they suddenly switched to such a different dog in the OotP movie.) A Groenendael would have been a lot closer to my mental image, but heck, I had never seen a Deerhound turn up in a film prior to that, so it was kinda awesome for me nonetheless.

My other latest sighthounds-in-recent-media sightings included the Saluki cameos in the last Transformers film, and all the ones on Pound Puppies (Dash Whippet, the Borzoi, Twiggy and the other Afghans...)