Movies Where the Dog Is the Smartest Character

Ten films in which the humans are, at best, a supporting cast with thumbs.

Entries
10
Category
Film
Updated
  1. A huge St. Bernard's leash and collar lying on a suburban lawn next to a doghouse far too small for it, a puddle of drool on a polished shoe.

    10. Beethoven

    Brian Levant · 1992

    A St. Bernard sees through a vet who wants big-skulled dogs to test ammunition on long before Charles Grodin does. John Hughes wrote it under the name Edmond Dantès. It made $147.2 million and the dog has seven more movies. Grodin got a puddle of drool.

  2. A German shepherd sitting in the passenger seat of an unmarked police car at night, a police badge on the dashboard beside a toppled coffee cup.

    09. K-9

    Rod Daniel · 1989

    Jim Belushi plays a San Diego detective chasing a drug lord, and Jerry Lee, a German shepherd, does the actual police work. Several dogs played him in shifts. It grossed $43.2 million and spawned three follow-ups, none of which promoted Belushi.

  3. A doghouse in a suburban backyard with its floor opened to reveal a high-tech elevator shaft and blinking control screens below.

    08. Cats & Dogs

    Lawrence Guterman · 2001

    Dogs run a high-tech spy agency protecting a professor's allergy cure from a cat named Mr. Tinkles, and the professor never notices any of it. Tobey Maguire voices a beagle recruit. It made $200.7 million, which is how you know the cats lost.

  4. A golden retriever, a bulldog and a cat silhouetted on a granite ridge in the mountains, a long trail winding down to a farmhouse far below.

    07. Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey

    Duwayne Dunham · 1993

    Shadow, voiced by Don Ameche in his final theatrical release, refuses to believe his family left him and leads Chance and Sassy across the Sierra Nevada. Michael J. Fox gets the jokes. Shadow gets the map. Ten cats played Sassy, who still thinks she's in charge.

  5. A small scruffy dog running down a dusty country road toward an abandoned old house, a ransom note pinned to its front door.

    06. Benji

    Joe Camp · 1974

    A stray rescues two kidnapped kids while the adults fumble the ransom. Every Hollywood studio passed, so Camp formed his own company to distribute it, and the $500,000 film grossed $31.5 million at home. The dog was also smarter than the studios.

  6. Mountains of trash bales on a gray island under a cable car line, five dog silhouettes on the highest ridge looking across the water at a city skyline.

    05. Isle of Dogs

    Wes Anderson · 2018

    Megasaki's mayor exiles every dog to Trash Island over a canine flu, and the pack there, voiced by Cranston, Norton, Murray and Goldblum, out-thinks his entire government. Anderson won Berlin's Silver Bear for directing it. Democracy, but with better ears.

  7. A round time machine chamber with a dial of historical dates, a pair of round eyeglasses and a bow tie resting on its control panel.

    04. Mr. Peabody & Sherman

    Rob Minkoff · 2014

    A Harvard grad at age 3 who adopts a boy and builds a time machine, the WABAC, from the 1959 Rocky and Bullwinkle segment. Ty Burrell voices him as a Nobel laureate and two-time Olympic medalist. The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine is named after his.

  8. A small dog's paw tugging back a heavy curtain to reveal levers, dials and a microphone behind it, a pair of sparkly shoes on the marble floor.

    03. The Wizard of Oz

    Victor Fleming · 1939

    Three companions spend the whole trip asking for a brain, a heart and courage. Toto just walks over and pulls back the curtain. Terry, who played him, earned $125 a week, more than many of the human actors. The only one in Oz who did any investigating.

  9. A row of spotted puppies walking in single file through deep snow toward a London rooftop of chimneys, one dog on a hill barking toward the moon.

    02. One Hundred and One Dalmatians

    Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske and Wolfgang Reitherman · 1961

    Pongo narrates, picks his own wife, then drags Roger to the park to set up Roger's. When the puppies vanish, the police get nowhere and the dogs run the rescue over the Twilight Bark, a nationwide gossip line. Scotland Yard should hire a Great Dane.

  10. A trail of rabbit tracks across a moonlit vegetable patch turning into large footprints that lead up to a cottage window, a giant prize marrow in the foreground.

    01. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

    Nick Park and Steve Box · 2005

    Gromit never says a word and still cracks the case, tracking rabbit prints that turn into human footprints straight back to Wallace's bedroom. First stop-motion film to win an Oscar. Wallace's contribution was becoming the monster.

Honorable mentions

  • A golden retriever mid-leap toward a basketball hoop in an empty school gym, a basketball hanging in the air above its nose.

    Air Bud

    Charles Martin Smith · 1997

    Not the smartest character, but the only one who read the rulebook closely enough to find there is no rule against a dog playing basketball. Buddy got the gig through America's Funniest Home Videos and Stupid Pet Tricks. The $3 million film made $29 million.

Dishonorable mentions

  • A shredded sofa cushion, a chewed door frame and a torn obedience school certificate scattered across a living room floor, a yellow Labrador's tail wagging in the doorway.

    Marley & Me

    David Frankel · 2008

    The memoir it's based on is subtitled Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog, and the movie keeps its promise: Marley gets kicked out of obedience school. It took 22 Labradors to play him. Owen Wilson was still the second-dumbest one in the house.

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