As the story of Red Dog’s past is unveiled in the newly-released Red Dog: True Blue, we check up on a few of his Aussie mates (and one Kiwi)…
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)
Name: Dog
Breed: Australian Cattle Dog
Proving that you actually can be less imaginative than ‘Red Dog’ when bestowing a name upon your canine companion, Max’s Dog proves a trusty companion for cruising post-apocalyptic wastelands – and providing protection from lanky autogyro pilots.
Footrot Flats: The Dog’s Tale (1987)
Name: Dog
Breed: Border Collie
OK, so it isn’t just Aussies who lack imagination when it comes to naming their doggy buddies, but then again Dog actually prefers the moniker to that which Aunt Dolly gave him. To this day we still don’t know what that was, but it certainly ruffled his fur.
Oddball (2015)
Name: Oddball
Breed: Maremma Sheepdog
With Warrnambool’s penguin population being ravaged by foxes, a solution is needed. Despite having a reputation as somewhat of a larrikin, ‘Oddy’ is trained by owner Swampy and his granddaughter to protect them – after all, it works with chickens, right?
The Castle (1997)
Names: Banshee, Starflash, Trailblazer, Coco, Son of Coco
Breed: Greyhound
Ah, what more regal a dog is there than the dishlicker? Sadly, it seems that too many owners don’t treat theirs with anywhere near the respect that they deserve. But not Darryl Kerrigan, as he treats his four – then five – like royalty. After all, he did meet wife Sal at the greyhounds.
Check out the US trailer – though not shown, they actually re-dubbed a lot of the movie, including car, TV show and food names. No rissoles for them!
Babe (1995)
Names: Rex, Fly
Breed: Border Collie
Fly basically becomes little piggy Babe’s surrogate mummy, with mate Rex on daddy duties. However, when Babe shows off super-impressive sheep-pig chops Rex cracks it in a fit of jealousy rather than being proud of a good job – making his situation all the worse.
Dogs in Space (1986)
Names: Sam, Tim
Breed: Band members
Ah, one of the most loyal breeds of all – assuming that you feed them a steady diet of Coco Pops, Big Ms and select other, erm, ‘healthy’ stuff, of course…
