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Friday 9 November 2012

Dog Dancing School (Doc)

By request (thanks for following on Twitter).

Beerbohmtastic seems to be evolving.  I recently had a request to do a book review.  So, if I keep it in the spirit of Max Beerbohm, I will look at the book, write the review, and if I like what I've written I'll read the book...  That works for movie trailers, but...hmmm, maybe I'll give it a try.  Stay tuned.

Dog Dancing School is a documentary.  The title says it all.

The trailer opens up with a "Borough of Swindon" sign.  One of my top 20 favourite bands is from Swindon, U.K.  XTC!  Before they were called XTC they were The Lads of Swindon.  XTC is a better name.  They have some very cool and some very odd albums (that's the term used for vinyl records).

XTC were considered "new wave" up and comers in the late 70's, with Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson etc...  Legend has it that early in their career, the singer, Andy Partridge developed terrible stage fright at a show and couldn't perform.  So, from what I understand they just made records (another term for vinyl, but you can replace "records" with CD's - which is the format that I own) without ever touring.  All of the CD's that I own have tracks that are blow-your-mind brilliant and tracks that make you scratch your head.  I digress.

At first, I wasn't sure if Dog Dancing school was a documentary or mockumentary.  It briefly reminded me of that other mockumentary, Best in Show.

I was concerned that it might take itself too seriously, but then the clues started happening....

One of the judges at a dog event was wearing a "Dexter" t-shirt.  A message board in a park where dog festivities occur in the trailer read:


And while the trailer was long, it had undertones of humour, as if not taking itself too seriously.  There was a level of sincerity, even love in depicting the relationship between human and dog - people do love their dogs, but the other message in the trailer was that competing by "showing" your dog didn't have to be as formalized as major dog or breeder shows.  People in communities can get together, have fun, dance with dogs and bond with like minded people.  Nice message.

I'm just not a big fan of pets, that's why I have a cat.

The best part of the trailer was the final scene when a dog tries to eat a clip-on microphone.  funny touch.

I'm not really the audience for this type of documentary but I do wish the makers the best of luck.




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