Anime: The Dog of Flanders

The Dog of Flanders, where Flanders (northern part of Belgium) is the place where the story unfolds and where the dog is a dog.

The story
The story follows a boy named Nello in his daily life. His parents died when he was young and he is being raised by his grandfather.
They run a small milk delivery service which earns them just enough to survive. They raise a dog, Patrasche, they found exhausted at the side of the road.
Nello is a gifted drawer. He also befriends the daughter, Aloise, of a 'rich' miller.
Life isn't easy for the poor in the 19th-century but Nello lives a happy life.
He has grandfather, Aloise, his drawing and Patrasche as his inspiration to go on.

This version doesn't got a Disney happy ending:


The stereotypes
Lots of stereotypes but the main characters, Nello, his dog Patrasche and Aloise, are a nice exception.
Nello doesnt acts like a rebel who does what he wants (stereotype poor boy).
Patrasche acts afraid when he encounters his old owner who mistreated him.
Aloise doesnt acts like a spoiled brat (stereotype rich girl).
This makes the movie more enjoyable and honest.

Of course there are the encounters with the rich dad that doesn't approve of the poor, the previous abusive owner of Patrasche, the snake-type-wanna-be-rich-guy who hates the poor that are predictable and often unfair but part of the story.
But there are also some encounters that are fair and thereby making the movie more enjoyable. Like how the rich people at the drawing contest act normal around Nello, where i expected to treat him as 2nd rate.

The ending
It kinda got a stupid ending if you can think of the only logical thing to do if a snow storm is outside: wait until the storm passes.
It came down to a time frame of maybe 0.5 to 2 hours (real time, like 2min in the movie itself).
They wanted to stay true to the original story ending but they also had every reason to make it an ending where everyone lived haply.

The result
They could have called this movie the life of Nello cause the dog of flanders didn't played that a big role in the story itself.
Art, animation and sound are all fitting for the movie. Nothing special but for that time great and it certainly passed the test of time.
In the end a enjoyable movie that avoids most clichés while having a lot of stereotype situations.
The ending didn't surprise me, but the way to it did (as it didn't make that much sense).