Good boys: the top 10 movie dogs

Ash Walker • 27 Aug 2024 Features

Woof and, indeed, woof.

It’s International Dog Week! And that’s as good an excuse as any to indulge in some cinematic canine capers.

So curl up on the sofa with your favourite four-legged friend, hand out the treats and join us as we celebrate the very best good boys (and some bad) that the silver screen has to offer.

10. Marley (from Marley & Me, 2008)

As adorable as he is badly behaved, Labrador retriever Marley (named after Bob, naturally), is adopted by the newlywed Grogans (Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston) as a sort of trial-run for having a baby. Which turns out to be a thoroughly bad idea.

Despite being a little tyrant, Marley is there throughout the family’s various ups and downs and soon becomes a vital part of the household. But, of course, time goes on and dogs get older and before you know it…

I’m not crying. I just have something in my eye.

9. Buddy (from Air Bud, 1997)

Perhaps the most supernaturally talented pooch on this list, Buddy is a Golden Retriever with the uncanny ability to play pretty much every sport known to man - and play it well.

In the first movie in the Air Bud series, Buddy leads the local high school basketball team to victory at the state championships. By the fifth film - 2003’s Air Bud Spikes Back - he’s mastered American football and volleyball, joined a Major League Baseball team and participated in the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Truly, nothing can stop this dog.

8. Hooch (from Turner & Hooch, 1989)

Another good boy with an unusual talent - this time for solving murders and uncovering criminal conspiracies.

When Hooch’s owner is killed, he ends up stuck with the cop (Tom Hanks) investigating the crime. Hooch - a French mastiff - is messy and unpredictable; Turner - a human - is neat and fastidious. The stage is set for a classic buddy-cop adventure.

Before long, the two have learned to work together and tracked down the criminals, but not without sacrifice… Look, why do the dogs always have to die at the end of these movies?

7. Beethoven (from Beethoven, 1992)

Just like Marley and Hooch, Beethoven is a panting, slobbering whirlwind of destruction, only this time in the gargantuan frame of a St Bernard.

He’s a supremely adorable puppy when the Newton family finds and adopts him, but before long he’s grown to monstrous size and regularly butts heads with the dad, George (Charles Grodin). But when Beethoven helps to thwart a group of bumbling dognappers, George begins to see him in a new light. Presumably as a crime fighter, like Batman.

The Beethoven franchise is as big as the pooch himself, spawning a whopping seven sequels, in which the oversized dog scuppers more criminal schemes, becomes a movie star and even meets Santa Claus.

At one point he also inexplicably starts speaking, in the voice of ‘90s comedian Tom Arnold. So, there’s that.

6. Chance (from Homeward Bound, 1993)

A selfish, independent American bulldog, Chance has no time for things like ‘home’ and ‘family’. But when he and his friends, Golden Retriever Shadow and Himalayan cat Sassy, are seemingly abandoned by their owners, they set out on a perilous journey through the Sierra Nevada to find their way home.

After suffering hunger and danger - and fighting a mountain lion - Chance eventually comes to realise that he misses his family, and leads the others to safety. A very good boy, eventually. It helps that he’s voiced by the always-lovable Michael J Fox.

5. Lady & Tramp (from Lady and the Tramp, 1955)

Perhaps the great canine power couple, Lady (a cocker spaniel) and Tramp (a mutt) have rightfully become Disney icons since their debut in 1955. The story of their mismatched, odd-couple romance is the stuff of legend:

A prim, pampered pup, pushed aside by her owners following the birth of their first child, meets a scruffy, streetsmart chancer. Lessons are learned, hate turns to love, and a portly Italian man sings Bella Notte while the dogs eat spaghetti and meatballs.

The rest is history.

4. Sparky (from Frankenweenie, 2012)

Another beloved mutt who ends up biting the dust - this time at the start of the film. Sparky’s owner is a young Victor Frankenstein, who manages to bring him back to life using the power of science.

Much hijinks ensue as the ebullient Sparky, now undead and loving it, goes about his doggy business while trying not to, literally, fall apart at the seams. Before long the secret of Sparky’s resurrection gets out, leading to the accidental creation of a horde of monster pets, referencing everything from Dracula to The Creature From the Black Lagoon to Godzilla.

But Sparky remains a very good boy throughout, despite the smell.

3. Benji (from Benji, 1974)

A scruffy little stray with a heart of gold and a knack for outsmarting criminals, Benji was so popular that he then went on to feature in eight movies, several shorts and a short-lived TV show where he befriends an alien boy on the run from galactic bounty hunters.

Strangely, that’s probably not even the weirdest Benji adventure - that prize surely has to go to 1980’s Oh! Heavenly Dog, in which a private investigator played by Chevy Chase is killed and reincarnated as everyone’s favourite mutt.

He then proceeds to finish the investigation. As a dog. Perhaps unsurprisingly the film was not well-received, but even that turkey couldn’t keep a good boy like Benji down - he returned to screens seven years later and has been going strong ever since.

2. Cujo (from Cujo, 1983)

A good boy turned bad, Cujo is another St Bernard, like Beethoven. The difference being that Beethoven’s destructive tendencies never go as far as brutal and bloody murder.

Poor Cujo starts off friendly and easy-going, but when he’s bitten on the nose by a rabid bat his demeanour quickly starts to change. He gets angry and kills his abusive owner, then traps a woman and her young son in their car, where they slowly succumb to dehydration and heat stroke.

So… not the best behaviour. But Cujo can’t help it, and he’s since become so iconic that his name is now synonymous with ‘dangerous dog’ - so he has to get points for that.

1. Charlie B. Barkin (from All Dogs Go to Heaven, 1989)

Charlie is a bad dude. He’s a smooth-talking canine con artist, a swindler, a gambler and a cheat. But when he’s double-crossed and killed by his scheming business partner Carface, Charlie finds himself in heaven.

All dogs, he discovers, get an automatic trip through the pearly gates, no matter how shady they were in life. The problem is, Charlie isn’t quite done yet. And so he escapes back to earth, seeking revenge on Carface - sort of like The Crow, but with more fur.

Charlie is your classic bad-guy-turned-good. An antihero German Shepherd who discovers - through magical orphan Anne-Marie - that there’s a world outside of himself.

Plus he’s voiced by Burt Reynolds, which is just cool.