Dog in the fight

Guns, grenades, and mustard gas in a kids’ movie? That’s Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero, the debut production from Fun Academy Motion Pictures. The animated film is based on the true story of the titular mutt that remains America’s most highly decorated military animal. Targeting younger viewers, though, writer-director Richard Lanni (also the studio’s founder) delivers a less traumatic version of World War I battlefield events: Enemies are captured, not gunned down, and an American soldier’s death is depicted by an empty helmet with a bullet hole.

The film’s strongest point, however, is its unmistakable ambition to re-teach children that American troops have made a difference for good in the world.

Margaret Conroy (voiced by Helena Bonham Carter) narrates the film. She chronicles the experiences of her younger brother, Robert (Logan Lerman), starting in 1917 when Robert and his Army regiment are training in Connecticut. The soldiers find a stray dog, name him Stubby, and make him their mascot. Stubby accompanies the regiment to France, where he participates in 17 battles during the final 18 months of the war.

The film takes some dramatic license—Stubby stows away aboard a ship—but downright errs by not featuring a single combatant of color: The fact is 350,000 African-Americans fought during WWI.

Still, the PG-rated film has much to commend: solid computer graphics with eye-catching 2-D segments interspersed; harrowing moments without violent visuals; and except for one “What the devil,” no offensive language. The regiment’s colonel asks God to bless his troops, and French villagers express gratitude for the American presence.

It seems there’s less gratitude today for American military involvement. But 100 years (this very year) after the end of the war that didn’t end all wars, American soldiers are still fighting overseas to defend innocent people from tyrants’ guns, grenades, and poison gas.