The 10 Best Dog Movies Ever Made

I am a dog lover. Dogs kind of represent the best of us, and I think they can also pull out what might be the worst of us, too.

Those elements really lend themselves well to film, where those stories and depth can bring a lot out of the humans by their side, or the anthropomorphized animals at the story’s center.

In movies, we’ve seen both the highs and the lows of what it’s like to be a dog owner or even a dog, but which movies took this experience to a high level?

Today, I want to go over the best dog movies of all time.

Let’s dive in.

1. Best in Show (2000)

Director: Christopher Guest
Writers: Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy
Cast: Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Parker Posey, Michael McKean, Jane Lynch
Logline: A “behind-the-scenes” look into the highly competitive world of championship dog shows and the eccentric people who obsess over them.

This would be number one in the best mockumentary list, too. For writers, this is a brilliant study of character-driven comedy where the dogs often serve as the “straight men” to their eccentric, highly-strung owners. It’s the hardest I’ve ever laughed at a movie, and it gets better with every watch.

2. Umberto D. (1952)

Director: Vittorio De Sica
Writer: Cesare Zavattini
Cast: Carlo Battisti, Maria Pia Casilio, Lina Gennari
Logline: In post-WWII Rome, an elderly pensioner struggles to survive and maintain his dignity, with his loyal dog as his only source of comfort and reason to live.

Dog movies make me cry, usually, and this one will hit you directly in the feels. It’s a cornerstone of Italian Neorealism; this film uses the bond between an elderly man and his dog, Flike, to tell a devastating story of poverty and social isolation.

3. Wendy and Lucy (2008)

Director: Kelly Reichardt
Writers: Kelly Reichardt, Jonathan Raymond
Cast: Michelle Williams, Will Patton, Will Oldham
Logline: A woman’s life begins to unravel when her car breaks down in Oregon while on her way to Alaska, leading to the heartbreaking loss of her dog, Lucy.

If you want to see how to use a dog to externalize a character’s internal stakes, study this indie gem. I saw this at school and just remembered not being able to look away from the screen. It’s a masterclass in minimalist storytelling and using a companion to ground a performance.

4. Isle of Dogs (2018)

Director: Wes Anderson
Writer: Wes Anderson
Cast: Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Greta Gerwig
Logline: In a dystopian future Japan, all dogs are exiled to a massive trash island, where a young boy travels to find his lost bodyguard dog.

Wes Anderson + dogs was always a great idea. And I think this is a wonderful movie about a boy’s bond with his puppy. It brings his meticulous symmetrical framing and distinct color palettes to a stop-motion world that is wondrous.

5. Old Yeller (1957)

Director: Robert Stevenson
Writers: Fred Gipson, William Tunberg
Cast: Dorothy McGuire, Fess Parker, Tommy Kirk, Kevin Corcoran
Logline: A young boy in 1860s Texas forms a deep bond with a stray yellow dog, helping him grow into the man of the house while facing the harsh realities of frontier life.

We’ve made the jokes. We know the ending. But if you haven’t seen this movie, it really is the quintessential “boy and his dog” story. For screenwriters, it’s a perfect example of a coming-of-age arc tied to the responsibility of pet ownership and the inevitability of loss. And it leaves you with this gut punch you won’t forget.

6. John Wick (2014)

Director: Chad Stahelski
Writer: Derek Kolstad
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Willem Dafoe
Logline: An ex-hitman comes out of retirement to track down the gangsters who killed his puppy, a final gift from his recently deceased wife.

Is this a dog movie? It drives the whole franchise! The dog serves as the perfect inciting incident that fuels one of the most successful action movies of the 21st century. It’s a lesson in high-stakes motivation and establishing immediate audience empathy.

7. Lassie Come Home (1943)

Director: Fred M. Wilcox
Writer: Hugo Butler
Cast: Roddy McDowall, Donald Crisp, Elizabeth Taylor
Logline: After her destitute family is forced to sell her, a loyal dog embarks on a treacherous journey from Scotland to Yorkshire to return to the boy she loves.

When I was younger, I saw this on TCM and became obsessed with the Lassie TV show. The dog is maybe more famous than many actors, and this is the film that launched a thousand sequels and defined the “animal hero” archetype. This is a classic Hero’s Journey structure, but the hero happens to be a Rough Collie traveling hundreds of miles to come home.

8. Marley & Me (2008)

Director: David Frankel
Writers: Scott Frank, Don Roos
Cast: Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston, Eric Dane, Alan Arkin
Logline: A family learns life lessons from their adorable but uncontrollable Labrador retriever as they navigate the ups and downs of marriage and career.

They shot this movie in my hometown, and I would go watch production every day I could. I remember them putting snow on the streets in June or July. And Jennifer Aniston bought an ice cream cone from me at Dairy Queen. Good tipper. This movie tracks the passage of time and personal growth through a dog’s life stages. And we grow with it

9. The Call of the Wild (2020)

Director: Chris Sanders
Writer: Michael Green
Cast: Harrison Ford, Omar Sy, Dan Stevens, Karen Gillan
Logline: A sled dog struggles for survival in the wilds of the Yukon during the 1890s Gold Rush, eventually finding his place in the world alongside a lonely prospector.

Okay, this has a lot of modern VFX, but I actually felt like it was an interesting look at what the dog movie could be. The protagonist, Buck, is a fully CGI character, offering a glimpse into how digital performance can be used to tell classic literary stories with complex physical requirements.

10. Arthur the King (2024)

Director: Simon Cellan Jones
Writer: Michael Brandt
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Simu Liu, Juliet Rylance, Nathalie Emmanuel
Logline: An adventure racer adopts a stray dog named Arthur to join him and his team on an epic 435-mile endurance race through the Dominican Republic.

There are so many “true story” adaptation models in dog stories. But this is a recent one that I felt like got to the heart of what makes dogs amazing and why we love them. It highlights how to balance an ensemble cast with a central animal-human relationship during high-intensity action sequences.

Summing It All Up

Dogs have been side by side with humans since what feels like the dawn of time, so it’s not unusual to have them in our art, too. I love dog movies and how they have focused themselves in mirroring humanity and our highs and lows.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

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