A bittersweet account of the author’s 14-year relationship with his adopted Alsatian, MY DOG TULIP was written, directed and animated by award-winning filmmakers Paul and Sandra Fierlinger, and is the first animated feature ever to be entirely hand drawn and painted utilizing paperless computer technology.
An official selection of the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival, MY DOG TULIP is based on the book by British author and distinguished man of letters J.R. Ackerley. Ackerley hardly thought of himself as a dog lover when, in middle age, he came to adopt Tulip – a beautiful, yet intolerable 18-month-old German shepherd. To his surprise, she turned out to be the love of his life, the ideal companion he had been searching for in vain. Originally published in England in 1956, My Dog Tulip is now published in the US by the New York Review of Books, and is the best-selling title in their Classics Series. In vivid and sometimes startling detail, the film reveals Tulip’s often erratic behavior, canine tastes, and Ackerley’s determined efforts to ensure an existence of perfect happiness for her.