Wonder Dogs! (Blu-ray)

While Rin Tin Tin may be credited as Hollywood’s first animal superstar, there was in fact a whole pack of canine performers bounding onto the screen before and after his debut. This special two-disc collection, presented in cooperation with the Library of Congress, celebrates cinema’s lesser-known dog stars with their most memorable features, shorts, and newsreel appearances (1898-1928). Wonder Dogs demonstrate their comedy chops opposite slapstick legends Charley Chase (Dog Shy), Roscoe Arbuckle (Fatty’s Faithful Fido), Mabel Normand (A Little Hero), and the notorious “Dippy-Doo-Dads” (The Watchdog). But it was in rugged outdoor adventures that dog stars were truly born: Fearless (The SIlent Trailer, directed by Francis Ford), Peter the Great (The Sign of the Claw), Klondike (The Law’s Lash), Champion (The Sky Rider), and Duke (alongside Tom Mix in the tense modern Western Teeth). Films dated as early as 1898 offer satisfying simple glimpses of dogs at play, anticipating the adorable animal videos that would become social media phenomena more than a century later.