A Dog of Flanders

Less about a dog than a boy of (19th century) Flanders: Nelo, who lives in poverty with his grandfather and wants to become an artist. His progress towards this ambition is helped by a painter who befriends him and, in the happy ending, takes him as an apprentice. But the film is really about the kind of life led by Nelo and his grandfather, blending attractive images of the Flemish countryside with a story of personal and social values (Nelo is forbidden by the well-off miller to play with his daughter; the priest won't let him see the Rubens in the cathedral because he can't pay). An old-fashioned tearjerker for kids (the grandfather dies), it's pretty, but not pretty-pretty.