I find it interesting and a bit frustrating that so many speak of "Old Yeller" as the holly grail of "boy and his dog" films and that "Big Red" as been totally lost in the mix and is now even out of print. I actually don't understand as I personally found "Old Yeller" vastly underrated and I believe that if it wasn't for it's unusually sad ending for a Disney film,it probably would have not been hailed the classic as it is today.After all when you take off the shock ending of "Old Yeller" you are left with a pretty bland film with very little story except ..A boy left to take care of his home with the help of his new dog.. But enough of this and on to "Big Red". This is an absolutely charming little film. It avoids the certain things that makes other Disney 60's flicks age badly so in "Big red" we have no Cheesy theme song a la "Davy Crockett" (Thank goodness for that!) What makes this film work the most is the superb performance by the two main actors Walter Pidgeon and Gilles Payant. The Canadian kid was just natural and charming and it's surprising that it was his first and only film because he outdo in the acting department in a single film most of the Disney kids the studio were spitting out in the 60's.He was likable and the actor presence made us really care for the kid , I was surprise by this because normally in that sort of film the dog end up being more interesting then the kid but this time both the dog and the kid were equally interesting to watch.Talking about the dog , I usually don't think about the trainers when I watch films featuring animals but I had a lot of "How did they make the dog look so natural on screen?" moment , great work done with the dogs in this film. Walter Pidgeon who was a bit of a Walt Disney look alike is really good in this film and I enjoyed the fact that the film was as much about his character and his relationship with the kid then the boy and his relationship with the dog , unlike "Old Yeller" this film as a bit more layer. It's not just about a dog , It's also about a lonely man who lost the will to love until that kid shows up.So it makes this film more accessible then your typical animal film fare , I have friends that cant stand "Dog" films and they really enjoyed this one. The other supporting cast are great as well. The music is very pleasing,I love the main theme and the very short song by the Sherman, again , it was great not to have one of those silly songs. This film felt very short because I wasn't bored once. It is really unfortunate that "Big Red" did not find a public and that now it is a forgotten film but I couldn't recommend more for any fan of Disney live action flick of the past to give this wonderful film a try.
10 Reviews
I even had the "Big Red" Golden Book!!!
kidboots30 November 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Disney could always be relied upon (back then) for wonderful, real entertainment but as one of the reviewers stated a lot of these films seemed to just vanish. I saw this film as a Christmas treat but did not see or hear of it again until over 40 years later when I found it on the Disney station. I did, however, have the Golden Book. Golden Books had been around since the 1940s and most Disney films were presented in picture book form as Golden Books. They were beautifully illustrated, about 30 pages in length, so you could keep re-living the movie.
The first thing I noticed in re-viewing this film was the bright, vivid Technicolor that Disney always used. James Haggin (Walter Pidgeon), a gruff dog breeder, pays the unheard of sum of $5,000 dollars for a prizewinning red setter. Rene (Gilles Payant), a young lad looking for work, meets Red and they become friends. He is given the job of being Red's handler and teaches him the fine art of hunting, as well as exercising him. Haggin is all business and is not happy that Red is becoming a pet. He takes Red up to the main house just before the big show but Red does not want to be separated from Rene and jumps through a plate glass window to be with him. Red is about to be put down but Rene runs off with him and nurses him back to health at his uncle's cabin.
He returns Red to Haggin but with a big scar on his body Red will never be a show dog again. Rene is still upset that Haggin wanted to put Red down - he feels he cannot work for him again. Red and Molly, another setter, are being shipped by rail to another owner but a careless guard leaves their cage open and they escape in the Canadian wilds. Rene hears about it and is determined to find them - which he does with the aid of his trusty harmonica. Haggin goes up in the mountains to look for Rene and Red saves him from being mauled by a mountain lion. Red and the lion's confrontation looked real - none of this CGI stuff!!! In the meantime Molly has her puppies and they look so cute.
This is a wonderful family film, not too long and with no forgettable songs to slow down the action. The location at Big Bear Lake was just so lush and green. Walter Pidgeon was his usual solid self. Gilles Payant was excellent as the young lad Rene. I wonder what ever happened to him and why this was his only film????
Highly Recommended.
The first thing I noticed in re-viewing this film was the bright, vivid Technicolor that Disney always used. James Haggin (Walter Pidgeon), a gruff dog breeder, pays the unheard of sum of $5,000 dollars for a prizewinning red setter. Rene (Gilles Payant), a young lad looking for work, meets Red and they become friends. He is given the job of being Red's handler and teaches him the fine art of hunting, as well as exercising him. Haggin is all business and is not happy that Red is becoming a pet. He takes Red up to the main house just before the big show but Red does not want to be separated from Rene and jumps through a plate glass window to be with him. Red is about to be put down but Rene runs off with him and nurses him back to health at his uncle's cabin.
He returns Red to Haggin but with a big scar on his body Red will never be a show dog again. Rene is still upset that Haggin wanted to put Red down - he feels he cannot work for him again. Red and Molly, another setter, are being shipped by rail to another owner but a careless guard leaves their cage open and they escape in the Canadian wilds. Rene hears about it and is determined to find them - which he does with the aid of his trusty harmonica. Haggin goes up in the mountains to look for Rene and Red saves him from being mauled by a mountain lion. Red and the lion's confrontation looked real - none of this CGI stuff!!! In the meantime Molly has her puppies and they look so cute.
This is a wonderful family film, not too long and with no forgettable songs to slow down the action. The location at Big Bear Lake was just so lush and green. Walter Pidgeon was his usual solid self. Gilles Payant was excellent as the young lad Rene. I wonder what ever happened to him and why this was his only film????
Highly Recommended.
Modest live-action Disney film for the family
moonspinner5511 July 2001
Orphaned young man finds work on the ranch of a stern dog-owner, becomes attached to a mutt who might have dog-show potential. Walter Pigeon(looking a little bit like Walt Disney himself!)ambles around quite nicely as the dog-owner with the face of stone and the heart of gold. The kid is inoffensive, although the music goes out of it's way to jerk your heartstrings. The settings have that artificial look commonplace to studio-films of this era, but in Disney's case the rural atmosphere is always captured with a nostalgic feel. It is almost unbearably wholesome, but I had a pleasant time watching it. ** out of ****
Charming and alas...Forgotten
Enrique-Sanchez-5610 January 2004
In the world of cinema it has become increasingly harder and harder to grant due credit to those films of earlier years who made an impact and yet inexplicably faded into the insurmountable hill of thousands of fine movies.
BIG RED is one of them. I have read that this movie spawned a huge interest in the Irish Setter in the United States. There must have been an irresistible charm in this movie for this to have happened.
And yet, here I am watching this movie for the first time on Hallmark (not Disney!), 42 years later wondering why I never heard of it again! Surely it must have succumbed under the influence of flashier movies.
Why else would such a tender movie have faded out of our collective consciousness? Perhaps it is because it does not splash you with techno-wizardry or earth-shaking situations? Perhaps it is because the story is too simple and too predictable?
I conclude that it is because simplicity has gone out of favor. Sober charm has been usurped by drunken revelry.
That's too bad. We need this brand of storytelling. We need to slow down our revolutions per minute, sit back and take a deep breath.
BIG RED is charming. There are no monumental ideals overturned here. We have simple, easily paced scenes about the human heart and a young, honest boy whose entire world is the life of one dog who he cherishes above almost everything.
Was life ever this simple? Perhaps not. But to a young child, the entire world can be the size of a few square miles. He learns his lessons, and others learn from him.
Gilles Payant is charming as the young boy. It's a shame, yet another shame in the world of film, that he did not pursue a career in film.
Walter Pidgeon is perfect as the dog's owner.
I recommend this to anyone without a pretentious heart. You won't be dazzled. But you might be charmed.
BIG RED is one of them. I have read that this movie spawned a huge interest in the Irish Setter in the United States. There must have been an irresistible charm in this movie for this to have happened.
And yet, here I am watching this movie for the first time on Hallmark (not Disney!), 42 years later wondering why I never heard of it again! Surely it must have succumbed under the influence of flashier movies.
Why else would such a tender movie have faded out of our collective consciousness? Perhaps it is because it does not splash you with techno-wizardry or earth-shaking situations? Perhaps it is because the story is too simple and too predictable?
I conclude that it is because simplicity has gone out of favor. Sober charm has been usurped by drunken revelry.
That's too bad. We need this brand of storytelling. We need to slow down our revolutions per minute, sit back and take a deep breath.
BIG RED is charming. There are no monumental ideals overturned here. We have simple, easily paced scenes about the human heart and a young, honest boy whose entire world is the life of one dog who he cherishes above almost everything.
Was life ever this simple? Perhaps not. But to a young child, the entire world can be the size of a few square miles. He learns his lessons, and others learn from him.
Gilles Payant is charming as the young boy. It's a shame, yet another shame in the world of film, that he did not pursue a career in film.
Walter Pidgeon is perfect as the dog's owner.
I recommend this to anyone without a pretentious heart. You won't be dazzled. But you might be charmed.
Forgettable, in a word
r96sk27 January 2021
It holds some charm, but 'Big Red' is mostly average.
Gilles Payant gives a likeable, if wooden, performance as Rene, while Walter Pidgeon adds a touch of elegance to the film as James. Émile Genest and Janette Bertrand are alright, too. The cast I actually like, it's just the plot and how it is told that hampers the film for me.
The onscreen dogs are adorable and their story ends in a cutesy manner, but there's not much more to enjoy past that. It's a very basic premise which is revealed in a very basic way. Nothing necessarily bad, but nothing all that good either. Forgettable, in a word.
Gilles Payant gives a likeable, if wooden, performance as Rene, while Walter Pidgeon adds a touch of elegance to the film as James. Émile Genest and Janette Bertrand are alright, too. The cast I actually like, it's just the plot and how it is told that hampers the film for me.
The onscreen dogs are adorable and their story ends in a cutesy manner, but there's not much more to enjoy past that. It's a very basic premise which is revealed in a very basic way. Nothing necessarily bad, but nothing all that good either. Forgettable, in a word.
Lesser rated simply because Quebec born Gilles Payant speaks with an inherited strong French accent
Ed-Shullivan12 June 2018
This is a good family film from the Disney vaults that has been tucked away in relative obscurity mainly because the lead child actor Gilles Payant, who was born in Quebec does not speak with a clear American speaking accent that Americans are always expecting to hear. Otherwise, this film is unfairly noted as a "foreign film". Such narrow mindness has its own reward that those open minded film goers who have seen Big Red still consider it a Disney classic some 56 years later.
A hero Irish Red Setter befriending a Quebec boy who is an orphan himself sets out into the middle of the wilderness to find his beloved pupil dog only to find out that Big Red has now become a father. Big Red wants his offspring pups and their mother to be granted the freedom to choose where to live rather than to have a wealthy dog breeder sell them off as damaged goods. Actor Gilles Payant who plays the orphan boy Rene Dumont is not concerned about his own welfare and decides to leave his job in a full blown effort to find Big Red and his soon to be mother of his offspring in the wilderness after escaping from their shipping container on a freight train.
Breeder and dog owner James Haggin (played by Walter Pidgeon) has one of those come to Jesus moments when he realizes that the orphan boy Rene Dumont who he had hired to simply exercise Big Red has sacrificed his job and decent way of life to find the lost dog, Big Red, in the middle of thousand of square miles of wild country. So dog owner James Haggin gets on his horse with his rifle in hand to find Rene Dumont and bring him home. The ending is a hero's welcome that Walt Disney is known for but back in 1962 Walt Disney was lesser known for making dramatic films and so this film received little recognition.....until now.
I hope the Disney vault releases a Blu Ray version sometime soon. I give the film a decent 8 out of 10 rating.
A hero Irish Red Setter befriending a Quebec boy who is an orphan himself sets out into the middle of the wilderness to find his beloved pupil dog only to find out that Big Red has now become a father. Big Red wants his offspring pups and their mother to be granted the freedom to choose where to live rather than to have a wealthy dog breeder sell them off as damaged goods. Actor Gilles Payant who plays the orphan boy Rene Dumont is not concerned about his own welfare and decides to leave his job in a full blown effort to find Big Red and his soon to be mother of his offspring in the wilderness after escaping from their shipping container on a freight train.
Breeder and dog owner James Haggin (played by Walter Pidgeon) has one of those come to Jesus moments when he realizes that the orphan boy Rene Dumont who he had hired to simply exercise Big Red has sacrificed his job and decent way of life to find the lost dog, Big Red, in the middle of thousand of square miles of wild country. So dog owner James Haggin gets on his horse with his rifle in hand to find Rene Dumont and bring him home. The ending is a hero's welcome that Walt Disney is known for but back in 1962 Walt Disney was lesser known for making dramatic films and so this film received little recognition.....until now.
I hope the Disney vault releases a Blu Ray version sometime soon. I give the film a decent 8 out of 10 rating.
Film Location
belltownclassic25 March 2006
Big Red was shot around La Malbaie and Cap Aigle in the Charlevoix Region of Quebec. The falls are currently part of the Chutes Fraser Campground. The surrounding scenery is set at the Cabot Farm. The gardens of Francis Cabot, "Les Quatre Vents," can be visited or seen in his book, "The Greater Perfection, The Story of the Gardens at Les Quatre Vents." From a historical perspective this area was frequented by President William Howard Taft among others of high society, hence the story takes on new meaning with the wealthy owner of Red taking an interest in young french speaking Gilles. This film is suitable for young children and those who occasionally like to take a stroll down memory lane to a simpler time.
Another forgotten Disney great.
yenlo8 October 1999
Disney seems to show a great many of the films they produced in the 50's and 60's on their cable channel extremely early in the morning 3, 4 am etc. So many of them like Big Red have probably never been seen by the younger generation of today. These movies have never lost their excellent story content. This picture is no exception. Walter Pidgeon delivers a solid performance as a dog owner who cares only for the Irish Setter he has as a potential winner in dog shows and nothing as a pet. A young boy who comes to work for Pidgeon develops a friendship for the dog. Big Reds life is changed but not without some dangerous events. Certainly a must see for any Dog lover and any one who enjoys non animated Disney films.
Fine, understated family film
Marta9 January 1999
"Big Red" is the story of a boy and a dog. The dog, Big Red, is owned by an older woodsman, played by Walter Pigeon. But Walter only wants the dog as a showdog, and treats him like a piece of furniture. When a young boy comes to work for Walter, he showers the dog with attention, and the dog becomes emotionally attached to the boy. Walter forbids the boy from paying attention to Big Red; the dog becomes depressed and jumps through a glass window to get to his friend. The glass slices the dog up, and after he heals, Walter sees that with all the scars on Red, he will no longer make it as a showdog. He gives the dog to the boy. But Red also has feelings for his old master, no matter how Walter seems to act toward him, and in the end Big Red and the boy save Walter after a hunting accident. This is a good family film; a little on the dramatic and depressing side, but for older kids it would be fine.
The Irish Setter at it's best.
crazy-1210 June 1999
This classic movie really did wonders for increasing popularity of the Irish Setter, somewhat like the sudden increase in popularity of the Dalmatian breed after the 101 Dalmatians movie a few years ago. It truly shows most of the finer points of owning an Irish Setter. The dog is good natured, fun loving, yet loyal and attentive. The breed is also known for being hardy yet has "head turning" beauty. Although the dog loves people, it has been know to be very protective if necessary. This fact was also demonstrated toward the end of the movie.
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