Reviews

Might this be the original animated origin story? Or, at least that of the saying about a dog being man's best friend? Back at the beginning of life on earth, a dog is wandering the garden of Eden, fascinated by the flora and fauna it encounters. Then it meets something a little different. It's similar, but it only has two legs and it walks upright! Before too long they are as thick as thieves exploring their luscious surroundings until they encounter another upright creature - only one with slightly different, obscurely drawn, appendages. It quickly appears that the older friend, let's call him "Adam", is soon slightly more interested in their new arrival, let's call her "Eve" and so becoming the third wheel on their shopping trolley, "Rover" begins to feel a little rejected. Then, as the bible tells us, the Lord who made mankind gets a bit narked about their antics and the question is - what will "Rover" choose to do? Risky solidarity or loneliness? There is a lovely style of artistic brushwork here, especially with the facial characterisations and the water features in the garden, and I found the message not so much about one love usurping another as one being incapable of sharing with more than one other, and of the expectations of what we really mean when we say "forever". It takes a sensitive look at relationships all set against a backdrop of pristine nature and in the end there is a certain positivity to it that even I - I am no dog lover - quite appreciated. Worth quarter of an hour, I'd say.