2018 Directed by Don Hardy Jr., Dana Nachman
Follows a litter of puppies from the moment they're born and begin their quest to become Guide Dogs for the Blind, the ultimate canine career. Cameras follow these pups through a two-year odyssey as they train to become dogs whose ultimate responsibility is to protect their blind partners from harm.
USA
Slamdance Film Festival
AustraliaG
UK
Russian Federation6+
Australia
Russian Federation
UK
USA
I love dogs and documentaries. When it was playing in the theaters, I chose to see Blaze instead. I finally saw it on DVD and unfortunately, I wasn't missing much. Despite the documentary being okay overall, it's still all over the place, following too many dogs/people, and not compelling to hold my interest. There are a couple of touching stories.
Vegan alert:
Reference to tie-downs and dogs being kept in crates.
It's seriously impressive how well trained these dogs become in such a relatively short period of time. The process of training guide dogs is not always considered and Pick of the Litter is quite enlightening in taking you through that process. Watching the trainers get so emotional is certainly powerful, especially considering how impersonal some of the training decisions are.
Pick of the Litter is a very simplistic documentary and it strikes me as the sort of thing that could just be a television programme rather than a film. It's also pretty predictable how many dogs will complete the training given the film's structure. Despite that though, it is easy to get invested in Pick of the Litter and be disappointed when a…
The dogs are amazing, however the documentary was a bit weak. A couple of genuinely heartfelt moments. It was good. However, and I can’t stress this enough, dogs are amazing.
insane part of this documentary is how they train the guide dogs to avoid cars. someone from the guide dog org has a Prius and they just drive it straight into the dog while it’s in the crosswalk. Low speed but not super slow. This is shown in the movie from gopros mounted on the front of the car, and it’s very jarring to see all the dogs you’ve come to love get hit by cars.
Extremely wholesome doc about guide dogs from there birth and training to being placed with a human ... don’t ask me to be objective about this ok.. watched with duke on my lap , shed many tears ... truly amazing process getting these dogs ready for the disabled and this tells it nicely ..
“he’s my jerkwad”
Ahahaha dying when someone said this because this is definitely my thoughts on my dog... who I’ve seen walk into bushes, mail boxes and lamp posts ... he’d fail all the guide dog tests
Kinda just looked up and started watching this as I only had it on as background noise. But for the hour or more I watched I thought it was sweet and really interesting to see how they train guide dogs for the blind. Would have been great as a series (I probably wouldn’t have watched as I really only watch movies) but there was enough here to be invested with.
"He gives me the independence I need."
PUPPIES! But not just any puppies, as this group of canines is put through grueling training in order to be first-class guide dogs. Pick of the Litter is the adorable yet surprisingly high-stakes tale of the first two years of five very good doggos as they work hard, play harder, and learn to be all they can be in service for the visually-impaired.
While it's possible for the cynical eye to view this as little more than another episode of Too Cute! on Animal Planet, it's quite a bit more intense than that, as the competition to train and perfect their skills turns a little into a Survivor-type elimination contest. Trust me, it's…
I wasn't expecting a lot from this, but it really got me. I think I started crying two minutes in and never stopped. It isn't doing anything too inventive with the documentary format, but it was interesting to learn about this process and watch these puppies grow. My respect for these service dogs just increased exponentially. A must watch for all dog lovers.
Adorable! And that’s enough, for a time, but the minutes do begin to drag whenever we aren’t seeing close-ups of the puppies playing.
Pick of the Litter is pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a documentary on the topic, but after last year’s expertly crafted and insightful animal-doc Kedi, it’s hard not to want more from this. There’s some exploration of the various relationships people have between their dogs, the independence visually impaired folks gain from them as well as the love of those who train them. The faux competition structure is the weak point here, since there really aren’t any stakes if the dogs get career changed.
Whatever issues I can find here, it’s still a very sweet 80-minutes that highlight some lovely dogs. It delivers what it promises.
Rating: 68/100
I can’t with movies like this, I just can’t even. I always tear up and get very emotional. Not only was this entertaining and cute to watch, it was also really educational, it’s really quite amazing what these dogs can do and the training they receive in order for them to get to that stage is amazing. A must watch for animal lovers.
The Letterboxd Era Catch-Up 4: 53 Days a Slave
This is Pick of the Litter. I'm sorry, we don't accept h*cking cute documentaries while we're working. 14/10
