Out of the Shadows and Into the Archive: The Shaggy Dog

The Shaggy Dog (Scholastic Books, 7^th Printing 1975) Adapted by Elizabeth L. Griffen from the 1967 Walt Disney movie, itself adapted from The Hound of Florence by Felix Salten (the author of Bambi).

The tale itself is a ‘shaggy dog story’ (‘a long story that is intended to be amusing and that has an intentionally silly or meaningless ending’ – Wikipedia) of the teenage Wilby Daniels (Tommy Kirk), whose mailman father (Fred MacMurray) hates dogs, but who contracts a curse from an ancient ring of the Borgias to take on the sheepdog body of the pet of his new neighbor, Francesca (Annette Funicello). Only his kid brother Moochie and his friend Professor Plumcott know the truth. He must perform a brave deed to break the curse, and with Francesca’s adoptive father and his associate planning to steal a government secret and his friend/rival Buzz competing for Francesca’s affections, he has plenty of opportunities. But he keeps transforming uncontrollably between dog and human form, causing complications for his father when he tries to explain to the police what is going on. In the end Wilby performs his brave deed, the curse is broken, and Moochie gets to keep Francesca’s dog, which their father would never have allowed before.

The movie The Shaggy Dog had far-reaching consequences for Disney. At a one-million-dollar budget, it made a nine-million-dollar return, the second highest grossing film of 1959. It had been pitched as a television series, then a two-part special, then was merged into one movie. It used quite a few Mickey Mouse Club alumni, and went on to become a sort of template for later live-action Disney comedies, and was remade several times.  A film, The Shaggy D.A. (1976), starred Dean Jones as the grown-up Wilby. Disney producer Bill Walsh speculated that the original film was an inspiration for the My Three Sons television show, as it featured Fred MacMurray, Tim Considine (Buzz), and another shaggy sheepdog. The 2006 remake starring Tim Allen was ‘poorly received.’

This 1975 printing appears identical to the one we used to have; it was no doubt re-released in anticipation of the new 1976 The Shaggy D.A. film. Generously illustrated with stills from the 1959 movie, the picture I remembered most was of the museum exhibit “The Age of Sorcery”, where Wilby accidentally acquires the ring. I also seem to remember chanting the inscription IN CANIS CORPORE TRANSMUTO (‘I change into the body of a dog’) to see if anything would happen, but no dice. I cannot exactly pin down what happened to our original copy (never a great favorite). But this remains a sentimental acquisition.