Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Angel Taxidermy Scotty Dogs

Inspired by my previous posts, I went back to try to ID the Angel winged Scotty dogs. We see two walls, each holding three shelves with three dogs on each shelf, for a total of eighteen dogs. The top row, the dogs are facing right, on second row they are facing left, and the bottom row they are facing right again. There is also a consistency of appearance of each row. The top row shows the dogs with their tongues sticking out, second row the dogs appear to be praying, and the third row the dogs have harps as well as reddish-orange noses.The dogs that have been ID'd are (in no particular order) Hamish III, Hamish IV, Hamish VI, Hamish VII, Hamish VIII, Hamish IX, Angus II, Angus III, Angus IV, Angus V, Angus VII, Angus IX, Jock I, Jock II, Jock III, Jock IV, and Jock's second cousin thrice (twice?) removed. Assuming there are six dogs for each name, then I am missing a Jock to complete my total. I would need some Hi-res images to see if I can ID where each dog is located on the selves themselves.
I first assumed that each row was all one dog. In other words, the top row is Hamish, the second row is Angus and the third row is Jock. However, close-up they appear to be mismatched. There could be a Jock, Hamish and Angus on each row (more likely the case).
If the number of each dog is any correlation to how many dogs they owned, then I can only assume that the current dogs are Angus X, Hamish X, and Jock X. If this is true, then where are the other nine dogs? Maybe someone who worked on Coraline would know.

UPDATE:
I have since gone back to look at my Blu-Ray to see if I could make out which dogs were on which shelves. My conclusion is when we see the Close up shots of Hamish II, Angus IX, and Jock III, that they must have been filmed separately, as they don't have any correlation with the above image of the right wall.
With that said, on the Right Wall, Top row, going left to right are yet unknown. Second row going left to right are Jock I, Hamish ?, Angus V. Third row, going left to right is Angus IX, Hamish VI, Hamish VIII.
Now, what is interesting, is when we see a closer shot of this wall, the dogs are different.
Third row going left to right are Jock III, Angus III, & Jock IV. Confusing I know.
My theory, is that there were two different sets of the basement made, filmed at different locations, and each set the dogs were in a different order. Or, we are seeing a flipped negative to match the direction of the characters, and are actually seeing the right wall in some shots, and the left wall in others. My other thought is the set could have been reconstructed at a later time and the dogs were put in the wrong order for the pick up shots. Whatever the reason, they are not consistent. On a fun note, while I was watching the dogs during this scene, you can see Jock IV move a couple of times.

Original Coraline Movie Puppets

I did a quick search on the website to see if they had anymore Coraline props. They had/have a few signed items, a pair of Nike Dunks ($400), and some more puppets. Included is another Other-Scotty dog, a Other-Jumping mouse and a second Taxidermy Scotty Dog Hamish VIII.

It is really neat, if nothing else, to see some close up photos of each of the puppets. I enjoy studying the details that the artists put into each puppet, hopefully to try to re-create it for myself. I'll have to go back to the film for reference on each of the Eighteen Taxidermy Angel Scotty Dogs.

Now, on the other-jumping mouse puppet, that is what I call a "custom base". I have seen this base a couple times for other jumping-mice props that have gone up for sale in the past. There was even a custom base made for the Coraline puppet too, if I am not mistaken. It would certainly add to the collectability to the Scotty Dogs if they too had a fancy base like the mice.

Photos from Profiles in History

Original Scotty Dog Props on Auction

Original Other-Scotty Dog puppet, "...constructed of foam with miniature button eyes and red ribbon collar. Measures 4 ½ in. tall..." sold for $2750. The 'custom' base looks like a block of wood that you can find in any craft store, painted black. So I am not sure what part of it is custom. I would love to own an original prop or puppet from the film. To check out the Auction yourself, see Profiles in History.


The second is the Taxidermy Angus IX "...constructed of foam with resin harp and wings of gold paper. He wears a gold trimmed sweater of white yarn. Measures 4 ¼ in. tall..." sold for $2,500. Another great prop that I would love to own. Check out Profiles in History for the Auction.
Angus the IX is one of the stuffed scotty dogs we see clearly on film twice, and each time, it is a different dog(?). The first time we see Angus IX is in the provided screen shot. Note the differences: first, the dog is facing the opposite direction, second is the redish-orange nose, third is the one on screen is praying, when the one in the Auction has a Harp. However, while the close up shots where most likely done at a different time, when the camera pulls back and we see the wall of dogs, the Auction Angus IX is clearly seen in the bottom row, on the left. Unfortunately the puppet has suffered the loss of its halo.


There is also going to be an upcoming Auction for a Collection of Corpse Bride Puppets.

photos from Profiles in History