The Dog Hotel

Hundhotellet – En mystisk historia is a Swedish animated detective mystery/surreal film from 2000, directed by Per Åhlin who also wrote the script together with Hans Åke Gabrielsson. The film is traditionally animated by hand, the last film in Sweden to be produced in that style.^[1]

Plot

An anthropomorphic dog named Sture is talked into taking a trip to Paris by his friend Picasso. After a series of misfortunes they end up in Scotland instead, staying at a mysterious hotel. Picasso remains ignorant and believes they are in Paris. Sture befriends the novelist Miss Mops and gets to meet several mysterious characters living in the hotel as strange events revolving around an Egyptian artifact start to take place.

Style

The film was done completely with traditional, hand colored cells. Although playing out as an detective mystery the film is also very surreal. Sture wonders several times if it is all a dream or actually happening. At one point Sture has an out-of-body experience, Chinese magic plays an important part of the plot and there are several references to ancient Egyptian religion, including Ka and Theodore M. Davis is mentioned. Sture never fully understands what is actually going on but tries to helps Miss Mops as much as he can. The first scene contains several hints at the future events in the film; Sture's flat contains an miniature Eiffel tower, a postcard featuring of the pyramids (the same postcard appears later in the film) as well as a painting of the hotel of the title. The film opens with the sinister Waiters appearing out of the painting to steal an Egyptian letterpress which reappears throughout the film and Sture identifies them as the same. The soundtrack is almost only Jazz. The ending is a homage to the ending of Stanley Kubrick's production of "The Shining".

Voice cast

• Hans Alfredson as Sture
• Margreth Weivers as Miss Mops
• Jan Mybrand as Picasso
• Stig Grybe as Dr Dunkelspiel, the villain
• Tomas von Brömssen as The Hotel Owner
• Björn Kjellman as Ke Ping, the wizard
• Rolf Skoglund as Baskerville Jr.
• Johan Rabaeus as Mr Big, the American
• Johan Ulveson as Waiter 1
• Bo Christer Hjelte as Waiter 2
• Peter Harryson as Jägmästarn, a hunter
• Pernilla Wahlgren as The Hitchhicker
• Karin Gidfors as the The Kitchen Girl / Cleaner

Response

The film received a very positive response from critics.

References

External links

• The Dog Hotel at the Internet Movie Database
• The Dog Hotel at the Swedish Film Institute Database