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Sometimes spoilers are a good thing.
Seriously? What planet are you from?
Yes, I’m serious.
Sure, you might not want to know how the love story resolves, or if the heroes get out of their perilous predicament.
But dollars to donuts there are a lot of us out there who want to make darn sure, before buying a ticket or paying for a download, that the dog gets out of there alive.
I mean, who wants to ugly-cry in the movies on a first date? Or end up inadvertently traumatizing an entire child’s birthday party by showing them “that new dog movie” that you didn’t bother to watch ahead of time? You know, the one where the dog dies over…and over…and over?
Or so I’ve heard. That certainly never happened to me.
You could just avoid animal movies altogether. That’s what my mom did. Any movie or TV show where an animal featured prominently? She’d find something else to do, and quick.
But fortunately you don’t have to do that.
Help is Here!
The website Does The Dog Die has been around for a few years. It started off as a very basic listing. Here are films featuring dogs. Do they die? Yes or no.
The site gradually became more sophisticated. Does the dog die? Are there other animals who die? Is there animal suffering of any kind? What about implied menace that isn’t shown, but you know what happens anyway?
Yes, now you can know exactly what you — and any animals in the film — are getting into.
Not Just For Dog Safety
The newly revamped website now has a lot of information about other hot-button ideas some people might want to avoid. These include:
- Child death
- Abuse or injury of people or animals
- Drug use
- Self-harm
- Hate speech
- Graphic sexual content
- And more
And it’s not just movies anymore. Does the Dog Die allows you to search books, TV shows, video games, blogs, comic books, anime, and so forth. You can also use the site to keep track of your searches, and to advise others about content with which you’re familiar.
How Do They Do It?
Does the Dog Die uses crowdsourcing to bring this information together into an enormous, searchable database. You can track over 50 categories of trigger warnings, as well as add your own. You can also request that DDD adds warning types or media categories.
For each category, such as “unhappy endings,” you’ll find a listing of films and other media that fall into that category. Each piece has a short description of why it falls into that category, as well as a tally of votes from users who think that it does or doesn’t belong in that category.
A quick check makes it easy to decide if that movie, book, or TV show is for you.
Is This Censorship?
Censorship means top-down control of output, usually by a government or regulatory agency. Nobody is telling media producers what they can and cannot produce. Rather, this is a consumer-driven initiative. Consumers of media are sharing their experiences and sharing information about media content that is already out there.
And when it comes to Doggies in Peril, I want to know.
Spoilers? Or Fair Warning?
A lot of people don’t like spoilers, and that’s fair enough. But for animal lovers who care as much about the animals’ happy endings as those of the human characters, this website is a gift.
Featured Image: CC SA 3.0 by Steve 65 via Wikimedia Commons
