One for all and all for one! Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds are set to return in a new film

The nostalgia-fest continues for Irish '80s and '90s kids, as a reboot of the Den favourite hits the silver screen in 2021

Dogtanian: CGI concept art of the kids' telly hero

You're even whistling the theme song to yourself right now, aren't you?

After the film's low-key announcement earlier in the year, and staggered releases of concept art over social media, last week saw the release via Facebook Watch of the first trailer for Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds, a CGI reboot of the Japanese/Spanish kids' telly classic, slated for release in 2021.

 

The new feature is being produced in Spain, with Madrid-based Apolo Film taking over production from original studio BRB, and kids' television legend Doug Langdale (Earthworm Jim, Warner Bros) handling the script.

While it remains to be seen if the given release date applies to the show's spiritual home, or a wider international release, the film's teaser leads with the English voice cast, a promising sign for an Irish home or cinema release.

KIDS' TELLY FAVOURITE

Co-produced by Nippon Animation in 1980, and one of a stable of low-budget cartoons to emerge from the prodigiously busy BRB Internacional animation studios in Spain in the '80s and '90s, Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds was a distinctly kid-friendly take on Alexandre Dumas' Three Musketeers, recasting the heroes and villains of the 18th-century piece as readily-recognisable animal anthropomorphs. 

This announcement will have special resonance for Irish viewers. 

Dogtanian and crew were beloved in then-emerging media markets the world over in the Eighties, including our own two-channel telly landscape, while slightly younger adult children will fondly recall the show's '90s afterlife in repeats as part of afternoon programming block The Den, itself mounting a comeback this November.

The show's legacy re-emerges periodically in Irish pop-culture: the theme song even made an appearance on a sketch as part of the Republic of Telly show in 2014.

Kids' telly aficionados will also be delighted to know that the same studio has another cult-classic remake in the works: more on Around the World with Willy Fog as we have it.