Diva Dog is a sweet Valentine from a dog lover to his beloved Pit Bull, Coral.

Chris Cory, who also produced Diva Dog, rescued Coral from an abusive situation. Then something terrible happened — Coral was hit by a car and paralyzed from the waist down. In many cases, Coral would have been put down and the story would have been over. But Coral was lucky. Chris loved her enough to find ways to make her life work. He got her a specially equipped cart and Coral became an ambassador of affection as she and Chris roamed through southern California.

If you have a Pit Bull, a disabled dog or you want to help young people learn more about dogs, then don’t miss Diva Dog. Most of us won’t be seeing it on the big screen (it’s a little short for most movie run times) but you can get it through the Diva Dog website.

Diva Dog has much to commend it. Chris so obviously adored Coral that the pain is almost palpable when he, after a number of years of good life, she dies and he has her cremated. The way Cory handles the accident itself is very well done. He tells about the accident AFTER you’ve had a chance to meet Coral in her wheel chair and get the sense that she is okay. This handling of the accident does take away from any suspene but, on the other hand, many doglovers like myself hate to see dogs in peril or hurt. By telling us about it instead of showing it, we are protected from the trauma. This also means that younger children can see the film without parents worrying that it will be too violent.

The scenes of Coral and admiring crowds are everything Pit Bull lovers would want to see. Diva Dog has a great and much needed message that Pit Bulls are loving dogs and that disabled dogs can have good lives even though they may not have four good legs or sight or whatever the disability. For these positives alone, probably every dog library should have a copy of Diva Dog.

Diva Dog does have some drawbacks that prevent it from being as good as I think it could have been. The movie itself is too short and leaves many important things unsaid or unshown. The main person we hear from is Cory himself. I would have loved to have heard from more people around him how Coral affected them. There are snippets from other people but they are a bit too blithe and breezy. And while the movie dances around them and alludes to them, there are still big questions that I didn’t hear answered explicitly by anyone. What does it do for people to really care about the damaged and disabled dogs among us? Some people talk around it but the answers they give are the obvious ones. I think Diva Dog could have done a much better job of drawing these people and others out about what it says about a society that does care and what it does for the people who care for these furbabies.

Overall, the feeling I got from Diva Dog is that is was made for an under thirty audience with limited time and a fairly short attention span. Has Current TV picked it up yet? It would be great for that audience. Are you looking for a movie to show those in their teens and early twenties about dogs? Definitely order this movie from the Diva Dog site. It also makes a great movie for Pit Bull or disabled dog awareness groups to screen and/or sell. And even if you’re over thirty, I would recommend seeing it if only for the lovely story of Coral.

Diva Dog is a good effort by Chris Cory. I look forward to seeing more from this young producer/director. Diva Dog is a flawed gem, but a gem nonetheless.