Wasn't it really sad? I love doggies.
I loved it so much, I just bought the original VHS (out of print) tape for $70.00. From what I understand,that is the real tear jerker. The remaining dogs were made into heroes in Japan.
I don't know if you would call it sad. This sounds simplistic, but life is full of horrors, accidents and bad things, yet when someone is able to reach out to correct these bad happenings, it makes me happy. So it is with this movie and the original Antarctica. There was no doubt that the dogs were loved (as it was in the factual story), so it wasn't sad because you know there is a great effort to rescue the dogs. In reality, the two surviving dogs were made heroes in Japan with statues.