Underdog for a Decent Family Night Out
Written: Aug 04 '07 (Updated Aug 04 '07)
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: Loveable dog, funny one-liners.
Cons: Scary lab scenes.
The Bottom Line: Decent movie but I was glad to pay the matinee price.
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| deenaf's Full Review: Underdog |
Have you ever seen the cartoon Pinky and the Brain? That’s all I thought of while watching Underdog, the movie. Underdog, based on the very popular cartoon series of the same name, was probably pitched to producers as a mass market movie whereas Pinky and the Brain meets McGruff the Crime Dog. Or maybe both of those shows took cues from Underdog the cartoon??
The Movie
First off, I’d like to say that the casting of Underdog’s character in real life was fabulous. Underdog is a beagle named Shoeshine in the movie. He was voiced by Jason Lee. The rest of the cast is as follows:
Peter Dinklage - Dr. Simon Barsinister
James Belushi - Dan Unger
Patrick Warburton - Cad
Alex Neuberger - Jack
Taylor Momsen - Molly
John Slattery - Mayor
Underdog, the movie, is the story of a mad scientist experimenting on abandoned dogs that live in a pound. Dr. Barsinister and his sidekick, Cad, use a lab to concoct all sorts of DNA related formulas to create the super human animal. A former police-trained dog gets captured by the pound and is subjected to these experiments and is ultimately the recipient of a DNA-changing compound. The beagle escapes.
This very cute beagle now has super powers. He is found and taken in to live with a father and son. The son bonds with the dog and they can fully communicate in English with one another. This is one of the perks of this chemical formula. They brainstorm a way in which the dog can become a superhero, thus hatching the name Underdog and fabricating a superhero costume for him.
Underdog then saves lives, rescues damsels in distress and foils crime everywhere. He is written up in the news and becomes famous. That’s when Dr Barsinister and Cad seek him out to recapture him. They want a sample of his current DNA to make more of this dangerous formula. This takes us to the end of the movie where it all ends happily ever after (it’s a Disney movie for goodness sake!)
My Thoughts
If you don’t know who Peter Dinklage is, seek out a movie with him in it. He is a fantastic actor: very creepy and mad-scientist-like in this movie. Patrick Warburton is wonderful as his dumb sidekick. James Belushi is nothing special but turns on loveable charm as a widowed dad.
There are some scary lab scenes at the very beginning that worried me. I thought my 6 year old would be upset but she wasn’t. She lost interest in the movie about halfway through. My 9 year old liked it. I simply liked it and laughed out loud at a few scenes. There are some really funny one-liners and if you stay during the credits of the movie, you will see a funny blooper parody.
Underdog’s name in the movie is Shoeshine. You really think a dog can talk, as the mouth moves PERFECTLY with the words. CGI has really come a long way I guess! As goofy as it sounds, you really believe Shoeshine talks. And the dog they used was clearly well trained. The dog was fantastic.
I liked the way the Underdog’s love interest is named Polly in the movie. Polly Purebred comes straight from the cartoon.
Underdog is 84 minutes in length and is rated PG. Dr. Barsinister is quite evil looking and acting so take caution if your children scare easily. And there are a lot of lab scary and underground scary scenes. There is no killing, cursing, sex, or smoking so I have no problem recommending this movie for the under 10 crowd.
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Family Movie
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Pacing
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Epinions.com ID:
deenaf
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Member: Deena
Location: Merrick, NY USA
Reviews written: 277
Trusted by: 70 members
About Me:
Mother, wife, teacher..... aren't they all the same?
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