Scruff: A Christmas Tale (DVD)

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WHAT?! It´s a day after Halloween and we´re already reviewing Christmas related DVDs?! Apparently Thanksgiving has taken a backseat in the late-year holiday line up. Almost every major television show out there does one ore more holiday episodes around Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Sometimes, specific movies hit the market around this time too, aiming to spread some good cheer and utilize both old and new themes and characters.

Image Entertainment takes its Scruff franchise in a different direction and presents "Scruff: A Christmas Tale" early in the holiday season. It´s a pretty well intentioned film, and is just long enough to keep a child´s interest without boring him or her. Besides, what´s not to like about a puppy learning a good lesson on Christmas?

Scruff is a good pup deep down, but not exactly mature for his age. He´s selfish, careless and doesn´t really listen to others. For Scruff, if it doesn´t apply to him, it´s just not important. He doesn´t go looking for trouble, and his trouble is miniscule compared to what some young people do with their time these days. But still, he has a tough time shying away from it, especially when he sees something he can get from it in the end.

Scruff lives with Peter, a human who loves animals to death. Peter´s uncle Ron and aunt Lil own a giant farm that´s overpopulated with many animals, including dogs, cats, mice, rats, roosters, chickens and pigs. The animals can talk and communicate among each other, but their conversations just sound like rubbish to the humans. The animals can also understand the humans quite easily, which means they probably studied very hard in school to be so literate.

As Christmas approaches, Scruff and Peter head to the local market looking for gifts. Peter tells Scruff that this is the best time to buy presents, as it´s early and "you can find whatever you want nice and cheap!" Peter´s very set on finding something for his aunt, uncle and girlfriend, Holly. He doesn´t notice when Scruff and a friendly flea named Scrummer wander away into a vendor´s vehicle looking for a snack. That vendor, Mr. Buttons, eventually takes off with the pair in the back, and after eating one too many farm fresh eggs (apparently, salmonella doesn´t influence dogs and fleas) the two are trapped. Buttons eventually stops and lets them out, but the two encounter a nasty rainstorm on their way home.

The next day, Scruff bumps into another dog, Trix, and his mother. They´re dragging in a Christmas tree into the barn so the animals can have their own celebration, bur rather than help, Scruff tells them he thinks the holiday is stupid. Even though Scrummer warns him he shouldn´t talk like that because his one Christmas wish may not be granted, Scruff states this isn´t important and doesn´t matter because he already has everything he wants.

Scruff later smells out some eggs in the forest, but rather than share them with the other animals, he sneaks them back and keeps them a secret. He passes Princess, another cute dog in the community, and invites her over on Christmas Eve to have an egg or two later that night. She tells him Christmas is a family holiday so he should be with them, and when he tells her he doesn´t want to share it with anyone else, she storms off and leaves him perplexed. Scruff returns home to find the Christmas tree ransacked and his eggs broken. He´s angry about the eggs, and his peers are upset he lied to them. Scruff storms off, unhappy and determined to be left alone.

He´s a cute puppy, but Scruff has some major issues. First, just where did this selfish attitude come from? It´s not natural, and I don´t think any other characters out there in the film were teaching him these traits. Second, he´s old enough to have gone through a Christmas or two, so why are these emotions only surfacing now? And third, just what made Scruff so obtuse?