Underdog (Blu-ray)
APPROX. 82 MINS. - PROD. YEAR: 2007 - MPA RATING: PG
" At least Underdog kept the whole family in their seats. These days, that's saying something.
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Having a family makes you respond to family films differently from people who don't have a bunch of rug-rats running around the house. Part of it is that you're so darned grateful when something holds their attention long enough to slow them down that your feel-the-love gratitude can't help but spill over onto the review. But mostly I think it's because having children enables you to see things through a child's eyes again, and magnifies your own reaction. John's review of "Underdog" comes at it from an adult perspective. Mine will be for parents who want to know whether this title is worth renting or adding to the family video library.
There's been a tendency lately to push the family-movie envelope so that the films will appeal more to adults. As a result, we're seeing some pretty severe "rating inflation." Formerly G movies are now PG or PG-13, which means that children are subjected to more adult-level violence, language, and innuendo because studios apparently think this is how you make films "work" for more than just the young children. But count me among those who thinks that adult appeal shouldn't come at the children's expense. In families, the children often come first, and that should be the case with family films. If the kids like it, and it's not nearly as insipid as the TV shows kids watch these days and the adults can watch it as well, then in my book it qualifies as a decent family movie.
I think you have to credit director Frederik Du Chau and his writers for staying PG and giving families a superhero film that even the youngest children can enjoy without cowering or covering their eyes during intense moments. There's peril here, but it's all blunted by comedy, so that "Underdog" works with pre-schoolers as well as grade-schoolers. The worst lines come when Underdog tells his "owner" that he'd better bring a pooper-scooper along on their walk, because he's getting "that special feeling," or when Underdog's heartthrob Polly has other "special thoughts" and concludes, "There's not a hose cold enough to break that up." Let's hope that one went over the little ones heads, because the rest of this film is family-friendly and family-funny. It was a hit with both our nine-year-old boy and our six-year-old girl. The best way to describe this one is that it's for kids, but it's also not so insufferable that the adults will have to fight the urge to get up and clean the house or something.
When you consider "Underdog" in the context of it's "genre"--that is, live-action versions of beloved animated TV shows or films--it starts to look positively brilliant. Even the best among them, "101 Dalmatians" (1996), featuring a frightening Glenn Close as the villainess, was a huge disappointment. But it wasn't nearly "The Flintstones" (1994) bomb that John Goodman and Co. tossed our way, or Freddie Prinz Jr. and the gang forced us to endure with "Scooby-Doo" (2002). "Casper" (1995) also was no great shakes, and neither was "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle" (2000). In fact, given the wretched record of live-action remakes of animated favorites, you have to wonder why anyone even bothers with them. It might not be high praise, but I enjoyed "Underdog" more than any of these awful adaptations, and for a number of reasons.
First, I thought it was inventive the way that writers connected with the animated TV-show. Those who remember the original "Underdog" show, which was broadcast on Saturday mornings in 1964, may recall that Wally Cox lent his milquetoast voice to the title character, whose cover was Shoeshine Boy. Sweet Polly Purebred was a TV reporter, while Underdog's nemesis was a diminutive evil genius named Simon Bar Sinister and his henchman Cad. Now, it's pretty hard to have a live-action cocker spaniel work as a shoeshine boy or a reporter and still make a smidgen of sense, but the writers have a beagle lick shoes in order to get the nickname "Shoeshine," and as for Polly, well, who needs reporters anyway? But it's more than a little clever that as this live-action Underdog starts fighting crime and saving people, before newspaper photographers can capture him in action they run graphic illustrations that, yes, are taken from the old TV show!
And Simon Barsinister? A superhero needs a strong villain, and while Peter Dinklage ("Elf") isn't a dead-ringer for the bald-headed cartoon bad guy, Dinklage brings a fun and energetic dynamic to the role that enables you buy into the live-action concept. Bar-none, Barsinister is the character that makes this work: a diminutive evil scientist who messes with genetic engineering, injects a beagle with his serum, and spends half the film trying to get that beagle back and the other half committing crimes against the city that laughed at him when he suggested they use his "talents."
