When I was in elementary school, there was a stretch of time when I
awoke bright and early every morning at 5 a.m. so that I could start my
day with a series of old-timey TV shows before I went off to school.
These included Lassie (I had such a crush on Timmy), Dennis the Menace, Rocky and Bullwinkle and Underdog. I hadn't watched those in years, though, so I barely remembered the premise of Underdog
when I watched the live-action movie a couple weeks ago. And could a
cartoon that operated under time constraints of about 15 minutes per
episode really be effectively stretched into an hour and a half-long
movie?
In the movie, Underdog is an ineffectual police
dog voiced by Jason Lee who winds up in a lab where Dr. Simon
Barsinister, a nefarious scientist played by the always-impressive Peter Dinklage,
is running experiments in hopes of creating super-powered animals.
Something goes haywire, and the humble beagle ends up getting a full
dose of the madman's goo, resulting in a shocking transformation, the
impact of which the dog doesn't initially realize. It becomes clearer to
him when Dan Unger (Jim Belushi), a guard at the lab, comes across him
in the street and brings him home to his son. Jack (Alex Neuberger) is a
typical overdramatic teenager. He has issues with his dad, and he's
initially completely turned off by the arrival of the dog, who Dan names
Shoeshine. But when Underdog starts talking in Dan's absence, Jack
decides that he might make pretty good company after all, and when he
realizes the extent of his abilities, he urges the pooch to take on a
secret identity and purge the city of evil deeds.
This is a very
slapsticky sort of movie. There are lots of cheesy special effects
related to the various stunts that Shoeshine / Underdog can pull. All of
the actors deliver performances that are fairly over-the-top, and most
of the time I find Neuberger a bit grating. Taylor Momsen, who I loved
as Cyndi Lou in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, has grown up a
lot, but while her character is perfectly likable, I found her
performance rather generic. The most low-key performance is Belushi's;
some of his characters grate on my nerves, but he makes Dan a very
sympathetic guy who's obviously doing his best to preserve his broken
family. Meanwhile, the most entertaining members of the cast are
Dinklage, who revels in Dr. Barsinister's exaggerated villainy, and Patrick Warburton,
who, as the doctor's sidekick, is slightly more ill-intentioned than
usual but every bit as dopey as his typical character. A running joke
involving a thesaurus is particularly amusing.
If you're looking for a really top-notch dog movie, Underdog
isn't the place to start, but it's pretty fun nonetheless. The bad
guys' bumbling antics, father-son bonding, Shoeshine's growing
self-confidence and hints of romance of the teenage and canine variety
(with an amusing nod to Lady and the Tramp) all help to make this a fun flick for the Hannah Montana generation, and if you grew up watching Underdog - the first episode of the cartoon, incidentally, is offered as an extra - it might be a fun walk down memory lane.
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