A couple of years ago, I happened upon The 12 Dogs of Christmas, a cute and simple book that parodies The 12 Days of Christmas
by having each day bring dogs of a different breed. Seven-year-old Emma
Kragen came up with the concept, while three adults helped with
photographing dogs and providing background illustrations. When I found
that this book had inspired a movie, I found it hard to imagine what
kind of film could come out of a mere listing of dogs of various breeds.
I put it in my queue, expecting something pretty silly. After two years
on the list, it finally made its way to my mailbox this month, and I
must say that while it was silly at times, it was better than I
anticipated.
The 12 Dogs of Christmas is a live-action
family film set in the 1930s, with a running time of nearly two hours.
It stars Jordan-Claire Green as Emma O’Conner, a plucky 12-year-old from
Pittsburgh whose out-of-work father sticks her on a train to a town
from his past, giving her the address of “Aunt Delores” and a promise to
collect her by Christmas. Emma soon finds out that Delores (Bonita
Friedericy) is not her aunt but her father’s former flame. She’s still
got some pretty bitter feelings toward him and can’t believe his
audacity in dropping his daughter on her doorstep.
Naturally,
she eventually agrees, albeit reluctantly, to allow Emma to stay with
her, though she insists upon her finding a job so she can pay for her
food. She even thinks she has the perfect job for Emma - as lackey for
the scuzzy local dogcatcher (John Billingsley), who has amorous
intentions toward her. But Emma, despite initially professing a dislike
for dogs, soon finds herself in league with Mike Stevens (Adam Hicks), a
boy who, along with his mom Cathy (Susan Wood), is working diligently
to undermine the dogcatcher at every opportunity. His position is
especially nefarious because his brother, the mayor (Richard Riehle), in
the movie’s most absurd plot point, has outlawed the owning of dogs
within city limits, considering them a nuisance. So any dog he finds
inside the city is fair game.
This is a direct-to-video movie
that is sometimes a little over-the-top and slapsticky and relies on a
couple of dubious premises. On the whole, however, it’s polished -
infinitely more so than Dear Santa,
the low-budget disaster of a movie Netflix last sent me - and the
actors, though mostly unfamiliar to me, did their jobs well. I
especially enjoyed Riehle, who I’ve seen in several projects, most
notably Office Space.
He provides a charming mix of pomposity and decency for the mayor. I
also loved Eric Lutes, who guest starred in a memorable episode of Frasier,
as the football coach who takes over direction of the children’s
Christmas program at the last minute, leading him to team up with
piano-playing Cathy. His sweet, bumbling manner is most endearing,
making him my favorite character in the movie. It was also fun to see Austin Powers‘ Mindy Sterling as a harsh but not altogether unreasonable administrator.
The two young leads are unremarkable but effective. They don’t come
across as cheesy, except perhaps Hicks in one scene, though Green is a
bit wooden at times. In general, though, they do a good job. Friedericy
and Billingsley are both over-the-top, but the former is mostly
entertaining, while the latter is mostly grating. The movie, directed by
Kieth Merrill and written by Merrill and Steven Paul Leiva, seems
mostly historically accurate and reminds me of Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, which is set during the same time period.
Of course, one might argue that the entire purpose of this movie is to
find an excuse to assemble a film version of Emma Kragen’s vision, and
that does happen, in the form of the kids’ Christmas pageant. It’s a
little too convenient that Cathy’s makeshift shelter just happens to
contain exactly the right numbers of each type of dog to pull that off.
That is the movie’s second-most-unbelievable plot point, but I’ll let it
slide since it’s the scene around which the film was written.
The DVD includes a behind-the-scenes peek at the movie that mainly
consists of poorly edited interviews with the actors. Lute’s segments
are the best, as he infuses his responses with considerable wit. The
kids - who include Hicks, Green and Alisha Mullally, who plays their
classmate Miranda - seem giggly and nervous, and there’s something a bit
eye-rolling about Green’s explanation that, in essence, the true
meaning of Christmas is that dogs are lovable.
But dogs are lovable, at least to many of us. If that includes you, The 12 Dogs of Christmas might just bring a smile to your face.
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