Reviewed
by Lamar Kukuk
8/9/07
Let's
start by testing whether there's any chance you'll enjoy Disney's new canine
superhero flick Underdog. All together now! “When criminals
in this world appear / and break the laws that they should fear / and frighten
all who see or hear / the cry goes up both far and near / for Underdog!
Underdog! Underdog! Underdog! / Speed of lightning, roar
of thunder / fighting all who rob or plunder / Underdog! Underdog!”
If
you successfully sung along and didn't need me to tell you the lyrics,
there's an excellent chance you'll get the same goofy kick I did out of
the loving cinematic reinvention one of the most beloved cartoon characters
of my childhood has received. If not, and you're over ten years old,
odds are you'll focus on tiny, unimportant details like the lazy, unexciting
plot and the indifferent performances of everyone whose character is not
part of the Underdog mythos. But they had me at “Simon Says...”
A beagle
we'll later come to know as Shoeshine (voice of Jason Lee) is the worst
Police Dog around: after a particularly humiliating incident where
he confuses pork and a bomb, he's abducted by mad scientist Simon Barsinister
(Peter Dinklage) and his right-hand goon Cad (Patrick Warburton).
Barsinister believes that his cruel experiments on dogs will produce superpowered
canines who'll change the future of law enforcement. But Shoeshine
balks and leads the Doctor on a chase that destroys his lab, scars Barsinister
and exposes the beagle to those power-creating chemicals. Once he's
escaped, Shoeshine is now able to fly, run at super speed, lift heavy objects...
and talk. He's hit by a truck driven by the lab's night watchman
Dan Unger (Jim Belushi), a former cop who quit to spend time with his son
Jack (Alex Neuberger) after his wife's death. Dan thinks it's just
luck that the dog is unharmed and takes him home to his son, who initially
has no interest in a new pet but can't help but have his attention grabbed
when the animal starts speaking to him. Once he's seen what Shoeshine
can do, Jack convinces his new friend to use his powers to fight crime,
but he'll need an alter-ego: the sweater-clad, rhyming persona of
Underdog! Meanwhile, beneath the city, Dr. Simon Barsinister plots
his revenge.
When
I first saw the trailers for Underdog, I was concerned that this
was another case of a movie studio using the name of a beloved property
and then reinventing it beyond all recognition. Which is ironic,
because it's the movie's loving attention to all things Underdog that is
its' greatest strength. Taking into account that it's set in our
real, human world (or at least the Disney version of it) rather than a
cartoon one that mixes humans and anthropomorphized dogs, the film manages
to tie together just about every one of Underdog's famous character traits
into a nifty origin story. And it's a real comic kick to imagine
taking the superhero formula one step farther by having a talking canine
foiling those bank heists. The movie also has a real reverence for
that superhero formula, and some of its' best scenes are homages/thefts
from the Superman franchise. Who'd have thought you could
do the iconic “Superman and Lois Lane flying over Metropolis” sequence
with Underdog and Sweet Polly Purebred (voice of Amy Adams) and make it
work?
The
movie's other great strength is its' villains. I'm a big Peter Dinklage
fan, and it was his casting as Simon Barsinister that probably convinced
me to go despite the unpromising ads. He doesn't disappoint, finding
a note that perfectly balances kiddie movie villainy with real arrogance
and rage. And he manages to make Barsinister's trademark “Simon Says...”
proclamations ooze with manace. Warburton is such a specific comic
presence that it's hard to find roles where it seems organic, but he's
right at home here. Cad is a pricelessly evil doofus, and Warburton
and Dinklage have solid comic chemistry. Overall, the movie is surprisingly
funny, even if you're not 10.
Alas,
all is not perfect in Capital City. It was a cute idea to cast Belushi,
who gained fame as the star of crowdpleaser K-9 back in the 80's,
as the ex-cop Dad, but he delivers a lazy, phoned-in performance, while
Neuberger is an adequate but forgettable sidekick for Underdog and his
love interest Molly (Polly's owner, played by How the Grinch Stole Christmas's
Taylor Momsen) never comes to life. And while the film's three credited
screenwriters (who oddly share a separate story credit in the opposite
order: this isn't a story you want to be muscling to the head of
the line to take credit for, guys) put all the right elements in play for
the finale, they can't come up with anything PG-exciting to do with them,
and director Frederik Du Chau doesn't have much luck staging exciting action
scenes. The talking animal effects are a 50/50 proposition:
at first the cheesy moving lips are distracting but by the end I really
thought of Shoeshine/Underdog as a talking dog.
Underdog
should entertain fans of the show and a new generation of animal-loving
kiddies, inspiring both to rush to YouTube to watch clips of vintage Underdog
action (yeah, I might have done a little of that...). The grown-up
and uninitiated should definitely stay away, but you didn't really need
me to tell you that, did you? Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got
an obscure second verse to sing:
“When
in this world the headlines read / of those whose hearts are filled with
greed / who rob and steal from those who need / to right this wrong with
blinding speed / goes Underdog! Underdog! Underdog! Underdog!” |
