Don’t Dog it
When a cute stray dog gets caught on the wrong end of the leash, he becomes the target for some terrible experiments from Dr. Simon Barsinister. Barsinister is trying to find the ultimate combination of chemicals and dog DNA, Shoeshine (our hero dog) tries to escape and in the process gets dosed with a combination of chemicals that turn him into a superdog… no… Underdog. He then dedicates his dog life to fighting crime and keeping his new owners out of trouble. Of course, Barsinister is still in the picture and now trying to find the right combination that made Underdog who he is.
This movie is quite good. It’s not complicated, it’s not a movie like “Atonement”, but it does the job. It will entertain the young ones in the family, which is huge. My daughters love this film, now. I regretfully have to watch it over and over. For those “Underdog” fans out there, you’ll probably want to avoid this film. It’s not that it does any kind of injustice to the cartoon, but it clearly was not made to be a straight port from cartoon to film. It just wasn’t, you’ll be disappointed if you go into it thinking it should be.
As for the acting, Jason Lee does a great job as the powerful pooch. He puts his best acting, even better than what you see in Kevin Smith films (I’m not kidding about this), into the film. As for everyone else in the film, Peter Dinklage’s Barsinister is good, not particularly evil. I wish there could have been scarier moments, but I would imagine that they didn’t want to scare off the kids too much. Mission accomplished on that end. The surprise of the acting was James Belushi’s Dan Unger who is a perfect lovable loser. He’s a good father figure in the film and he seems to be at home with the role of the ex-cop who stumbles upon a super-dog.
Overall, I think that film is good. I think it’s more of a younger film for kids. For those “Underdog” fans out there…. No worries, go back to your cartoons.
Blu-ray is still super
It doesn’t get old. That’s how I will start this out, it simply doesn’t get old. The Blu-ray version of Underdog is leaps and barks above the normal version of this DVD. The picture is superb and the sound quality is what really drives this purchase. I haven’t heard audio this pure is some time.
As for the menus, you really get some nice stuff here. I think Disney has come a long way since the first of it’s Blu-rays last year. They’ve begun to find out what a majority of studios are finding out, there’s a lot to be done with this technology. The menus are fun, cool and beautiful.
As for the extras, here’s what you get on the “Underdog” Blu-ray:
– Bloopers
– Deleted Scenes
– Music Video “Underdog Raps” Performed by Kyle Massey
– “Sit. Stay. Act: Diary of a Dog Actor”
– Underdog Original Cartoons – “Safe Waif” and “Simons Says”
This may not seem like a lot of material, but the featurette is nice. The bloopers are okay, kids will find them funny. The deleted scenes are rightfully so… deleted. The original cartoons are a plus though and something that should make people happy.
Something to Howl About
Yeah, I ran out of subtitle dog puns here. I think this film will make your kids happy, but not the fans of the original show. I also believe that for a film that didn’t make ‘complete hit’ status, it certainly got the royal treatment on Blu-ray. Studios are beginning to realize that to get people to adopt Blu-ray, they must show some love for duplicate movies. “Underdog” certainly shows the love.
