There’s No Need to Fear?

When Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger and Walt Disney Pictures Chairman Dick Cook announced that the studio would reduce its feature film output to roughly ten pictures a year, reaction from the financial community was fairly positive. Generally, the move was seen as a smart way of keeping costs in line.

Only a few financial analysts specializing in the entertainment industry raised the prospect of a downside to the idea. “What happens,” they asked, “to Disney Pictures bottom line if you release one or two films that loose money? How do you keep it from negatively impacting the film division’s results?”

That question may be put to the test with the latest Walt Disney Pictures release, Underdog.

Based on the 1964 Saturday morning, and later syndicated, animated television series by the same name, Underdog, the movie, doesn’t howl so much as it just kinda lays around on the screen and whimpers for an hour and 24 minutes.

While it’s impossible to predict in advance how well any film will do at the box office, it’s fairly safe to say that Underdog could just lift its hind leg all over the otherwise very respectable year the Mouse is having.

Imagine That

Disney refers to its version as a “re-imagination of the classic cartoon, Underdog.” The only problem is that imagination seems to be the main element lacking in this telling of the tail, uhh…tale.

The film starts out promisingly enough, with scenes from the original animated series that we soon learn is a flash forward. None of the original character voices are heard, no doubt to avoid comparison, as actor Jason Lee narrates a look into what his life is like now that he is Underdog, and then goes on to explain how he became a K-9 superhero.

From there, the story pretty much degenerates into a fairly lame, predictable, and all too often tedious tale of a not so well qualified orphaned beagle who, since puppyhood, has never known anything but police work and the moody teenager with family issues who befriends him.

After being doused with altered DNA while trying to escape the unauthorized and unorthodox experiments of the unscrupulous Simon Barsinister (Peter Dinklage) and his henchman cum partner Cad (Patrick Warburton), the now superpowered beagle literally runs into the front end of hapless security guard Dan Unger’s (Jim Belushi) car.

Unger, once Capital City’s top cop, hopes the dog will help bring he and his son Jack, somewhat estranged since the loss of Unger’s wife and Jack’s mother, closer together.

Of course, it doesn’t work out that way as the perpetually petulant Jack resents the dog— who his dad now calls Shoeshine because it’s always licking his shoes—nearly as much as he does his father. That is, until he discovers the dog can speak English, has super strength, eyesight, and hearing, and can fly!

Jack and Shoeshine discover the world of dogs and humans through each other’s eyes. They soon realize they have much in common, including a desire to belong; that and, of course, female companionship. Jack goes soft at the sight of school paper reporter Molly (Taylor Momsen), and Shoeshine flips for Molly’s perpetually perky pet spaniel Polly Purebred (stiffly voiced by Amy Adams).

After the genetically enhanced Shoeshine bungles his way through a rescue of Molly and Polly from muggers, Jack tells the dog he’s been given a gift that must be used for good. Despite Shoeshine’s reluctance, he soon finds himself trying on a series of improbable superhero costumes until he and Jack come up with the right combination, by shrinking the senior Unger’s old red university sweater, complete with a large “U” emblazoned on the front, and pairing it with a blue bath towel.

Amazed that humans, and for that matter, Polly, can’t tell the difference between a beagle in a sweater and cape and Jack’s pet Shoeshine, Underdog soon becomes the hero of Capital City and the scourge of villains everywhere, not the least of which is the now bent-on-revenge Barsinister.

Thus, as in any good superhero story, a rivalry is born.

Actor Alex Neuberger as Jack Unger and uncredit beagle playing the part of Shoeshine AKA Underdog.
All images copyright© Disney Enterprises.

When Are We Gonna Get Back on the Bus?

Even if you look at Disney’s Underdog as a “kids” movie, it still falls flat on its face.

Because the Mouse did not screen Underdog in advance for critics—never a good sign—I attended the first Friday morning screening in Hollywood. The theatre was full of children, many bused in from day camps. For the first ten minutes or so, the kids were able to give the movie their full attention; however, as it dragged on, they became more and more restless as Underdog’s 84 minutes became an eternity for most of them.

Throughout the theatre, it was relatively easy to hear parents and counselors alike being asked ‘what’s next?’ and ‘when do we go?’

Who could blame them? The script for Underdog is flat. The direction is more pedestrian than a school crossing, and most of the actors looked as if they were phoning in their performances from somewhere in a dog park.

A part from touching all the bases from the original series Underdog is little more than a basic cable, made for tweens, after school special about family and bonding. The only problem being, Disney already offers such stories done far better, and for a heck of a lot less money, on a regular basis on the Disney Channel.

As father and son, there was absolutely no chemistry between actors Jim Belushi and Alex Neuberger, much less anything resembling a bond. Belushi had the look of a man who didn’t realize what he’d signed on for and was simply marking time until he’d fulfilled his contractual obligation. The 14-year-old Neuberger wasn’t even convincing as a teenager.

Perhaps most wasted were the time and talents of Peter Dinklage and Patrick Warburton. Dinklage tries to breathe some comedic life into Barsinister’s evil genius, but every time he appears ready to cut loose, the director pulls back and cuts away to another scene.

Warburton, whose comedic timing and skills are well established, also appeared to be working under constraint. Warburton’s Cad comes off as ‘Kronk-lite’—Kronk being the hilariously loopy henchman he voiced in Disney’s animated feature The Emperor’s New Groove. Made and dressed up as an old lady, clothes ripped and hair a mess after being dragged around Capital City by Underdog, is the closest thing to being genuinely funny Warburton and Cad ever get.

Jason Lee, as the voice of Shoeshine/Underdog, turns in the film’s best overall performance. Although its virtually impossible to tell the difference between his work as Underdog and the character of Earl Hickey, which he plays on the NBC comedy My Name is Earl.

Despite first-rate CG-animated synchronization of their human voices, none of the animals used in Underdog, provided by Boone’s Animals For Hollywood, Inc., are credited. It sort of makes you wonder if the dogs didn’t ask to have their names removed.

Director Frederik Du Chau, whose only other live action directorial screen credit is 2005’s Racing Stripes, is ultimately the one most responsible for the underwhelming experience that is Underdog. Moviemaking is story telling, and Underdog looks and sounds like a story being told by a eighth grade newsreader. D

Walt Disney Pictures
In Association with
Spyglass Entertainment

UNDERDOG

A Barber-Birnbaum/Jay Polstein
Production

In Association with

CLASSIC MEDIA

Release date: August 3, 2007

Rated: PG