Dir.
John Robert Hoffman, USA 2003, 87mins
Cast:
Liam Aiken, Molly Shannon, Kevin Nealon, Matthew Broderick, Brittany Moldowan, Vanessa Redgrave, Delta Burke, Carl Reiner, Cheech Marin
Fox's new contribution to the lucrative stable of the family film is the perennial story of a boy and his pet - only this is a pet with a difference. He's a dog from Sirius, the 'Dog Star,' and, thanks to a blip with his radio transmitter, able to speak perfect English with Owen (Aiken), the young boy who's adopted him.
In this film, the dogs are definitely the stars. Aside from Owen and some fairly unexceptional supporting performances from the two neighbourhood bullies and Owen's romantic interest Connie (Moldowan), human performances are kept to a minimum. If the appallingly hammy performances from Molly Shannon and Kevin Nealon as Owen's parents are anything to go by, this is something of a blessing. The dogs themselves confirm a long-held suspicion that dogs are remarkably like their owners. There's Barbara Ann (Burke), the spoilt pooch with a vain Southern drawl, and Nelly, the nervous lap dog voiced brilliantly by Brittany Murphy, who's carried everywhere and speaks with a tremor in her voice, not to mention dependable Shep (Reiner), Connie's own best friend. Then there's Hubble (Broderick), the mongrel who crash lands in his spaceship en route to Earth for his mission to check up on its dogs, descendents of those who originally set out from Sirius to colonize our planet. He's a gruff, hardened Han Solo type, totally bewildered by the attitudes of the 'pet' dogs that he finds.
Central to this film is Hubble's relationship with Owen. We're shown how Owen is a lonely, friendless boy, whose parents renovate their houses and sell them on, hence constantly change neighbourhood. For him, getting a dog is clearly meant to get him a friendship, fulfilling the role of 'man's best friend' - a concept he finds himself explaining first to the suspicious Hubble and then to the Greater Dane (Redgrave), ruler of all dogs, who descends to Earth to find out what has caused the delay in Hubble's report. He's a troubled child, who rarely has the opportunity to express his feelings (his first confrontation with his mother over getting a dog is resolved in a business negotiation: "We had a deal" he insists). Hubble's a troubled dog: on a mission in a strange world where dogs are subordinate and emotional props for the humans around them, he can't allow Owen to pet him or exchange soft words. His realisation of, and initiation into, the wonderful world of man-and-dog takes the form of his efforts to 'catch' like the other dogs. Owen never complains or takes offense at his friend's closed nature. Clearly, the two are ideal for each other, each mirroring the other's lessons to learn, and learning them together. Hubble, for all his problems, is clearly a special dog; Owen, for all his problems, is supposedly a special boy. Yet precisely what is so special about Owen, or what it is that he learns, isn't quite clear. The film builds up our sympathies for the dog world - intelligent, gifted beings as personified by Hubble - but then it dashes them in favour of Owen's need for a canine companion. It's great that through Hubble he learns to accept himself for who he is, and that they both find friendship with each other, but maybe there was the need for Owen to acknowledge his amazing experience in some way, so that we could acknowledge it too.
It's undeniably an entertaining, enjoyable film. The cinema held a rapt audience (although if the reactions in the toilet afterwards are anything to go by, it seems the parents understood the tug on the old heartstrings of a lost pet more than the kids, who just seemed to think it was cool that the dogs could talk!). Ultimately, however, something was missing - something magical. There wasn't the pathos of E.T. or the completion of, say, Lion King, where Simba learns some hard lessons before reaching his happy ending. In both films the 'kids' have to deal with a loss, whereas here Owen seems to learn that yes, you can always get what you want - as long as you're willing to trade.
Kerry McLeod
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