Der unheimliche Zotti

The "Wild & Woolly" DVD edition of 1959's THE SHAGGY DOG (and some product reviews and posts found here) claim this film is the "first live action movie ever produced by Walt Disney!" I guess all those other live action features Walt produced PRIOR to THE SHAGGY DOG (such as 1957's OLD YELLER or 1954's Academy Award-winning 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, among others) didn't count? (One comment posted here stated that 20,000 LEAGUES, like TREASURE ISLAND, was one of the films done for Disney in England because of studio funds tied up there. Not true; when not filming on location, 20,000 LEAGUES was shot on the sound stages at the Disney Studio in California...information supplied to me by the studio while I was researching & writing a magazine article on the making of the film.) I can see how some reviewers might make such a mistake, but for the claim to appear on the packaging that was approved by the Disney staff takes some serious explaining. (As does the differences in running time for the two versions of the film, with the B&W version being the full cut of the movie, while the colorized version is missing about 10 minutes of material.) Don't get me wrong,this is a great comedy and well worth having...it just deserved a bit better treatment for its fans.

sure,it may seem cheesy by todays' standards,but it's good clean fun for the whole family,for the most part.really young children might be a bit scared from a few scenes,but other than that,it's fun for everyone.i chuckled quite a bit t some of the comedic bits,and i also thought the story was interesting.it's not just about the Shaggy Dog.there's another story in there as well.some of the facial expressions and reactions may seem a bit hokey and overdone,but so what.that was how they acted back then. if i recall correctly,this was the first motion picture made by Disney.i wouldn't say the comedic parts are laugh out loud,rolling in the aisles funny.,but they were certainly amusing.you could do a lot worse with 102 minutes or so.my vote for The Shaggy Dog: 7/10

After years of strictly animated features, this is the first live action feature from Disney and it is still a delight even 44 years after it was first released. Fred MacMurray shows what a great comedic talent he was after years of playing primarily dramatic roles. He shows in this film a preview of what was to be expected when he started the show that became his trademark, "My Three Sons". Also, Tommy Kirk, Tim Considine and Kevin Corcoran all were great in this film. This is still a great film.

'The Shaggy Dog' is mostly amusing.

It hasn't aged beautifully, the switching from real dog to costume looks fairly ridiculous now - though it kinda does add to the humour in parts, albeit unintentionally. The cast aren't anything spectacular but do the jobs that are needed.

'Old Yeller' duo Tommy Kirk (Wilby) and Kevin Corcoran (Moochie) are back together, both improving on their performances from that aforementioned 1957 production; especially Corcoran. Fred MacMurray is solid as Daniel, while James Westerfield and Forrest Lewis play the humorous roles of Officers Hanson and Kelly.

It's a simple film, one that probably does last about 10-15 minutes too long. However, a chucklesome story keeps things chugging along calmly.

Up to the point of this movie, the Disney Studio had had plenty of experience in live-action film production, but it was chiefly in the UK, where they used the considerable debt-credit that England had run up during the war years to produce things as Treasue Island and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Their initial foray into U.S. live-action production was Davy Crockett on Disneyland, the Mickey Mouse Club's TV serials, and then Zorro, followed by several mini-series on Walt Disney Presents (Texas John Slaughter, Elfego Baca, Swamp Fox). The Shaggy Dog was initially planned as a TV series to follow Zorro as something independent from the weekly Disney hour. You can see vestiges of TV production in almost every aspect of this film, from the post-production foley work on entire scenes to the subdued performance of Kirk (largely reprising his Joe Hardy role from the Hardy Boys serials) and MacMurray's scenery chewing. Not that either of these things were unusual in family movies of the time, but we tend to be more forgiving of them on old TV. (The book the concept originated in was written by Felix Salten, who created Bambi and Perri, a couple of Disney animal characters who did pretty well for themselves.)

The Shaggy Dog was one of the first movies I saw as a child and I've always held a great affection for it, even while recognizing all of its flaws. The concept here is what I liked, and I believe, had the same cast (remember, this is the year before Fred MacMurray and Tim Considine were cast in My Three Sons) starred in a TV series based on the concept, we'd now be looking back fondly on another TV classic of the golden years rather than a rather middling Disney comedy. I still feel that it might work better as a Disney Channel series than a movie starring Tim Allen; part of the reason I liked the original is because the star was a kid only a couple of years older than me. What I don't need in a new Shaggy Dog film is even PG humor, and without it these days, there isn't much of a market for it in theaters (or even as a series on any of the major networks). It's a kids' super-hero concept that requires a kids' venue, and, sadly, that isn't the big screen. Perhaps, however, if the film does well, someone in the studio will realize that it would work better on a weekly basis...about fifty years late.