Zotti, das Urviech

Typical Disney 70's fare with the usual cast (Jones, Conway, Wynn) associated with the studio at the time, here focusing on the kid from the original "Shaggy Dog" 1959 movie, all grown up (Jones) and still having issues with his canine transformations. Crooked senator Wynn is determined to get his hands on the magic ring that will enable the metamorphosis, but predictably, the old dog has a few new tricks up his sleeve to counter every attempt.

Conway plays the ice-cream vendor caught up in the calamities, Vic Tayback as a racketeer in cahoots with Wynn, and Dick Van Patten has a minor role as Wynn's chauffeur. The sultry Suzanne Pleshette plays Jones' domestic retreat, despite having little to offer the film, still adds a much needed spark.

No surprises, it's inoffensive (a bit of gun-play, but no actual violence) slapstick comedy that would appeal to the young family audience.

I guess that when Dean Jones and Suzanne Pleshette got married it wasn't spelled out that there would be no secrets because Dean Jones kept a really big one from his teen years. For what that was and how it turned out one should see the prequel to The Shaggy DA, the famous Walt Disney classic, The Shaggy Dog.

To refresh one's memory back then the Dean Jones character of Wilby Daniels was played by Tommy Kirk who because of a cursed ring said to belong to Lucretia Borgia back in the day who allegedly dabbled in the black arts, Kirk would enter the body of a large sheep dog who was owned by the new next door neighbors of his family. When the ring got returned and Kirk performed a heroic act, the curse was lifted.

Or so they thought, now Wilby Daniels is played by Dean Jones who now is a lawyer, running for District Attorney against corrupt DA Keenan Wynn and married to Suzanne Pleshette with a son, Shane Sinutko. Just as the campaign gets going the ring is once again stolen from the museum and when the magic words inscribed on the ring are uttered, Jones is shifting from human to canine and back.

Eventually chief villain Keenan Wynn gets the ring and he's in control of the situation when he discovers what it does to Jones. It becomes a family project to get that ring back and expose him before the electorate. Also along for the ride is Tim Conway, an ice cream truck vendor whose shaggy dog's body Jones transfers to.

The Shaggy DA has a lot of laughs in it and its good entertainment, it doesn't however have the poignancy of the teen angst that Tommy Kirk brought to the original Wilby. It does have the usual cast of Hollywood veterans that the Disney studio always managed to find work for. It's one of the reasons the Magic Kingdom films from the late Sixties and Seventies are a lot of fun, it's like watching some of the classic films from the studio system days, seeing all those familiar faces.

I'd still recommend the film, especially to family audiences with younger viewers, but it's not as good as the original.

This is not a true sequel to the 1959 original starring Tommy Kirk as a teen-aged Wilby Daniels. By that I mean it doesn't continue the same story line. This time, Dean Jones is the adult Wilby Daneils. When his house is robbed-not once-but twice-he decides enough is enough and decides to run for DA.

From the outset Wilby is faced with two problems-first, is to try to defeat the incumbent DA-Honest John Slade(Keenan Wynn). John Slade is anything but honest-he is allowing crooks off the hook by not prosecuting them or letting them off easy. One of these crooks is Eddie Roschak(Vic Tayback-in a much more realistic portrayal of a bad guy than in "No deposit, no Return").

Wilby's Second and much more serious problem-is that the "Borger" ring has been stolen from the museum-and whenever someone reads the inscription on the ring-Wilby is transformed in to a shaggy dog-that belongs to "Tim-the ice cream man"(Tim Conway). THe dog's name is "Elwood" Wilby's Wife is Betty(Suzanne Pleshette)and they have a son, whom I call the wisecracking "Brian"(Shane Sinutko). His wife becomes his campaign manager.

John Slade gets hold of the ring and tries to blackmail Daneils out of the race by threatening to keep reading the inscription on the ring over & over again to keep Daniels as a dog. Of course he ignores the warning the museum curator gives-if you read the inscription too many times-you may turn into a dog your self.

Wilby, Brian & Tim are on a mission to get the ring back from Slade and his gang of crooks. Do they succeed? You will need to see the film to find out.

The pie fight is so funny. There are plenty of funny moments and gags in this movie. This is one of the better comedies offered by Disney in the 70's.

So, why do I vote 8 instead of 10? Well-the movie doesn't answer the questions I have: 1. Why is it that Wilby Daneils is turned into a dog himself? Why not someone else? 2. Does Daneils descend from the Borger Family, and is he a victim of a family curse? I know that in the 1959 original-Daneils finds the ring and he reads the inscription and turns into a dog. That maybe the answer-but the fact remains-not everyone who reads the inscription turns into a dog. I think there must be something else-a family trait or curse or something that only happens to Daniels and no one else.

Overall, this is a real good movie with a fine cast and directed by Disney's Ledgendary director Robert Stevenson.

Just kidding (As if anyone could not figure out-- whether they've seen the movie or not-- how it will turn out).

Like one of the other people who commented above, I was a kid (6) when this movie came out, and for some reason this is one of the movies that sticks in my mind along with Gus, Boatniks, and the '66 Batman, when I think back on the movies I saw at that age. So Shaggy DA has a built-in nostalgia factor as far as I'm concerned, and maybe for others my age, but anyone else would probably be bored to tears. The pie-fight had a little spark of energy, but watching this now mainly just serves to remind what low standards "family entertainment" had in the 70s. It's really amazing, today, to look back on this kind of stuff-- Shaggy DA, Pete's Dragon, that "Goin Cocoanuts" thing the Osmonds put out-- and think: Good Lord, was that really the best they could do?

I saw this back in 1976 and thought it was the funniest movie ever. Of course, I was only 7 at the time. I saw it again recently and of course noticed several things I didn't see the first time. The story is about a young lawyer/family man (Dean Jones) who runs for DA against the corrupt DA currently in office (Keenan Wynn) but the latter gets ahold of a ring which has an inscription that when read, can turn Jones into a sheepdog. The same gag (of Jones becoming a sheepdog at the worst possible time) is repeated a bit too much and most of the gags are obvious and dependant upon banana peel-like slapstick/humor. Dean Jones is a fine actor but he kept playing the same character over and over in the Disney comedies of the 70s. (He never seemed to know what was going on and was constantly the butt of the joke). Not surprisingly, the Disney slapstick films soon wore out their welcome. The Shaggy DA though is one of Disney's better offerings. It features a pretty good cast. Tim Conway as an ice cream man is especially in good form and Vic Tayback adds some life as a mobster who is in cahoots with Wynn. The humor is dated and certainly not aimed at intelligent kids but for the most part, it does deliver with the laughs.