Shaggy Dog - Hör mal, wer da bellt

It's a funny movie. Don't "compare" it to the older one, it just isn't the same, it's made for the youth of today. Not sure what some expected, but those rating this a "1" obviously don't get out to see many movies, or are looking for something that just isn't this movie. It's funny, not Awful as a rating of 1 would suggest. Now, as far as Disney or the like goes, it's an average movie, below that which Tim Allen is capable of, this is more what I might expect to see on Sunday night TV, not on a big screen. Unfortunately as the Disney Corporation becomes more and more "corporate" and moves further from it's founding principles, its products are slowly failing to impress and differentiate themselves from the hordes of the plain and ordinary and unimaginative.

Wow, blah blah, just an average new age Disney movie, not awful but certainly not anything to write home about.

So it's a dumb movie with a dumb plot - what do you expect? Agatha Christie? Robert Ludlum? This is a Disney film for children!

As a kids' movie, it's a lot of fun with plenty of slapstick and lots of laughs. The plot is goofy, but the basic premise is hardly meant to be realistic. This is not cinema verité. People give "What Women Want" with Mel Gibson a much higher rating, but that's just as daft.

There are plenty of set-piece chases, as you would expect with a storyline about dogs.

If you want clever, go see the Usual Suspects, just don't take your under-eights.

(Synopsis) Dr. Kozak (Robert Downey Jr.) kidnaps a 300-year old Tibetan sheepdog in an attempt to discover the dog's secret of longevity and produce a fountain of youth drug. Unfortunately, all he has produced are animal mutations such as a king cobra-canine with a tail, a dog-frog that barks, and other mutations that are part dog. The sheepdog escapes the lab and is rescued by Carly Douglas (Zena Grey), who takes him home. Deputy District Attorney Dave Douglas (Tim Allen) is prosecuting Carly's teacher for the firebombing of Dr. Kozak's lab. Dave hates dogs, and after he is bitten by the sheepdog, the dog is sent to the pound. The dog has injected Dave with some of his DNA cells, and Dave begins to have canine urges and eventually, becomes a sheepdog. Dave learns the truth about his family and the drug company as a dog.

(My Comment) This is a cute movie that you can take your children to. There are several funny scenes like the bathroom and park scenes that are just hilarious. I think they wasted their money on the CG effects on the cat chasing scene. If you look at the Shaggy Dog poster, you will see Tim Allen's eerie eyes. I enjoyed this movie, and you must remember that this is only a movie, and don't take the plot too seriously. (Note: The dog is actually a bearded collie.) (Walt Disney, Run time 1:38, Rated PG) (5/10)

I took my 12 year old grandson to see it and he was rolling on the floor for most of the film. I was surprised that it was actually funny,much more surprise than I was prepared for. This is a funny movie for those preteens and early teens as they seem to really enjoy it. Sure it is not full of high tech special effects and should never be compared to the Matrix, but it is a Disney! movie --- get it... a Disney movie. Take that into consideration ... how many Disney movies achieve high ratings anyway, other than the classics? This is a fun movie. I saw the original and it was funny too. Remember way back when everything was black and white and not color? The special effects in this movie are not very high tech and some of the metamorphosis takes place when you do not see it, so do not expect "the wolf-man" changes to be shown, nope, one shot he is a man, the next he is a dog. Some of the other critters are pretty funny too and kids seem to love this movie.

When I ask, "where's the magic?" I'm not talking about the magic that turns Tim Allen into a sheep dog. I'm talking about the "Disney Magic." I realize that a bunch of you have already commented on this, but now I'd like to add my two cents.

The original "Shaggy Dog" movie was released in 1959 (my parents were about three years old). I constantly watched it on video when I was a kid. It was cheesy, sappy, corny, etc. Even though the story was silly, the acting bad, and the special effects tacky, it had a certain charm and squishy Disney cuteness that made it appealing. I watched it recently, and I still liked it even though I'm a 26-year-old man now.

The fact that the new movie sucks has nothing to do with the fact that I'm old and jaded. It doesn't have to do with the bad acting (except for Tim Allen, who, as always, did well with what he was given) or lame special effects. Disney has lost its magic. You can only do so many remakes and sequels of a movie before it turns into a cliché and loses all the creativity and charisma of the original. This is about the fourth or fifth remake and/or sequel of the original, and it's not cute any more. It's the Xerox effect. If you keep making copies of something, you lose the all the sharpness and clarity that you began with.

Disney has perfected this over the last ten years. They've ruined just about every classic they ever made by coming out with a cheap remake or thrown-together sequel. The Shaggy Dog has gone from being a silly story about an awkward teenager trying to deal with life as all these crazy things start happening to him (totally relatable story, by the way), into a goofy special effects showcase about a lawyer who's prosecuting a tree-hugging hippie teacher, only to find out that the teacher isn't a criminal but was framed by these evil scientists who are doing genetic testing on animals (I could go off on how Disney always tries to put some liberal message into all of its new movies, but this isn't a political website).

If the good people at Disney would put more time and effort into making new and original films, they could once again become a great company. Instead they make mediocre original stuff and lackluster rehashes, and they're wasting their money. If all their resources would go into new ventures, we would probably see fewer movies from them each year, but we would once again be astounded and mesmerized by that Disney magic.