Roadside Romeo

Am I the only non-Indian teenage boy who actually enjoyed this film? If not, that's fine with me. That's right, I watched Roadside Romeo (a wordplay on an Indian term for 'flirt') on DVD with English subtitles and liked it. It's probably the 2nd in a full line-up of movies about dogs from October 2008 to February 2009 (Chihuahua, Romeo, Bolt, Marley, Hotel and Vomit). Sure it may be campy at some parts, but hey, this is India's first well-animated film, so I'll cut them some slack. This film is kinda like a CGI Bollywood version of Lady and the Tramp meets All Dogs Go To Heaven, but there's nothing wrong with that. You'll need to watch some Bollywood films in order to understand the film itself. Myself, I haven't even watched any ordinary Bollywood film, but I've watched some clips and heard of Yash Raj's other hits, so I understand.

Ever since the giant Hindi studio Yash Raj Films included a clip from 'Cars' in 'Dhoom 2' and used the Disney Store and a song provided by Disney (non-pop) in Ta Ra Rum Pum, Disney had decided to join forces with the studio to create Roadside Romeo. Before the film was developed, Indian animation looked pretty cheesy. But Tata Elxsi, a VFX studio responsible for doing VFX for plenty of Bollywood films and two of Marvel's films, did a pretty impressive job on making it almost Pixar quality. (I've heard in the commentary that someone from Pixar came over to visit the creators and teach them how to do fur)

Anyway, the film is about a spoiled, cute-looking, rich dog dude named Romeo (Saif Ali Khan) who gets abandoned on the streets of Mumbai, where he gets bullied and then befriended by a pack of strays with unique personalities. Guru is the leader of the pack. His name speaks everything about him. Hero English is a dog with a funny hairstyle, buckteeth and a bow-tie who wishes to actually speak full English, though a lot of the characters speak broken English and Hindi at the same time. His eyes and his buckteeth might make you think of Sid the Sloth from Ice Age. Interval is a big fan of YRF who copies many lines of the actors who have starred in their films. Mini is, believe it or not, a pretty aggressive alley cat, just about the only one in the movie, who thinks she is a stray dog and refuses to disbelieve it. Oh, and there's also a mouse who is kind of the Jerry type when it comes to enemies.

Together, Romeo and the strays start a salon after Romeo shows his haircutting skills just so they can get some business. One night, Romeo falls in love with a pretty female pooch named Laila (Kareena Kapoor) after hearing her sing and watching her dance. The next day, Romeo meets a ferocious, disgusting, big-lipped bulldog with a bit of an accent named Charlie Anna (Jaaved Jaffery), his sidekick Chhainu, who gets beaten up all the time and looks like Wile E. Coyote's long lost father, and his female ninja dogs, Charlie's Angels. Which set of girls do the Angels parody? Well, duh! Romeo and Charlie rival over Laila, much to the dismay of Romeo's friends. Who will win? Everyone knows the answer...

I've listened to one of the songs from the film everyday surprisingly. They're just so catchy! My most favourite song has to be "Choo Le Na". The songs are better than the cheap pop songs Disney has to spew out today! ;) A few song sequences in this movie act like Indian music videos. You might see a character appearing in some random place while singing and dancing. The biggest example is in "Cool Cool".

The creators acted quite like Pixar when doing this movie. Not only did they do impressive animation/motion capture inspired by that of Ratatouille, they also released teaser trailers without actual footage one year before the film was released. In the film itself, they managed to slip in some in-jokes of the Pixar tradition, including the name "Tata", some posters of other Yash Raj films, photographs of YRF's actors/actresses and some Mickey Mouse references. Heck. they even added some bloopers in the credits! If only Pixar used them more often... Maybe on their DVDs.

Though it ain't the best animated film of 2008, Roadside Romeo has plenty of charm and feel, including some tension, beautiful romantic moments (especially , and clever humour. It does have gross-out humour including flatulence, but there's one bit of it that actually made me laugh. At Charlie is the most appropriate victim! My big problem with the film was - did Yash Raj care about the audience of theirs that loves Disney and is not familiar with Bollywood? Still, there are some parts that kids would enjoy (Hindu kids, even), such as the little mouse's moments and the Looney Tunes style gags. But not all of it is kiddy. Poor Romeo gets strangled several times, for instance. Kids might not even be interested, to tell you the truth. :rolleyes: And yes, Indian cinema still has intermissions. I highly recommend this film if you're a freak for animation, Bollywood, dogs or anthropomorphic animals.

In a world where Pixar sets the gold standard in animated films, Yash Raj Film's Roadside Romeo (incidentally Dinsey's foray into Bollywood as well) will find it hard to even pass the QC test. Both the animation and the story leave a lot to be desired and the only positive outlook for the movie is that being the only major release this Diwali and potentially a hit with the kids, it should barely manage to trudge along. The story of a dog, Romeo (voiced by Saif Ali Khan) who was living the lavish life and suddenly finds himself on the mean streets of the city is clichéd to a fault. Romeo falls for Laila (Kareena Kapoor) who also happens to be the crush of bad dog Charlie Anna (Javed Jaffrey) and predictable mayhem follows. Jugal Hansraj's direction relies too much on borrowing from Bollywood lore (Yash Raj film scenes and dialogs are copied galore) and too little on character study. It is an earnest effort perhaps but if anyone thought animation didn't need a story, they should ask the studio that made the animation movie event of the year, Wall•E. The film hardly has any genuinely funny moments, and the background sets, though well detailed, lack punch. The redeemer is eventually Javed Jaffrey, who is the only one who seems to know how to voice an animation character. He brings out the quirks of Charlie Anna superbly to life and provides the few laughs there are in the film. The tepid songs and a basic background score do nothing to add to the appeal. Ultimately, the gag reel during the end credits turns out to be funnier than the movie itself. And that's saying a lot.

Roadside romeo is a movie with a simple overdone plot and cliche characters? Then why have I rated it so highly?

Because it's bloody entertaining. The songs are brilliant, the atmosphere is cool and the characters are all really funny. Admittedly the character designs, bar the love interest Laila and Romeo himself are awful, but whatever!

All I want for a movie is for it to be entertaining and this was. It was also India's first animated cgi movie so I'm gonna cut them some slack. It's also produced and distributed by Disney! And tbh, it's better than most of the crap they have pumped out in recent years.

It's not amazing or award winning, but it's cute and fun. As long as a movie is entertaining, does it really matter? Plus, I love the Bollywood theme.

Just give it a shot! What are you gonna lose?

Roadside Romeo does indeed start in a very captivating way. I liked the idea and the film does start very strongly with quite a stirring opening scene. But overall, it just didn't do it for me, just too bland and hackneyed. Granted, the animation is pretty good, not outstanding but the backgrounds and sceneries were at least striking. Also Javed Jaffrey is a lot of fun here. However, the writing is sadly awful on the whole, while the story is too hackneyed and predictable. Then there is the music, it was the same with the singing, it got too much and became distracting. Jaffrey aside, the remainder of the voice work is inconsistent, ranging from so-so to barely adequate. I'm sorry to say I didn't really feel anything for the characters, they were dull mostly or annoying. The pacing started off great, almost riveting, but when the story meandered just before the halfway mark the pace dragged until the final result was as limp as a bad hair day. In conclusion, started off promisingly but lost its momentum making it forgettable and altogether very unexceptional film. 4/10 Bethany Cox

The plot of the movie is very simple, it kind of reminds me of The Lady and the Tramp parts one and two. It's not because Romeo came from a rich family, but it was the gangs and the dog catcher. The music was pretty good, just hearing it gives you the feeling that it's made for kids.

There were two things that was a huge turn off for me in the movie, one was the way they moved the characters and second was the script. There was something that bothered me with how they made the dogs move, sometimes the arms would look weird and sometimes the facial expressions doesn't really match with the emotion their suppose to do. Like when Romeo's going to howl, he looks like he's just opening his mouth and looking up. There are also moments when the characters are suppose to touch each other (a pat on the head, hug, etc.), they look like they have force fields surrounding them, making it look like the characters are in an invisible ball. Some of the characters look nude, for example, Charlie Anna, he reminds me of a naked Peter Griffin. And sometimes Romeo eye's would look infected.

And the script! I think this is the biggest thing that ruined the film, kids these days don't use the word "dude" anymore. In the movie Romeo uses a lot of slang's from the 80's, I think it would be better if bollywood animators would lay off the "cool factor" e.g. shades, motorcycles, high shirt collar and the Elvis hair do.

The thing that impressed me the most about the movie was the details, the fur, the lighting and everything in between. The way they made the characters unite with their background, like the shadows on their fur and the shine in their eyes. The details on the fur makes me want to buy a Romeo stuffed toy, he's so FLUFFY!!! They fur is the biggest thing that impresses me about the movie. Compared to Sully from Monsters Inc. I would rate Romeo somewhere above Sully in my Fluff-o-meter. I also watched the special features of the DVD where they showed how they modeled Romeo, from the inside out. I like the details of their teeth, when they smile of talk, they don't just show a tongue, and the nose look so dog like, the way they made the wetness of it shine from the light.

... http://miniganesha.blogspot.com