Benji: Off the Leash!

I have seen all of the Benji movies, including this latest one at a premier showing prior to release, and loved this one the best. It instills a variety of emotions in the viewer - laughter, sadness, sympathy, and anger - but I promise you that you will walk out of the theater with a big smile on your face and in your heart. Take a tissue with you, but your tears will be happy ones. The movie also sends a strong message about puppy mills and backyard breeders. I am an animal shelter volunteer and know that there are too many people out there who are uneducated about such topics. Thank you Joe Camp for bringing Benji back to us again along with that important message to the public.

I have to say that I read "Pasafist"'s review before seeing this with my daughter, and had some concerns. After seeing it, I do agree on many points, but wanted to add a little different perspective. I am the mother of a pretty savy and intuitive 4 year old. Not much escapes her. Still - most of the dark themes, because they are not part of our world, escaped her. She mostly just liked looking at the dogs. This movie did not capture her attention like other smarter films have (Nemo for example), but it was a cute diversion for her for awhile. I love good family / children's movies and watched them before I had a child, and found this one pretty mediocre. Still - since there is rarely something suitable on for the little guys, it nice to have something mostly wholesome. (Parental warning: The word "butthead" is used for laughs multiple times, and there is a scene with someone getting shot with a tranquilizer gun.)

Can you believe? A film you can take your mom to? Yea!! Funny, funny, funny.....then you cry with happiness at the end. There is Benji, of course, but now he has a dufus sidekick named Lizard Tongue (you will see why when you see this great animal!) who stirs things up and causes all kinds of funny mayhem. And, there is a bird who will make you laugh until your side hurts. And, a nice young man who is trying to help Benji save his mother from a bad situation in a puppy mill. (That is the teary part.) It all adds up to entertainment with a purpose....to make you happy and make you feel good about going to the movies. The story is engaging and the scenes are beautifully shot. I hope many people get to see the new Benji.

I took my granddaughter to see Benji, Off the Leash yesterday and was reminded of the fun movies I used to go see as a child. Disney, Kurt Russell, Fred MacMurray, Dean Jones and Suzanne Pleshette. While Benji gets the credit in the title, the story is really about how our lives are intertwined and the wrongness of hurting others (especially animals) for any reason. My granddaughter and I also discussed how you can't always assume to know a person until you really get to know them. For example the two "bumbling dog catchers" turned out to be the nice guys, showing tremendous love and compassion for "Puppy's" mom.

I had the op to meet Joe Camp and Benji this past summer at CBA. The sweetest dog EVER! I was given a card with her paw print, which I put in a scrapbook for my granddaughter. These are the movies our childhood should be made of...not the basic trash we see everywhere else.

DO NOT TAKE YOUNG CHILDREN TO THIS MOVIE! I took my 2 young children, 6 and 3 along with a another mom and her 2 children, same ages...anxious to see a cheerful, cute Benji adventure like we were kids was a far cry from what this movie portrayed...the first scene where the alcoholic, clearly child and animal abusive father angrily tossed the Benji puppy across the floor and verbally hoped that he died was only the start...I'm a former employee of the SPCA of Texas so I know the message of animal abuse, puppy mills all too well...I can support educating adults and children on this but this was too strong for young children by far.

Joe Camp used the Benji name to draw parents in to get his message across. He should have made a G rated one as well that we could enjoy and not feel sick about...it's not the way I want to spend an afternoon with my kids. The abusive father was a great actor, you hated him more than life itself and wanted to kill him the way he did to the dogs he abused, i.e. the puppy he placed in a tied up bag then tossed into a river simply b/c he didn't want it. Thanks Joe. I hope you're taking the proceeds to animal charities for what our children went through today.