Belka i Strelka. Zvyozdnye sobaki

Suitable for kids? I guess so. But the movie is pretty unconventional.

It tries to capture and deliver the long-forgotten atmosphere of soviet childhood with many of its supporting characters based on nearly iconic characters of old Soviet cartoons and children's stories. The setting - Moscow of the 60-s. This contributes to the overall spirit of nostalgia, It's like if the authors take their old toys from an attic and start telling their stories.

The story is little sad, and the characters always have to keep struggling, while their fate doesn't even belong to them. This spirit is probably created intentionally to make the viewers experience what it was like to be a Soviet man. There's nothing propagandistic about this film, and, as I said, It feels very authentic.

The original Russian voice acting plays an important role in delivering the spirit, which is often even more important than animation itself. I do suspect the dubbing doesn't contribute to correct perception of this piece.

Overall, this is not exactly similar to Pixar movies and it's not about a positive message, fun or enthusiasm. But it enables viewers to experience, like, an ancient civilization that no longer exists.

What it reminds me is "LES TRIPLETTES DE BELLEVILLE". However, "Space Dogs" does seem to be acceptable for little kids and has some humanistic messages to deliver. Only that it's not about walking around and making the world a better place. It's more about facing things that are not in one's power to change at all.

That said, the pace is quick and action-packed, so it's hard to get bored. Overall, a good first step towards Pixar standards.

The quality of CG is not exactly up to modern standards, but it's advantage is about delivering the spirit of Soviet puppet-animated films. So I say it's good, as I doubt anyone else could do it.

So, why is this worth watching for a non-Russian-speaker? I guess it's like anime - another world, another life philosophy. It's also educational.

It's not very good for those who: a) expect a charge of purely positive energy and uplifting messages b) have a particularly strong bias against USSR

I would never recommend this movie to anyone age groups. It's long, boring and incoherent. It contains some abstract goals and dreams, and different environments that expose the cute little dogs for a little of everything. And have a very strange start. The film could not produce smiles or laughs. The only good thing was the dogs' relationship to each other. Bad for children and for adults. If one were to make a movie about space dogs, then it should rather be on the dog's wild adventures in space that could pique the imagination a bit. Instead they had to run around on the ground. It was as if they were trying to get everything in the movie, surroundings, environment, emotions, relationships, development, 3d, society and space. The result was a too superficial movie.

This movie seams exceedingly cheap. The animation is crude, the movements seem like something out of a stop motion movie, and the 3D effects are so crude, that it will give you a headache at times. But that isn't even the worst of it. This movie is, from start to finish, nothing more than a horrible and misguided glorification of the Russia that used to be. Everywhere you look you see happy faces alongside communist symbols. For this reason alone, this movie will never be recommended by me. This type of political propaganda has absolutely no place in a movie made for children. I was honestly left with a very bad taste in my mouth. I found the whole thins more than distasteful.

This is a great movie, but misunderstood due to cultural references. It wasn't mean to be another Pixar movie. It is however a great movie about the first ever dogs that went up into space and came back alive. In Russia that is a well know pair of dogs and doesn't need much explanation. Perhaps it could have used some more details in the translated version. The jokes in the movie are more funny to those who grew up in Russia and understand what life used to be like there. Watched this movie with my husband and son, and Canadian born husband really didn't like it till I explain the context to him. Not surpassingly , he loves the movie now. It tells a great story about a piece of history.

If you want to see just how good our CG! movies are these days, SPACE DOGS is an entirely Russian effort. True, read the credits and all of the background images are clearly huge Soviet type statues at al. The plot involves two cute dogs and a funny rat plus three bad evil dogs, typical stuff. The animation is crude beyond a doubt, this is almost pre-Toy Story effort. And humor is just not there. It would be appealing to a very very very young viewer but if you want to truly appreciate THE INCREDIBLES and UP all the more so, watch this one and if you WANT to like it, that is a good thing but within 30 minutes you will find your DVD playing a more contemporary fare.