DVD Review: The Shaggy Dog

The Disney remake wagon rolls on with Tim Allen (aka the modern Dean Jones?) and Spenser Breslin (aka the modern Kevin Corcoran?) in the remake of the Shaggy Dog.

Dave Douglas (Tim Allen) is an assistant district attorney trying a big case. He has ambition to run for district attorney after current DA Ken Hollister (Danny Glover) retires. The case he’s trying is that one of his daughter’s teachers (Joshua Leonard) tried to burn down Grant and Strictland laboratories because he suspects that they were conducting animal experiments and is on trial under Judge Whittaker (Jane Curtin). Dave is a distant dad and isn’t really spending quality time with his wife Rebecca (Kristin Davis), daughter Carly (Zena Grey), or son Josh (Spencer Breslin). It turns out that Grant and Strictland was actually doing tests on animals but has covered it up by staging the fire and framing the teacher. The thing is that Dr. Kozak (Robert Downey, Jr.) is experimenting on “The Dog of Ageless Wonder” which he has kidnapped from Tibet. This dog is special in that it doesn’t age (actually the opposite of dog years – it ages 1 year for every 7 years) and is over 300 years old. Dr. Strictland (Philip Baker Hall) is very eager to fund Kozak’s work since he is dying. The Tibetan dog escapes from Kozak’s bumbling lab assistants (Bess Wohl and Jarrad Paul) and is taken home by Carly. Dave is a bit of a dog hater and is not happy to a dog in the house. Dave takes the dog out to the garage and the dog bites him and passes on his doggy DNA to Dave. Soon Dave starts developing canine traits and eventually is changing into a dog at the most inopportune moments. He starts to find out about the lives of his kids and wife while in his canine form and also about what the dastardly Kozak is up to. So now he has to get his family to help him out, but who’ll believe that the dog is dad?

Dave and the genetic experiments to the rescue

As I said, the Disney remake machine rolls on. This time they redo the Shaggy Dog and maybe even venture into the Shaggy DA since Dave is a lawyer (or they’ll cover that ground in a potential sequel since Dave is to run for DA). The movie is not that bad but it is definitely aimed towards the kids. This being a Disney film we know that Dave will be learning valuable life lessons from his time as a pooch and it will all end in a happy ending. We also know that Dave will also come to like dogs and animals since he’ll see things from their side of the fence. We do have a scientist in the maddest sense in the form of Robert Downey, Jr. who plays his role with twitches and over the top expressions. Tim Allen continues his new career in family films (hence my calling him the new Dean Jones, though he’s not as tied to Disney as Jones was). Spenser Breslin just reminds me of Kevin Corcoran, sorry. My kids enjoyed them film (and were the intended audience) but I thought it was entertaining but nothing that I would be watching again and it didn’t surpass the original. The Shaggy Dog is presented in both fullscreen and anamorphic widescreen (2.40:1) enhanced for 16x9 televisions. When you hit the play button you’re asked to choose the version that you want to see. Special features include 4 minutes of deleted scenes including an alternate ending for Downey’s Dr. Kozak. Next is 2 minutes of on set bloopers.

Fetch the paper Fido

Another feature is a Bark or Sing Along that runs 2 minutes. Depending on the type of animal you are you can choose to hear the “barked” version of a music video or the human version. Finally we have the audio commentary with director Brian Robbins and producer David Hoberman (which only plays on the widescreen version). The DVD is also equipped with the Disney Fastplay system, which plays the movie and the video based special features if you don’t select the main menu. Shaggy Dog is not going to win any Oscars, but it will entertain the kids for its runtime. I still prefer the original, but this might make a good rental on family movie night. The Shaggy Dog is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK. Visit the DVD database for more information.