Beverly Hills Chihuahua – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Mar 4, 2009, 14:19 GMT

Get ready for a hilarious fun-filled adventure starring Chloe (voiced by Drew Barrymore), a diamond-clad ultra-pampered Beverly Hills Chihuahua who gets lost while on vacation in Mexico. Papi (voiced by George Lopez), an amusing Chihuahua who\'s crazy about Chloe, springs into action and heads south of the border to rescue her, while Chloe gets help from Delgado (voiced by Andy Garcia), her newfound friend and self-appointed protector. Beverly Hills Chihuahua ...more

They’re tiny and pretty inconsequential as a watchdog, but they can make you laugh.  They’re Chihuahuas and they sound like Drew Barrymore and George Lopez.  Well, they sound that way in this movie which is also pretty inconsequential but can also make you laugh.  

Chloe (Drew Barrymore) is a pampered Chihuahua owned by wealthy magazine editor Vivian (Jamie Lee Curtis) who wants for nothing.  When Viv goes out of town, she entrusts her niece Rachel (Piper Perabo) with caring for her canine “child.”  Rachel decides to jet down to Mexico for some party time with her pals.  She takes Chloe who bristles at being served “dog food” and sneaks out of the hotel room to find Rachel and bark at her. 

Chloe gets more than she bargained for as she’s kidnapped to be put into a dog fight against the vicious Doberman El Diablo (Edward James Olmos).  She’s helped out of her scrape by ex-police German Shepherd Delgado (Andy Garcia), but the two ends up homeless and on the street. 

Since Chloe is disheveled she isn’t recognized at the posh hotel, but El Diablo’s master recognized her diamond collar and sets the devilish Doberman off after her.  Rachel has been looking all over Mexico City for Chloe and hot gardener Sam (Manolo Cardona) and his Chihuahua Papi (George Lopez), who fancies himself Chloe’s mate, have come to Mexico to help her find the pampered pooch. 

Chloe runs afoul of the con-man, well actually a rat, Manuel (Cheech Marin) and iguana Chico (Paul Rodriguez) and looses her valuable collar that would identify her.  The pursuit of El Diablo has Chloe and Delgado hitching a ride to Puerto Vallarta, Tijuana, and she also discovers her ancestry from fellow Chihuahua Montezuma (Placido Domingo). 

Sam, Rachael, and Papi have to play catch-up to find Chloe before Aunt Viv returns from her vacation – let the fun begin.  

If you see a Chihuahua running across the yard and growling at you, more than likely you’re going to not worry too much about it.  If you see a German Shepherd doing the same thing you’ll be trying to find a tree to climb up to escape the beast.  The Chihuahua you can probably just step on.

Beverly Hills Chihuahua isn’t exactly going to do much for you, but it does offer some funny diversion for the family.  Disney continues to use CGI to slap movie mouths on doggies with Beverly Hills Chihuahua as they’ve done with their “Buddies” movies. 

This feature does have the distinction to at least having some star power in the human department as well as the vocal department.  Talk about typecasting, as Drew Barrymore plays a pampered Hollywood pooch.  Not that she’s a dog, but I’d imagine that she’s pampered as all Hollywood stars are.  Who else expects to get waited on hand and foot?  I’ll tell you a Hollywood star or your pet.  I know that I get assaulted with two hungry cats demanding breakfast even before I get out of the shower in the morning. 

Drew Barrymore hasn’t shown up outside the shower certain demanding anything – frowns.  As you can imagine, Beverly Hills Chihuahua really doesn’t add much to the cinema of talking pets, but the old lady (who really wouldn’t like Drew turning up in the bathroom) and the kids really thought it was cute. 

There are some voice talents providing the voices of the pooches (as you see above) and no one really tarnishes their resume too badly.  

Beverly Hills Chihuahua offers up the film in both a widescreen (2.40:1, enhanced for 16x9 televisions) and a fullscreen version.  You choose which when you hit the play button. 

Special features include a commentary with director Raja Gosnell.  Next is the 3 minute animated “Legend of the Chihuahua” that details the history of the pintsized pooch.  There are also 10 minutes of deleted scenes with video introductions by Gosnell and a 3 minute “Blooper scooper” reel.  

The family will enjoy this trip to the doghouse, but it’s nothing more than a time filler for those looking for high breed cinema.  A cute trip south of the border with some doggies.  

Beverly Hills Chihuahua is now available at Amazon. It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a May 25th release. Visit the DVD database for more information.