A family-friendly film, maybe intended for children, has some moral messages suitable for all of us.
reviewed by Phil Marriott
I just watched an A-mazing film….. It wasn't quite as sensational as Avatar or the Lord Of The Rings, which are my benchmarks in some ways, but in its own delightful, socially conscious, super creative and unique way it was a great film and it made me feel good. It wasn't really meant for mature adults, more for young kids, but I think its the kind of thing that more mature adults need to see . Since I am someone who has managed to retain the inner child in me, it was perfectly suited to my mentality.
If you like dogs or even animal movies then you've got to see this film! It’s about two kids, a brother and sister who have lived in foster homes since they were young but keep loosing them because they are to fun loving, creative and original to fit in. They make friends with a cool stray dog who is such a good actor that he should get a doggy Oscar. It’s really the ultimate dog film and the production and doggy acting is awesome. There is every kind of dog imaginable in it and it’s so authentic that you have to ask your self, how the hell did they get these dogs to do this stuff? There are scenes where humans are viewed from a dog’s perspective gobbling their lunchtime hamburgers and hotdogs, blissfully unaware of how ravenous and animalistic they look.
This film should be shown to school kids everywhere and in retirement homes and hospitals and given as birthday and Christmas presents because it’s got a very big moral message about the way we treat dogs and our fellow human beings. It’s about kindness generosity, compassion and solidarity.
I'm not a fan of dog shit on the streets and having spent some time in Toulouse in France I know what it can be like to walk through urban streets at night where there's at least a 60% chance of walking in it and a 10% chance of actually falling nose first in it, so you have to pay very close attention where your walking. Toulouse has a tradition of fiercely independent dog owners and there are communities of travelers who look like extras from a mad max movie who keep large packs of dogs with them on the streets. These packs of mostly very large dogs can really produce large amounts of "waste material" which gets liberally deposited at key junctions and creates a kind of minefield effect for pedestrians. Despite all this I really love and appreciate dogs and I think they are a great gift to humanity.
Dogs get sick and dogs grow old and bark and need to have places to run and be themselves and meet other dogs. Modern mega cities are designed for cars not designed for dogs or kids. So dogs get abandoned and abused and virtually imprisoned and eventually euthanized. This movie deals with this theme in a very cool way with the two kids establishing a Dog Hotel in an abandoned building in the downtown area of a major city. What Walt Disney did with animation in "101 Dalmatians", they have managed to do in this film in real life with real dogs. There are scenes with huge packs of assorted dogs running through the streets of a major metropolis with shocked and amused pedestrians and car drivers, which look spontaneous and very real.
It’s not just about dogs, its about "US" the civilized, sanitized humans who after thousands of years have learned to use toilets and use toilet paper and wash our hands and wear underwear and elegant cloths and disguise our body odors with "eux de parfum Yet we are often so superficial, unfaithful and lost in our own sense of self importance. We talk about being in “the now” but dogs seem to be much more in the here and now than we are.