THIS 'UNDERDOG' ORIGIN STORY ISN'T A GENUINE TAIL-WAGGER.Byline: GLENN WHIPP WHIPP WhiteWater Head Impact Protection Project >FILM CRITIC If Anakin Skywalker
Anakin Skywalker is the central character in the Star Wars franchise. and James Bond can have their origin stories, why not the dog with the speed of lightning and roar of thunder? Disney's "Underdog," which opened Friday, sort of sets out to do just that. You only wish the filmmakers had enough faith in the crime-fighting canine to focus on the pooch and not saddle him with a generic fractured-family story involving an adolescent owner with a dead mom and an estranged es·trange tr.v. es·tranged, es·trang·ing, es·trang·es 1. To make hostile, unsympathetic, or indifferent; alienate. 2. To remove from an accustomed place or set of associations. father. Or, as rhyme-loving Underdog might put it: When screenwriters are in trouble, they know what to do: Kill off a parent, a formula tried and true. There are nods to the classic, shaggy-dog cartoon series, which ran from 1964 into the 1970s. Underdog does speak in rhyme, he does fancy Polly Purebread (though she doesn't cry out, "Oh where, oh where has my Underdog gone?") and he does explode a phone booth while changing into costume. The catchy theme song gets remade re·made v. Past tense and past participle of remake. twice. This Underdog, though, is an actual beagle beagle, breed of dog beagle, breed of small, compact hound developed over centuries in England and introduced into the United States in the 1870s. It stands between 10 and 15 in. (25.4–38.1 cm) high at the shoulder and weighs between 20 and 40 lb (9. (voiced by Jason Lee) who gets his superpowers courtesy of a lab experiment gone awry. Diminutive mad scientist Simon Barsinister (Peter Dinklage, inspired casting) aims to get Underdog back, harness his powers and rule Capitol City. Or something like that. The movie never makes Barsinister's motives exactly clear. But that's understandable since "Underdog" exists primarily to spotlight a cute doggie who, through the magic of CGI CGI in full Common Gateway Interface. Specification by which a Web server passes data between itself and an application program. Typically, a Web user will make a request of the Web server, which in turn passes the request to a CGI application program. , can talk, fly, snap chili cans in half with his jaws, dig big holes and bark loud enough to shatter a postman's glasses. That will sit fine with young children, dog lovers and connoisseurs of butt-sniffing humor. The "Underdog" cartoons never sparked quite the same loyalty as "Rocky & Bullwinkle," so it's hard to bark about sacrilege Sacrilege Sadness (See MELANCHOLY.) abomination of desolation epithet describing pagan idol in Jerusalem Temple. [O.T.: Daniel 9, 11, 12; N.T. here. Those who hold the original dear should buy the DVD DVD: see digital versatile disc. DVD in full digital video disc or digital versatile disc Type of optical disc. The DVD represents the second generation of compact-disc (CD) technology. sets that just came out, though purists are lamenting that the episodes have been edited. It seems there are some things even Underdog can't conquer -- carelessness and mediocrity topping the list. Glenn Whipp, (818) 713-3672 glenn.whipp@dailynews.com UNDERDOG - Two stars >PG: rude humor, mild language, action. >Starring: Jim Belushi, Peter Dinklage, voice of Jason Lee. >Director: Frederik Du Chau. >Running time: 1 hr. 21 min. >Playing: Area wide. >In a nutshell: Cartoon dog gets an origin story and a generic fractured family. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: "Underdog" flies onto the big screen in the form of a beagle with Jason Lee's voice. |
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