Marmaduke

  Marmaduke (2010) tells the story of famous newspaper comic dog, Marmaduke, as he and his family move from Kansas to California. Marmaduke, being the new kid in town, finds friends in the "mutts" but desires to be part of the popular "pure breds" in this high school drama set in a dog park. After a party reveals the lie Maramduke created to fit in with the "pure breds" he finds himself alone in the world. But surely the lovable Great Dane comes up with a solution that leaves his family and new home in harmony.
  This film is stacked with a cast of talented actors, for the animal voices at least; Owen Wilson, Emma Stone, George Lopez, Fergie, and Kiefer Sutherland just to name a handful. These actors give a fun and lively feel to the animals in the film. Unfortunately, the actors who play Marmaduke's family and frankly all the human characters fall just short of the mark as they go about rather unimportantly in their mundane side plot. Marmaduke was not a film made for adults and yet it's simple plot is one we can all recognize from teen movies such as Mean Girls (2004). In a way, Marmaduke is Mean Girls but with dogs. The computer animation is the best I've seen in this type of animal-led film, complete with a dance scene at the end that always seems to leave me in tears laughing. The movie is well paced at a runtime of 87 minutes and meets all the plot points one would expect from a movie about talking dogs targeted at children. Emotion is successfully conveyed throughout as we see the rise and fall of our protagonist Marmaduke. This film is an emotional roller coaster that undoubtably leaves the audience howling for more.
  Overall, I give Marmaduke two paws up for it's ability to appeal to a mass audience that needs to be willing to kick back every now and then and just laugh at a talking dog, voiced by Owen Wilson, being chased by a bee. Despite my personal satisfaction with the film, facts are facts; Marmaduke did not make back it's estimated $50 million budget and certainly didn't win any awards. Director Tom Dey, who had directed the blockbuster smash Failure to Launch (2006) only years before, may have found his element in directing actors who have a high probability of literally taking a shit on the film set. While Marmaduke likely isn't going to find it's way into the Criterion Collection, it will hopefully find a place in the hearts of viewers who allow themselves to "get their bark on" as Marmaduke would and does say.