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GOOD BOY! is the classic boy and his dog story. Okay, the dog is from outer space, but while that adds some pizzazz to the tale, its really beside the point emotionally. This is not a sophisticated flick, but it is effectively heartwarming in a traditionally good-natured way.
The boy in question is Owen (Liam Aiken), a good kid with nice parents (Kevin Nealon and Molly Shannon). The only problem is that the business those parents are in. They renovate homes, sell them and then move on to the next, which is lucrative, but considering that they live in the home being renovated, its also disruptive for Owen, who barely settles in before having to start all over again in a new part of town and a new school. No wonder his dream is to have a dog of his own and no wonder hes determined enough to make it happen that hes started his own dog-walking business not only to finance the poochs adoption from the local shelter, but also to prove to his parents that hes responsible enough for pet ownership.
As is the way with such films, when the time comes, the dog hes picked is replaced by Hubble (voiced with great earnestness by Matthew Broderick), like the space station. How prescient. Hubble is the advance dog from Sirius, also known here on Earth as the Dog Star and theres a good reason for that. Thats where dogs came from originally on a mission of colonization and subjugation that went, well, a little bit wrong. Hubbles job is to report back but, alas, he didnt so much land on Earth as crash, and his communication device, the woofer, is on the blink. Not only that, but another sort of malfunction makes it possible for Owen to understand dog talk, and not just Hubbles. It comes in handy when Owen and Hubble have to whip the local dogs into shape before the Greater Dane arrives to pass judgment on whether or not the dogs will be allowed to stay on Earth or be forced to return to their ancestral planet.
Sure, GOOD BOY! is full of such barely forgivable puns as the one noted above, and more fart jokes than we really need, but by giving each of the dogs Owen walks a distinct personality that meshes so well with their human companions, it also gets to the very essence of why people and dogs have been such a natural combination since they first met up. If the vain poodle and her salon-obsessed owner is a cliché, there is also the lonely retired man and his Italian greyhound, one calm, the other a nervous wreck who actually find comfort in each others company. The slapstick isnt bad either, like when the other dogs start trying to fly the way Hubble can to the consternation of their owners and small-scale destruction of knick-knacks. Its also nice that the bullies of the piece, there are always bullies, are mean, but not psychotic.
The best part is Aikens, a doughty kid with a serious face that can light up with delight when necessary and who seems to pack a fair amount of smarts behind his wide-set eyes. First-time director. John Robert Hoffman gets the best from the humans and the dogs. He doesnt let any of them overplay the sentiment, or undermine the genuine feelings that come into play. All those years playing The Mad Hatter on Disneys Return to Wonderland have obviously put him in touch with his essential kidness.
GOOD BOY! is an unpretentious film that is there strictly to entertain the kiddies out there. The only downside is that the ones who dont have dogs yet are going to start hankering for one even before the final credits roll.
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