Underdog

The children that are targeted for the 2007 film, “Underdog,” will have no idea of the movie’s source material, the 60s cartoon series about the “humble and lovable” Shoeshine Boy who, in danger times, would take an “energy pill” out and become the crime-fighting Underdog.

Sean P. Means said in his review, “Those children will just take "Underdog" as a witless tale of a superhero dog, with the now-trite gimmick of using computer-generated effects to make the animals appear to talk to each other.”

Means noted, “We who grew up with "Underdog" and his rhyming banter, joyfully spoken by the late Wally Cox, will feel as if a piece of our own childhood has been shamelessly and needlessly ripped from us.”

The movie tries to give Underdog three things he never had, and didn’t appear to need, on TV: an origin story, a human owner and a physical resemblance to an actual dog.

Underdog is introduced as an unlucky police dog, tapped out of the Capitol City PD and kidnapped by Cad (Patrick Warburton), henchmen of a bad scientist, Simon Barsinister (Peter Dinklage). An accident in Barsinister’s lab gives the dog superpowers – speed, acute hearing, even the ability to fly. Alone on the street, the dog (Jason Lee) is adopted by the lab’s security guard, Dan (James Belushi), and his hostile teen son, Jack (Alex Neuberger).

The dog, named Shoeshine by Dan, and Jack work to hone the animal’s powers, create a secret identity and start fighting crime. One of the first people Underdog rescues is Jack’s classmate Molly (Taylor Momsen) and her dog, Sweet Polly Purebred (Amy Adams). However, soon Underdog must fight against Barsinister, who wants revenge against him.

Means said, “One could call "Underdog" a fond spoof of superhero-origin stories. But "spoof" implies humor or wit, which is absent in the movie's thievery of "Superman"/"Spider-Man" iconography (right down to Underdog giving Polly an aerial tour of the city, like Superman and Lois Lane in the 1978 classic).” The much-handled script takes traits from the Disney single-parent syndrome in its sad dealing of Dan and Jack’s strained relationship.

The biggest flaw of “Underdog” was to make Underdog and Polly look like real dogs. Means ended his review by saying, “That may play to the style of director Frederik Du Chau, who pulled a similar talking-animal trick with "Racing Stripes," but seeing realistic animals in feats of derring-do - or kicking each other around, action-movie style - is more disturbing than cute.”

For someone who has never seen “Underdog,” but only little snippets of it possibly on TV and in the animated segments in this film, this film was a disaster. I thought this would be an enjoyable film to watch, seeing how it is about a dog as a superhero, but it was just dull and forgettable. Just avoid this film, whether you’re familiar with the source material or not. You will be loathing the fact that you decided to play this on your Disney+.

Tomorrow I will be looking at another pilot to a series that I never watched in “Disney Month 2022.”