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Title: Underdog
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There is a time for everything in life. A time to be loved, a time to die, a time to cry, and so forth. After seeing Disney’s live action adaptation of “Underdog” I think it’s time to be baffled. It’s been a while since I felt a film adaptation has fallen so flat, but here it is: An adaptation that managed to both bore and mystify me. Let's be fair though; the failure of this film is not completely due to a lack of quality. In fact, there are several scenes that are actually fairly well made. No, the reason “Underdog” fails so miserably is because it forces us to ask the why question. As in WHY did Disney call this film “Underdog?!” Now I understand that this movie was made for kids, and like this years big budget movie “Transformers,” “Underdog” was going to be up for a few changes to make it work for the big screen. What I don’t get is why this movie pretends to be a live action version of the semi-popular sixties cartoon without having any resemblance to the original cartoon...at all.
The story is the same stupid story you get from the TV show: Regular dog gets super powers and fights bad guys. The movie, like the TV show, focuses on Simon Barsinister as the villain, who begins as a mad scientist only to become an even worse scientist after an experiment goes wrong. This experiment gives Shoeshine (that’s Underdog in case you didn’t know) superpowers and gives Simon a bad haircut. Yeah, life’s not fair. I wanted to win a million dollars at McDonald's Monopoly game, and all I won was a medium soda. But life goes on. Anyway, once Shoeshine ends up getting adopted by a boy named Jack and is given an Underdog costume, which gives the producers the opportunity to makes one long montage into a movie. And, truthfully, it’s at this point I don’t really care to get into any more details about the movie. Let’s face it: This is a movie made by commission.
We’ve seen hundreds of movies like this in the past, with the only difference being this movie has the Underdog name on it. But look at the previews. Look at the poster. Tell me: Does THAT look like Underdog to you?! Because if it does, then clearly you are either very high, or you have a really bad visual memory. I know I shouldn’t be complaining about the accuracy with the presentation of Underdog because, gees, the movie IS made for kids! But I feel that Disney took a childhood favorite for many people, created something new, and slapped a familiar name on it to get a quick buck. I guess the movie is harmless enough for kids, but this is corporate shilling at it’s worst. I wasn’t exactly expecting a great movie when I went to see this, but I expected to at least see Underdog in this movie. And trust me folks: This beagle, no matter how cute he is, is NOT Underdog!
- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -