Underdog
Starring: Jason Lee, Peter Dinklage, James Belushi, Patrick Warburton, Alex Neuberger, Taylor Momsen, Amy Adams, Brad Garrett
Director: Frederik Du Chau
Genre: Action / Adventure / Comedy / Family / Fantasy / Sci-Fi
Rated: Rated PG for rude humor, mild language and action.
Duration: 1hr 24min
Plot: A lab accident gives a hound named Shoeshine some serious superpowers — a secret that the dog eventually shares with the young boy who becomes his owner and friend.

Speed of lightning, roar of thunder! Without a doubt when I was a very little kid, one of my two favorite superheroes was Underdog. When I heard they were making a movie of Underdog I decided that was the one movie I was going to make sure I took my kids to this summer. I was thrilled to hear that Underdog was going to be introduced to a whole new generation of kids. Underdog is one of the few superheroes who rarely gets any play. I’m sure in part that this is because he didn’t start out in comic books. However, it is more likely because in the original cartoon which aired from 1964 until 1973 Underdog needed to take a pill to use his super powers. In todays world, where we are all conscious of anything that might promote drug use in our kids having a superhero who pops pills is definitely frowned upon. So you will probably never see reruns of Underdog on Cartoon Network or TV Land even in the late night hours. Now to be honest while as a kid I never considered using drugs because Underdog popped super pills (I did eat an occasional pez while pretending to be Underdog though), having kids I can appreciate the networks caution here. In any case, you aren’t reading this article to here me describe how I used to run around the house with my blue blanky tied around my neck, popping pez, and shouting “Have no fear, Underdog is here!” until my mother couldn’t wait to send me to kindergarten.

You might surmise from my love of this four-legged superhero that I did go into this movie with some pretty high expectations. This is usually bad because very few films can ever live up to them. Underdog in fact came pretty darn close. They did a really good job of telling the Underdog origin story. I really like the way they made Underdog a pet in a human world instead of the cartoon in which the world was populated with talking animals. Other than that they stuck pretty close to the cartoon. Where they had to deviate they For example, in the cartoon Polly Purebred (Underdog’s love interest) is a reporter, in the movie they made her the pet of Molly a reporter for the school newspaper. Even though Shoeshine didn’t need to take a pill every time he wanted to turn into underdog they still worked the idea in by having Barsinister take Underdog’s DNA and place it in pill form to create more super dogs. The plot was a little week and kinda hokey but, being a kids movie and since the whole concept of underdog is a little hokey, I won’t knock the movie too hard for this. My biggest complaint was that the dog they had play Polly Purebred should have at least been white like in the cartoon and probably a little cuter. The cast is really good, so acting is very believable. The animation they use to make the dogs talk almost looks natural, not quite, but almost.

Overall I think this is a great movie to take your kids to. Neither you or them need to have seen the cartoon to enjoy this movie. It is a fun kids movie which is better than most of the kids films I have been dragged to this summer. You still have a whole month before the kids have to go back to school. So next time they’re sitting around the house complaining that they have nothing to do put Underdog at the top of your list.

Now if only they would bring back Courageous Cat!

Rating: 4/5 stars
High Point: Underdog, the first time he flies.
Low Point: Polly Purebred

Underdog - Movie Trailer:

Check out the rest of our Movie Reviews.