For my nephew's sixth birthday, we took him out for a "day on the town." We started with an afternoon at the Aquarium and then after a little nap and dinner we went to see Hotel for Dogs. I was totally prepared to hate this film. I figured that, at best, this was preparing me for the day I might one day be a father and have to drag my sorry to but to really mediocre movies or sit in the car listening to mind-numbing music. Much to my great surprise, I found this thoroughly enjoyable film.
Now, I don't think I would ever recommend this to friends without children -- it's not that good -- but I would encourage any parent to take their child. To some extent, this is a contemporary version of E.T. (but with dogs instead of extra-terrestials). I'd go so far as to say that the director even cribbed some notes from Spielberg. Both films portray adults and authority figures as ogres who just can't understand or sympathize with what kids go through. The fascistic appearance of the military and men in radiation suits is replaced by sadistic dog-catchers in knee-high, Nazi-era leather boots. Never mind the fact most people who work for animal control usually tend to be people who care for animals. In the world of Hotel for Dogs, dog catchers live to inflict punishment. The plagiarizing (or "subtextual referencing") of E.T. gets even more blatant during the big chase scene. The music swells just like every John Williams composition. I don't know if John Williams actually did the music for this movie but he might as well have. It's cheesy enough.
Also fascinating, even for cynical adults, was all the Rube Goldberg type contraptions. I can definitely see a young child being fascinated by all the gadgets and gizmos. If I were a young lad, it would certainly inspire me to go home and fiddle with my legos and erector sets.
Judging children's films is always hard. These movies lack sophistication and are never nuanced but that's because they shouldn't be. That's what makes kids' films so hard to produce: how can you stick to the basics without being overly simple? Judging from the most recent Star Wars films (the animated features), George Lucas certainly hasn't figure that out (even my six-year old nephew -- a Star Wars geek in the making -- deemed The Clone Wars just "awful"). is not nearly as inventive as Hotel for Dogs as E.T. but, in a pinch, it certainly will do.
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