Show Dogs (2018)

Directed by: Raja Gosnell | 88 minutes | adventure, comedy | Actors: Will Arnett, Natasha Lyonne | Original voice cast: Ludacris, Stanley Tucci, Jordin Sparks, Gabriel Iglesias, Shaquille O’Neal, Alan Cumming, Omar Chaparro, Anders Holm, Kate Micucci, Blake Anderson, RuPaul, Andy Beckwith, Oliver Tompsett, Simon Lipkin | Dutch voice cast: Dionne Slager, Has Drijver, Ewout Eggink, Murth Mossel, Simon Zwiers, Joey Schalker, Sjoerd Oomen

Let’s start right away with the director of this movie, Raja Gosnell. He is also known for ‘Beverly Hills Chihuahua’ and ‘Scooby-Doo’. So you can leave talking animals to him. Because, let’s face it, ‘Show Dogs’ isn’t – duh – Oscar material. It’s just a funny movie for kids ages 6 and up. Preferably children who also have a ‘furry friend’, or a dog. Because of course they laugh out loud when the protagonist in the film, the rottweiler Max, gets a bikini wax and does not fully count on it.

For example, there are more funny scenes in the film, which adults might call ‘bland’, but there you go: it’s a children’s movie, so you also have to see it through the eyes of children. Then there’s plenty to do, with Max’s cute sidekicks, his deputies Philippe, a butterfly dog ​​(brilliantly voiced by Stanley Tucci) and pug Sprinkles (voiced by stand-up comedian Gabriel ‘Fluffy’ Iglesias) and the three doves:’ birds of a feather fighting crime together’, which Max also allowed to help with and are very proud of that. Also worth mentioning and very nice is the philosophically minded Komondor (such a white ‘Rasta dog’) Karma, originally voiced by ex-basketball player Shaquille O’Neal.

The story, as almost always with this type of genre films, is not much to the body. The bumbling FBI agent, Frank (Will Arnett), gets an NYPD dog as a buddy to help find a stolen baby panda. They go undercover during the Canini Invitational, the largest dog show in the world, in Las Vegas. In the end, it turns out that the bad guys, a term appropriate for a children’s movie, are actually after the very valuable ‘Best in show’ dog: a beautiful Australian Shepherd named Daisy (the ‘love interest’ of tough street wise Max). In her owner, Mattie, we recognize Natasha Lyonne from “Orange is the New Black”.

The subtitle of ‘Show Dogs’ is ‘Wave an adventure!’ Yes, you can say that too: bland! But children won’t say that, they can laugh about this too. ‘Show Dogs’ is good, clean fun. Innocent entertainment for the young family or for grandparents and their grandchildren. Also quite enjoyable for adults, but for the ‘adult dog movie’ category, ‘Best in Show’, ‘Red Dog’, ‘Hachi’ or ‘Marley & Me’ is more advisable.

So, talking dogs? Check! Dog with a beauty mask? Check! Dog with sunglasses? Check! Nice enough for the target audience? Check!