I don't know what people expect... Far too much obviously.
I grew up with movies, in which animals got personified and they were my favorites as a little child. I always loved the thought that animals could talk and gave all my pets - and I had more than a zoo - more credit than others would. Of course I grew out of that reality and I learned a lot about how minds of all sorts work since then. But my inner child keeps reminding me to give all living things a little bit more credit than others would and this lead me to look at things in a way, very differently than of others probably do.
So here we have one of those movies, in which animals can talk, without humans understanding them. The title-character Marmaduke (voice-acted by Owen Wilson), a Great Danish - it's the one that looks like you could put a saddle on it ;) - moves with his two-legged family from Kansas to the O.C., where he finds himself trying to fit into the local dog-crowd and sooner then later in a lot of trouble too.
The movie is vaguely based on a news paper comic strip of the same name, created by Brad Anderson in the mid fifties, which is still popular today and has won several prices. I say 'vaguely based' because the whole tone, setup and plot is most certainly adapted to fit a much younger audience than I would suspect the cartoons were meant for.
But that is OK. If you watch it without any pre-position, without exaggerated expectations, you will very likely have a great time. Although the moral of the story is delivered a bit cheese and some of the full-body CGI looks not that convincing, it does not hurt that much and the movie makes up for it on the way. Some of the slapstick is really well done, the animals are great and if you can let go of some excess maturity, some laugh-out-loud moments might await you too.
All in all, I would give this movie a 7, because they really tried and managed to create some really funny moments and some nice lessons - not overly bloated morals - all of which makes up for the somewhat cheese delivery and occasional bad CGI. I would have deducted one point for the love story, because I don't think it was at all fitting, or necessary. But I gave it a 10, because I feel like there should be a counter-balance to some of the very negative - and in my opinion. undeserved reviews.
What follows may sound like a rant, but it may also give you an insight why I feel that this movie deserves a little bit of a higher vote.
Let me repeat my first sentence: "I don't know what people expect... Far too much obviously."
Can we agree that a movie, which features talking animals, will most likely not be the greatest cinematic experience?
True, there were some good movies that did a lot of things right to be called blockbusters even, but I don't think that I can set my bar of average at the peak of things and then expect others to rise up to that standard. There are no 120%. 100% is the end of the line. But hey, that just my own reality. If I would set a movie like "Babe" as the average in my mind, then I will be very disappointed from there on. Exaggerated expectations are bred to fail.
Don't get me wrong, I too hope Hollywood will try harder, but until then, the average is not at all that incredibly great, right?
Yes, it strays from the original. Maybe too much for real fans. But if I would be such a hard-core fan, I would not watch the movie. Because my, maybe, more realistic expectation would be that it would. I might also consider how different these two art forms are and I might try to understand - or at least guess - that the studio thought that talking animals would sell much better to kids, than to adults, which in turn might have put some restrains on the production.
If you have lost your inner child somewhere along the way, while seeking maturity, you might not like this flick. But with maturity, you should also have found some reason and come to the conclusion that this movies is not made for you anyway, so why watch, rate, or review it?
Serious much?
I grew up with movies, in which animals got personified and they were my favorites as a little child. I always loved the thought that animals could talk and gave all my pets - and I had more than a zoo - more credit than others would. Of course I grew out of that reality and I learned a lot about how minds of all sorts work since then. But my inner child keeps reminding me to give all living things a little bit more credit than others would and this lead me to look at things in a way, very differently than of others probably do.
So here we have one of those movies, in which animals can talk, without humans understanding them. The title-character Marmaduke (voice-acted by Owen Wilson), a Great Danish - it's the one that looks like you could put a saddle on it ;) - moves with his two-legged family from Kansas to the O.C., where he finds himself trying to fit into the local dog-crowd and sooner then later in a lot of trouble too.
The movie is vaguely based on a news paper comic strip of the same name, created by Brad Anderson in the mid fifties, which is still popular today and has won several prices. I say 'vaguely based' because the whole tone, setup and plot is most certainly adapted to fit a much younger audience than I would suspect the cartoons were meant for.
But that is OK. If you watch it without any pre-position, without exaggerated expectations, you will very likely have a great time. Although the moral of the story is delivered a bit cheese and some of the full-body CGI looks not that convincing, it does not hurt that much and the movie makes up for it on the way. Some of the slapstick is really well done, the animals are great and if you can let go of some excess maturity, some laugh-out-loud moments might await you too.
All in all, I would give this movie a 7, because they really tried and managed to create some really funny moments and some nice lessons - not overly bloated morals - all of which makes up for the somewhat cheese delivery and occasional bad CGI. I would have deducted one point for the love story, because I don't think it was at all fitting, or necessary. But I gave it a 10, because I feel like there should be a counter-balance to some of the very negative - and in my opinion. undeserved reviews.
What follows may sound like a rant, but it may also give you an insight why I feel that this movie deserves a little bit of a higher vote.
Let me repeat my first sentence: "I don't know what people expect... Far too much obviously."
Can we agree that a movie, which features talking animals, will most likely not be the greatest cinematic experience?
True, there were some good movies that did a lot of things right to be called blockbusters even, but I don't think that I can set my bar of average at the peak of things and then expect others to rise up to that standard. There are no 120%. 100% is the end of the line. But hey, that just my own reality. If I would set a movie like "Babe" as the average in my mind, then I will be very disappointed from there on. Exaggerated expectations are bred to fail.
Don't get me wrong, I too hope Hollywood will try harder, but until then, the average is not at all that incredibly great, right?
Yes, it strays from the original. Maybe too much for real fans. But if I would be such a hard-core fan, I would not watch the movie. Because my, maybe, more realistic expectation would be that it would. I might also consider how different these two art forms are and I might try to understand - or at least guess - that the studio thought that talking animals would sell much better to kids, than to adults, which in turn might have put some restrains on the production.
If you have lost your inner child somewhere along the way, while seeking maturity, you might not like this flick. But with maturity, you should also have found some reason and come to the conclusion that this movies is not made for you anyway, so why watch, rate, or review it?
Serious much?
