Underdog: Movie Review by Christopher Smith

Oh, there's reason to fear--"Underdog" the movie is here.

Frederick Du Chau's live-action remake of the popular '60s cartoon is a by-the-numbers disappointment, so much so that one has to wonder upon seeing the movie whether Du Chau and his screenwriters are now considered a dog's best friend.

It's questionable.

This fractured, frenetic movie appeals best in that it's brief. It stays true to its source material in that it finds Underdog speaking in hokey rhymes, which might appeal to the very youngest of children (newborns, for instance), but it falls short of capturing the original's corny charm, which admittedly was always best served in small doses.

In the movie, a bumbling Beagle named Shoeshine (voice of Jason Lee) falls into the hands of the evil scientist Dr. Simon Barsinister (Peter Dinklage, the best part of the show), who wants to perform mysterious tests on the dog. But when our hero puts up a fight in Barsinister's lab, the dog accidentally gets zapped with a heady mix of DNA--the sort that transforms Shoeshine into the super-powered canine, Underdog.

Cut to the emotionally wounded Ungers. In the wake of his wife's death, Dan Unger (Jim Belushi) has lost his job as a cop and increasingly has become alienated from his teenage son, Jack (Alex Neuberger).

In an effort to bring them closer together, Dan adopts Shoeshine, who reveals to Jack that he's not your everyday, run-of-the-mill pup. Indeed, this dog can fly, talk and burst through walls, which prove just enough to lift Jack's sullen mood as he and Shoeshine start to bond.

And not just with themselves. For romantic interest, the movie tosses in a cute girl reporter (Taylor Momsen) for Jack and the cuter spaniel, Polly Purebred (Amy Adams), for Shoeshine. Too bad their euphoria is so short lived. Barsinister and his bleached henchman, Cad (Patrick Warburton), are on the hunt. They want Underdog back so they can use his powers to take over Capitol City. Since this is a movie that spares no cliches, they naturally will stop at nothing to get what they want.

"Underdog" isn't an awful movie--at least the animals are winning--but from the gate, there's no question that its aspirations only were second-rate. Du Chau's last movie was the equally underwhelming "Zebra Stripes," in which animals talked and the poop jokes got the biggest laughs. The same is true here. One can only imagine what Du Chau has left to say about either.

Grade: C-