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"MARMADUKE"
(2010) (voices of Owen Wilson, Emma Stone) (PG)

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QUICK TAKE:
Comedy: A talking Great Dane tries to fit in with the pedigreed canines at the local dog park after his human owner moves the family from Kansas to Southern California and tries to impress his boss.
PLOT:
Phil Winslow (LEE PACE) has just received a fantastic job offer as marketing director for Bark Organics, a Southern California dog food manufacturer run by Don Twombly (WILLIAM H. MACY). The only problem is he and his family live in Kansas, but sensing this is their shot at the big time, he and his wife, Debbie (JUDY GREER), pack up their kids -- teenager Barbara (CAROLINE SUNSHINE), her younger brother Brian (FINLEY JACOBSEN) and their kid sister Sarah (MANDY & MILNA HAINES) -- along with their pets, Great Dane Marmaduke (voice of OWEN WILSON) and Carlos the cat (voice of GEORGE LOPEZ) -- and move into their new home.

While Phil tries to impress his boss and thus doesn't pay enough attention to his kids, such as Barbara liking fellow teenager Bodie (GLENN McCUEN), Marmaduke -- who can speak English like all other animals but can't be understood by humans -- tries to fit in. After being befriended by rescue dog Mazie (voice of EMMA STONE) and her two pals, nervous Giuseppe (voice of CHRISTOPHER MINTZ-PLASSE) and brainy Raisin (voice of STEVE COOGAN), Marmaduke soon learns there's a social pecking order at the local dog park. There's the bully leader Boscoe (voice of KIEFER SUTHERLAND), whose collie girlfriend, Jezebel (voice of STACY FERGUSON), has caught the Great Dane's eye, while former alpha dog Chupadogra (voice of SAM ELLIOT) lives on the outskirts and inspires fear in most of the dogs.

With Marmaduke absorbing Mazie's advice but not realizing she likes him, he uses that to best Boscoe and win over Jezebel. Yet, just like Phil, he ends up leading a misguided life and must then deal with the repercussions once he learns things aren't going as well as planned.

OUR TAKE: 3 out of 10
Considering that print versions of newspapers are now slow-moving dinosaurs when it comes to news reporting in this era of instant and immediate online updates, it's no surprise that they'll eventually similarly end up extinct. With both readership and advertising revenue dropping, they're doing what they can to survive, and that includes cutting pages, features and staff.

I'm always amazed that of all things that are put on the chopping block, the comics (or "funnies") -- and not investigative reporting, business info or local interest stories -- are what garner the most outrage, reader feedback and even threats of canceling subscriptions should one's favorite comic be axed. I understand the desire to be entertained when much of the rest of the news is bleak, but I haven't read those strips in years, particularly after the likes of "The Far Side" and "Bloom Country" were retired.

For those still around, it's tough for many of them to succeed simply because they have limited real estate in which to do their job. That's especially true of the single panel ones that have a lone shot at entertaining.

While "The Far Side" nearly always succeeded at making me laugh, the likes of "Family Circus" or "Marmaduke" rarely engaged or entertained me as a child and certainly don't do so now as an adult. The latter two are supposed to be slice of life snapshots that connect via common experience (about families and pet dogs respectively), but I simply never felt either strip was terribly amusing or clever, and certainly never hilarious.

To my surprise, and after doing some research, I found that Brad Anderson's one-panel comic about the enormous and titular Great Dane has been running since 1955. One would think that after 55 years, just about every joke pertaining to the dog's size, behavior and such would have been told, thus meaning monotony and repetition would have set in long ago.

Not being a daily reader of it, I can't attest either way to that assumption, yet it has become the butt of satirical jokes in some circles. Even so, reports are that attempts to drop the comic have resulted in reader protests, so there are apparently fans still out there waiting every week for the next dose of the gargantuan pooch's antics. I'm guessing that fandom is part of the reason behind the new live-action version of "Marmaduke."

Alas, just as I didn't find the comic funny, the same holds true for the film that's been brought to the screen by director Tom Dey ("Failure to Launch," "Shanghai Noon") who works from a script by Tim Rasmussen & Vince Di Meglio. Not being a regular reader, there's no way for me to state if the movie is faithful to the print version, but as far as I can remember, the dog doesn't speak in the latter.

Obviously hoping to entertain the youngsters, the filmmakers have turned this into yet another talking animal comedy, complete -- yes -- with scenes of dancing, peeing and even a reference to the obligatory canine movie staple, "Who Let the Dogs Out?" (although the over-used song thankfully isn't heard).

It isn't quite as atrocious and painful as I feared it would be based on the commercials, but it's still fairly bad, proving once again that Pixar has some sort of magical lock on making smart, clever, funny and highly entertaining movies for "kids" of all ages. Why most others can't seem to figure this out is beyond me, and while it never comes close to matching that sort of engaging storytelling, this pic does show a tiny spark of doing something moderately interesting with the material.

And that's equate and turn the social strata of dog life into the equivalent of the human high school experience. As in most "new kid at school" flicks, this one features an outsider (that being Marmaduke -- voiced by Owen Wilson doing yet another dog flick) who's introduced to the various cliques by the wise outcast (a rescue dog voiced by Emma Stone). Oddly enough -- at least for a kids movie -- that includes the "mushroom heads," meant here literally (dogs seen rolling in them) but obviously designed to go over most kids' heads and entertain their adults.

Sadly, not much more is done with that angle, at least in terms of being clever, as the filmmakers instead focus on parallel stories that offer up nothing new regarding the obligatory life lessons and/or overall entertainment. One -- obviously -- follows our canine protagonist who's befriended by the "misfits" ("mutts" here -- including 2 small pooches voiced by Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Steve Coogan) and unwisely falls for the pretty girl (a collie voiced by Stacy Ferguson) and must contend with her bully boyfriend (fans of the TV show "24" will instantly recognize Mr. Sutherland in menacing vocal mode). A variety of other animals (voiced by the likes of George Lopez, Sam Elliot and others) are also in the mix.

The other story revolves around the humans, with the dad (Lee Pace) trying so hard to impress his boss (William H. Macy) that he ends up being oblivious to the fact that he's not paying enough attention to his oldest kids (Caroline Sunshine and Finley Jacobsen) and thus is disappointing his wife (Judy Greer).

I understand the film is aimed at younger kids who might not be familiar with those sorts of story arcs and thus might get something out of them (while having to deal with some out of place peril near the conclusion). Yet, any adult viewers will find most, if not all of the material as fairly rote and predictable -- coincidentally or not, just like the source newspaper comic. And no, the farting, peeing and dancing dogs don't add anything -- at least on the positive side -- to the proceedings (that mercifully clock in at less than 90 minutes). "Marmaduke" rates as a 3 out of 10.




Reviewed June 1, 2010 / Posted June 4, 2010


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