The Three Dogateers (DVD) – Movie Review
We all know the story of the Three Musketeers. Three men that are courageous, valiant and strive for the protection of the innocent. The Three Dogateers gives three little dogs the chance to fulfill these roles and become the heroes of the day. Unfortunately, the movie didn’t really impress a lot.
Three little white dogs get left behind by their owner as he gets called away for work a few days before Christmas. The leader of the pack, Arfemis, constructs the other two dogs to guard the ‘castle’ (he truly believes that he’s living in a castle) so that everything is in order when their master returns. It doesn’t take too long for a couple of thieves to smell the opportunity for a robbery and they soon drive away with all the Christmas presents and even the Christmas tree isn’t save for their greed! It’s up to our three buddies, Arfemis, Barkos and Wagos, to get the tree and presents back and save Christmas. As they journey throughout the land to help from Santa Claus, they get pestered by a terribly annoying dog catcher which they try to evade at all costs.
That’s a small summary of the whole movie and you shouldn’t expect more depth than those couple of written lines above. Of course, a family movie mostly designed to enjoy with a younger audience doesn’t need a very complex narrative but there’re a lot of children movies out there which succeed in bringing an interesting plot at the least.
Some words about the special effects in ‘The Three Dogateers’ as this review wouldn’t be a decent one without mentioning how awful the effects in this movie are. Particularly the mouth movements of the dogs when they speak up are pretty horrid. It doesn’t fit the speech at all and it makes the dogs look like creepy little monsters. Besides those effects, there’re a few other ones further down in the movie but the urge to slap your face in a true facepalm is never that far away.
The voice overs for the dogs are also not of great quality. They just don’t seem to fit the animals at all. Arfemis has a weird accent which is funny to hear at first but gets quite laughable pretty soon. This might suit the absolute youngest of the viewers but even a child might make a face at hearing the animal speak.
Acting wise, we can’t really say much about the main characters as they are… well dogs. How the dogs act throughout the entire movie is decent and some behaviors can give you some quick laughs. Dean Cain who plays the owner of the Three Dogateers does his very best to make his screen time as funny as possible with slapstick humor but often fails in doing so. Everything is just too exaggerated to get a laugh out of it. Talking about exaggeration, wait until you meet the dogcatcher Barney Gloat. This character is just so incredibly annoying that I feel sorry for the actor (Bill Oberst Jr.) playing the role. He just screams too much and way too loud. It seems like the makers were afraid that his evilness wouldn’t be clear enough for the audience so they made the dogcatcher a very flat, stereotypical villain with absolutely no own identity. Throughout the years, we’ve seen pretty amazing villains in all kinds of movies so it’s really a shame that this one is so… boring.
What the movie lacks in professional special effects or lovable characters (except for the dogs as they are cute), it makes up a bit in charm. By no means is this movie one you should be excited about but it’s hard to make it seem so bad as it does have some better moments. As already mentioned, the Three Dogateers themselves are quite sweet and if you are like me and have a weakness for animals, you’ll find it hard not to feel some sympathy for the little monsters. For the youngest viewers (which are still quite new to the whole movie world), ‘The Three Dogateers’ might be a lot of fun to watch and even older folks can make the best out of this one by not thinking too much and bring your inner child to the surface. Even if you’re just a real dog-nut, you might appreciate this movie a bit more.
Conclusion
The Three Dogateers does its very best to become the next Cats & Dogs in terms of humor but fails in bringing an interesting story and at the least some decent special effects. Although the movie has its charm in a certain way, I can’t really recommend watching it. The voice acting is just bad, acting performances aren’t that good and overall, the whole movie feels incredibly budget. You’d to better to avoid this one.
The Three Dogateers (DVD) - Movie Review,
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