Underdog
(2007 Live Action Feature/Blu-ray + DVD-Video/Disney)
Picture: B+/B- Sound: B+/B- Extras: C Film: C
Underdog was a 1964 classic animated series
that chronicled the mishaps and misfortunes of a clumsy superhero dog. Shoeshine boy by day, hero by night (sort
of). That is what Underdog WAS, now Underdog
IS a bad live-action Disney Film (with a little CGI help) that stomps on our
fond memories of a television classic. Underdog’s original concept was to
spoof superheroes, like Superman who had secret identities. The 2007 film Underdog follows a disgraced
police dog as he finds a new owner and new powers after a freak accident in the
lab of the evil Barsinister. Underdog
causes Barsinister to be badly disfigured (bald) and he swears revenge on
Capital City. Underdog and his new boy
owner set out to save the city and Underdog’s love interest Polly
Purebred. Will Underdog be the hero we
want him to be or will the city fall victim to the evil Barsinister?
Look, the
film was bad plain and simple. Only two
things were good about the film; one, Patrick Warburton was in the film as
Barsinister’s henchman Cad and two, the original Underdog Theme music was used
at least once in the film. The original
theme song was, however, also revamped into a horrible rap version as well
*shudder*
If the
studio was looking to do Underdog as a film right (which is hard to do to begin
with) they should have either ‘A’ bad it all animated or ‘B’ made it live
action with animation intermixed [i.e.- Underdog as a cartoon]. The original Underdog series intermixed humans and animals living together, if
the studio would have done a more ‘Roger Rabbit’ take on the film it
could have been much more successful.
On top of
all the problems with the film, one of the biggest was that they did not make
Underdog clumsy enough AT ALL. He had
troubles learning to use his powers, sure, but he was not the bumbling,
loveable, goof the audience wanted to see.
The
technical aspects of this single disc DVD are adequate, but are truly just your
standard, no thrills release. The
picture is presented in both a clean and crisp 1.33 X 1 Full Screen and a 2.35
X 1 Widescreen that is enhanced for 16 X 9 televisions. The colors are well balanced and there are
little too no light/dark issues, the DVD version, however, does not compare to
the Disney Blu-Ray release in 1080p with improved, yet flat results. The sound is nice as it is presented in a
Disney standard Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, but lacks that ‘pop’ that may
have been heard on a DTS release or that can be heard in the PCM 24/48 5.1
version on the Blu-ray. The extras are
drab and forgettable with features such as deleted scenes, bloopers, ‘Underdog
Raps’ *shudder again*, a featurette on how they get a dog to act, and the ONLY
good extra an Underdog Original Cartoon ‘Safe Wait.’ The cartoon made the extras worth something,
other than that, no thank you!
If you
want to see Underdog, buy the old
cartoon episodes. If you want to see a
computerized dog in a cape embarrass himself, watch this…whatever it is.
- Michael P Dougherty II
