Mostly goofy Nickelodeon fare, Thor Freudenthal’s Hotel for Dogs smartly gives its wonderful canine actors as much (or more) screen time as its often-flat human cast (Marley & Me should take a lesson).
Along with all the silliness, there’s a surprising level of thoughtful undercurrent – owing (I presume) to Lois Duncan’s 1971 book – turning this into perfect kid’s fare. For adults, however, the reality of the situation is ultimately depressing.
Orphaned Andi (Emma Roberts) and her younger brother Bruce (Jake T. Austin) try to survive city life with their evil wannabe rocker foster parents (Lisa Kudrow and Kevin Dillon), under the watchful eyes of benevolent social services officer Bernie (Don Cheadle).
They have a scrappy dog, Friday, whom they have to hide from their foster parents, eventually letting him stay at an abandoned hotel with two other canine pals. And then, well, the dogs keep on coming, and some kind kids from the local pet shop donate their time to help look after them.
Eventually, they rescue more strays from the clutches of evil dogcatchers, and the titular Hotel for Dogs is founded, with Rube Goldberg-like devices created by Bruce so the mutts can entertain themselves.
But there’s a point in the film when things go south: the siblings are split up and sent to separate foster homes, the dogs sent back to the pound, where they will be put to death in 72 hours.
What an incredibly grim scenario. Of course, a last-minute act will save the day and make everything right. But we all know how things go down outside of movie fantasyland.
Roberts (Julia’s niece) is a fine young actress, though the rest of the young cast is impossibly bland. Kudrow and Dillon are mostly wasted as the airheaded foster parents. Cheadle lends the film some credibility, though Hotel for Dogs does little to return the favor.
The dogs, however, a motley crew of mutts in all shapes and sizes, completely save the film. Their Tom & Jerry-like antics easily outshine the human cast.
Aww, look at the sweet parallels between the orphaned kids and the stray dogs. Hotel for Dogs is perfect stuff for younger auds (the true dangers here are never explicit enough to become frightening), though parents and older children aren’t likely to get much out of it.
Cute montage over the closing credits features the cast & crew with their own pets.
