The Shaggy Dog 2006

Tim Allen, Danny Glover, Robert Downey Jr.
Directed in a fashion by Brian Robbins
Walt Disney Home Entertainment 2006
99 minutes

The Shaggy Dog, the latest Tim Allen Disney comedy, is a dog.  This is not the movie that will put Allen in the dog house with viewers but he was definitely barking up the wrong tree when he thought he could take on the role of man who turns into a dog. Fred McMurray was top dog in the 1959 original version of The Shaggy Dog and Dean Jones was certainly no cur in his version, The Shaggy D.A.  Disney should have let sleeping dogs lie as The Shaggy Dog with Tim Allen simply goes to the dogs and is an experience that will hound you for a while.

This 99 minute comedy is somewhat painful to watch and to listen to when Tim Allen does the voice over work when he is supposedly a dog but only sounds like he is in a recording studio. Basically, this 300 year old dog named Shaggy  is kidnapped from the Tibetan monastery where he lives by some evil pharmaceutical company who wants to use his genes as the source of the fountain of youth. Dog escapes, dog bites D.A Tim Allen who is prosecuting a guy who torched one of the company’s buildings. Allen turns into another Shaggy while the original is captured and returned to the lab for more experiments.

Of course, Allen becomes closer to his children as Shaggy and for some reason reverts back to being a D.A. Of course, there is a scene where Allen in human form chases a cat and where the soundtrack is Who Let The Dog’s Out? This is the scene that was used in the previews that played in the theatres and, of course, the only really interesting moment in this dog and pony show aside from the scene where Allen escapes from the lab

Comedy fans will notice Craig Kilborn as the neighbor and Laura Kightlinger as a teacher.

The Shaggy Dog proves Hollywood is still intent on remaking moldy oldies and then blaming low ticket sales on internet piracy. If you’ve seen the original countless times on TV for free, why should you pay to see the same movie with different actors. When a company grinds its leftovers and puts it on the market, it is often called dog food.

 

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