Good Boy! is a 2003 film produced by Jim Henson Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, starring talking alien dogs. The film stars Liam Aiken as Owen Baker, as well as Matthew Broderick, Delta Burke, Donald Faison, Cheech Marin, Brittany Murphy, Vanessa Redgrave, and Carl Reiner were the voice cast for the abundant dog characters in the film. The film was based on the book Dogs from Outer Space by Zeke Richardson. Josh Hoffman and Zeke Richardson collaborated on the screen story, while John Robert Hoffman wrote the screenplay.
Plot
Owen Baker (Liam Aiken) is a 12-year-old loner who has been working as the neighborhood dog-walker so he can earn the privilege of getting a dog of his own. Owen's hard work pays off when his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Baker (Molly Shannon & Kevin Nealon), let Owen adopt a scruffy Border Terrier that he names Hubble (Voice of Matthew Broderick).
With his parents perpetually buying, renovating, and then selling house after house, Owen has little time to make lasting friends, so he hopes Hubble will be his best friend.
Owen does have a friend named Connie Flemming (Brittany Moldowan), a girl his age who lives in the neighborhood. But that won't be for long if Owen's parents continue their trend of buying and selling houses. Owen and Hubble get more than they bargained for when Owen wakes up one morning to discover that he can understand every word Hubble says -- including the ominous phrase: "Take me to your leaders."
Owen learns that dogs came to Earth thousands of years ago to colonize and dominate the planet. Hubble, who is really named Canid 3942, has been sent by the powerful Greater Dane (Voice of Vanessa Redgrave) on a mission from the Dog Star Sirius 7 to make sure dogs have fulfilled this destiny.
The dogs Owen walks include pampered Poodle Barbara Ann (voice of Delta Burke), cool Boxer Wilson (voice of Donald Faison), nervous Italian Greyhound Nelly (voice of Brittany Murphy) and gassy Bernese Mountain Dog Shep (voice of Carl Reiner).
Despite the best efforts of Owen and this rag-tag group of neighborhood dogs to convince Hubble that everything is fine with Earth's dogs, Hubble soon discovers the awful truth about Earth dogs: "You're all pets!" Things get worse when Hubble learns that the Greater Dane is headed for Earth to do her own inspection. If things don't look right, all dogs on Earth will be recalled to Sirius 7.
Now Owen, a boy who never had a friend, and Hubble, a dog who never needed one, must work together to prepare the neighborhood dogs for a visit from The Greater Dane and her Chinese Crested henchman (Voice of Cheech Marin). Owen, Hubble, Connie, and their canine companions set out to whip the other dogs into shape so that they can pass muster.
Cast
Production
Special effects
The bulk of the digital effects in the film involved digitally altering the facial features of the dogs so that in the film they appear to be speaking or expressing a different emotion (sometimes referred to as CG muzzle replacement). These effects were handled by Rainmaker Studios.[1]
Critical Reception
The film's domestic total gross was around $37 million, with a worldwide gross of around $45 million[2]. The film received mixed reviews from critics, earning a 46 percent positive rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times disliked the way the film was handled. "Sometimes it works to show their lips moving (it certainly did in "Babe"), but in "Good Boy!" the jaw movements are so mechanical it doesn't look like speech, it looks like a film loop. Look at "Babe" again and you'll appreciate the superior way in which the head movements and body language of the animals supplement their speech."[3]
References
- ^ Karen Moltenbray, Tongue-Wagging Effects, Computer Graphics World, December 2003, Volume 26, Number 12
- ^ [1]. Boxofficemojo.com.
- ^ [2].Rogerebert.suntimes.com.
External links
