What can be better than watching movies about talking dogs or animals that are smarter than human beings? Don’t get me wrong, it’s fine to admit that we humans have a bigger brain, have common sense, and actually can tell the difference between bad and good, study and get education. All these privileges animals cannot have, however, that has changed in “Show Dogs” that might be super silly, unfunny in most scenes, but still amusing enough. Because it was made not for adults, but for kids who will get enough chances to face complications of life, and now, at their young age, it’s suitable for them to watch that bad guys always lose no matter what.
Max is a very intelligent and highly trained solitary Rottweiler police dog who’s assigned to go undercover as a primped show dog in one of the most prestigious Dog Shows. In order to succeed in this mission, he was asked to work closely with his partner, Frank, an FBI agent who should assist him in his assignment to find the cutest panda you would ever see, as well as the animal smuggler that runs the entire dog show.
Max, who works at NYPD K9’s unit has failed his first mission and lets the panda slip away from him. Unable to forgive himself, the always responsible but a very macho-type doggie, voiced by Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Max teams up with new friends from the dog show but finds it difficult to shmooze around when it comes to pretending who he is not. Frank, his human partner, on the other hand, tries to do his best to find the panda and make a long-anticipated arrest, but also the same as Max, is not used to walk around like a model with a dog. But he does a fine job to go through the qualification stage that will bring both of them to the closure.
“Show Dogs” is an adorable film about dog pageant with the element of action and comedy, maybe not much though, but an acceptable level to sit through it. Written by Max Botkin and Marc Hyman and directed by Raja Gosnell, “Show Dogs” is a combination of a live-action actors with real and CGI talking creatures that serves perfectly to build up the storyline that can be easily accepted by children, while adults ,ay struggle to process it throughout.
In the end, there’s not much required from the cast to do more than what they could deliver, but it was not as bad as you would expect. It’s a goofy comedy that will always finds its audience whether we want it or not. But in the end, “Show Dogs” is not made for over seven billion people, some will enjoy it more than others but that will never hurt the film itself because it aims that category of audience which does not expect anything intelligent but rather something easygoing and quickly forgettable afterwards; that’s where “Show Dogs” can rightfully claim the crown for that.