Beverly Hills Chihuahua – Blu Ray Review

The Film:

I guess there are just some films and ideas that make us movie lovers just sit there in our seats silently thinking about their existence. I know I did when I heard of Beverly Hills Chihuahua, a film on paper that seemed so ridiculous to exist that it piqued my curiosity.  The film most likely exists for pure commercial purposes as its well known us dog lovers will ogle over anything cute, thus making this enterprise an easy sell. Add in the recent popularity of Chihuahuas and instant millions. The film was successful, making a little over $90 million at the box office and it’s just too easy to dismiss an audience as dumb.

Dog lovers are a strange bunch, I’ll admit, and while I’m not the one to pamper my dogs to Paris Hilton levels, I love them as if they are my kids, so if you just don’t understand that (or are a cat person), then I can say this film isn’t for you. It’s silly, commercial, yet oddly entertaining. There. I admitted it.

Look, this movie is what it is. It’s a fluffy dog-talking movie, but why scoff at that? It’s easy to get wrapped up in the surface level of the production. Dirty Mexican dogs waiting to be saved by the rich Americans, but really it’s the film’s attempt to show one who they are, regardless of race, status, and to respect each other that to me, makes it work.

The dog actors easily outshine their human counterparts, and mostly that’s because of the writing. Jaime Lee Curtis is given little to work with, Piper Perabo is okay given her ditzy character but it’s the manipulation of staging the dogs to act and react to dialogue and situations that easily sell the scenario on CGI-enhanced dog mouths. Most of their scenes are with real pooches which in my book, helps the film. Add pure CG dogs, like Scooby Doo was, and it just doesn’t work.

Go ahead; send hate mail to jon@killerfilm.com but there’s far worse films to sit through for 90 minutes. Dog lovers are a strange bunch, I’ll admit that, and this film is for them. It’s a fluff piece that’s 100% harmless for kids, with some solid dog characters, the comedic dual of a rat and an Iguana work for both adults and kids. It’s a slick production and you know what you’ll get just based on the cover, but it didn’t have to be decent. And it was.

 The Blu Ray:

Audio/Video: While a DTS track might be overkill, the audio is impressive, especially during the scenes that used songs. Clear, loud, bass heavy, all in all a great track. Video is equally good; clear, bright, detailed. Disney delivers another good looking and sounding Blu Ray.

Commentary: For those that care, director Raja Gosnell is here and talks about filming locations and the dogs. Nothing too riveting to why this info can’t be in a documentary as he’s a bit bland, making this a dry track to sit though.

Legend of the Chihuahua, Pet Pals, and Hitting Their Bark are all about 10 minutes in length, with the first being a three minute cartoon on the origins of the Chihuahua. The other two are fluff, EPK piece on set life of the dogs and the voice actors. Nothing riveting here; just standard info on the film that I doubt the youngsters wouldn’t care to sit through.

Deleted Scenes are here, about 20 minutes worth, but nothing that adds to the story or characters. Blooper Scooper is the gag reel featuring the dogs missing their marks-not especially funny.

Conclusion: Not great art, but not complete crap, it’s for the kids of dog lovers and it wasn’t a waste of time like one probably thought. The extras are a waste, maybe they should have been more dog centric than filmmaking, but I doubt anyone who watches this would care either or on the extras. Rental.

Rating: