Underdogs

[LotsoA113]

The Weinstein Company is at it again, trying to be a major player in the world of family features. Paddington has gotten great reviews and Hoodwinked had some smart writing, but the likes of Doogal, Hoodwinked Too and Escape From Planet Earth? Ooooooo.......terrible. Their newest one is, uh, well, see for yourself.



Yes, this movie has been dubbed over. Yes, that's pretty much the same joke from Toy Story 2 at the end. And yes, this looks awful.

[Dacey]

I'm not really sure what it is I just watched, but I was barely aware of this movie's existence until now. Seems doomed before it even opens.

And speaking of obscure releases like this, anyone have any idea whatever happened to "Dino Time 3D"?

[Ben]

Ugh.

Just put it on DVD, like The Reef and that bizarre Nutty Professor remake/reboot.

[EricJ]

The Weinstein Company is at it again, trying to be a major player in the world of family features.

By dubbing up foreign features (this one's Spanish) on an indie label, and releasing them in Jan./Feb. when there's no competition.

(And are we talking about the same Paddington, with the ear-wax trailer? What's going on, I keep hearing people say that's actually good...
What, did they just show us the only two painfully unfunny minutes in the entire movie, and there's some brilliant new twist to the Nicole Kidman villain we haven't seen in a dozen other hyperactively Hollywood-envy British-produced kids movies? )

[Bill1978]

My 4.5 year old godson loved the earwax part of the trailer. Found it hilarious that anyone would put earwax on a toothbrush. He loved that part so much that his mother took him to the movies to watch it, while the mother was a tad disappointed in the movie, the 4.5 year old loved it. Even if all he spoke about was the earwax.

I'm kinda interested in Underdogs as well. I wouldn't see it in a cinema but I'll at least check it out on DVD. Weird thing is that this movie has already been dubbed into English and was released in the UK in 2014. Apparently it's getting the Arrietty treatment and got an American cast for the 2015 USA release.

[Ben]

Paddington, which I saw before Christmas here in the UK, is a very sweet, very good family flick. It's simple, slightly old-fashioned and imbued with that "Britishness" that Harry Potter had, and (just a handful of sometimes random comic asides that feel more Python than Potter) it's a surprisingly delightful little picture (there's also a very funny dialogue line comeback about the earwax later on).

I'm glad it's done so well here and where it's opened, and hope it finds an audience in America.

[EricJ]

Paddington, which I saw before Christmas here in the UK, is a very sweet, very good family flick. It's simple, slightly old-fashioned and imbued with that "Britishness" that Harry Potter had, and (just a handful of sometimes random comic asides that feel more Python than Potter) it's a surprisingly delightful little picture (there's also a very funny dialogue line comeback about the earwax later on).

You hear "Britishness" and think Harry Potter, because that's what the producer keeps hyping in the press material (even though that was largely a US co-production)--
I hear "Britishness" and think Nanny McPhee. Or that "Five Children & It" we never got over here except on direct-video. Or that Terry Jones "Wind in the Willlows" with the big factory chase at the end. Or that 90's John Goodman "Borrowers" also with the big factory chase at the end. Or any of a dozen other British kids-book movies so embarrassed by their classic-story roots they try to go 10-yo. hip and Home-Alone themselves by "American" standards into wacky slapstick farces usually involving a big chase where some thoroughly nasty invented baddie has to get his comeuppance.
(Which in this case would be Nicole Kidman--In the scene where she shows Paddington her plans for taxidermy, who wasn't sitting in the theater quoting Bugs Bunny and the Gildersleeve-voiced store manager?: "Eh, pardon me, doc, but did you say 'stuffed'?" "Yes, hehehehhh, 'stuffed'...")

And I know very few kids in the US know what table-foosball is anymore, but do they still play it that much in Spain?

[Dacey]

So...Eric's lecturing Ben on "Britishness" now?

Yeah, good luck with that...

[Ben]

Actually, I'm from Belgium!

[Dacey]

Whoops.

[Randall]

... but he's lived in the UK since he was a wee tot. Trust me, his accent is British.

[Ben]

Hey! You don't know what you're talking aboot!