Hotel For Dogs

Let’s do a writing exercise. Let’s take a room full of writers, preferably dog lovers, and pretend
that we are dogs. Think from the dog’s perspective. If I were a dog, what would I consider fun? What food would I like? What would be important to me? How would I spend my day? The result would probably be a movie like Hotel For Dogs. But that’s not how this film got made. It’s actually based on a children’s book by author Lois Duncan.

As an adult I wasn’t practically motivated to see this film, I am not its target audience and I don’t have kids. But for a children’s film I didn’t find it very painful. For one thing, there were no talking dogs, thank you. Secondly, there were no CGI tricks, or fake dogs hands. There were just some very talented dogs, performing natural dog behaviors, in an imaginative fantasy environment. I enjoyed some of the dog contraptions, and I thought that the mercenary Foster Parents played by Lisa Kudrow and Kevin Dillion were well played, but I was mostly impressed by Emma Roberts. She is a natural, likable, young talent without the affectations I see in other young actors. I was mystified why Oscar nominee Don Cheadle was in this film, but considered that he probably has kids, or is a really big dog lover. Either way, note to parents, if you are doing Paper, Rock, Scissors to see who has to escort the kids to this movie, it’s okay to lose on this one. There is enough to this film for an adult to enjoy.

Rating: Rent It     Buy a copy for the kids. There is enough cute dogs footage for many, many
viewings.