Psycho's Movie Reviews #39: Underdog (2007)

Underdog is a 2007 American superhero, action, comedy film based on the 1960s cartoon series of the same name. Directed by Frederik Du Chau and written by Joe Piscatella, Adam Rifkin, and Craig A. Williams, the film stars Jim Belushi, Peter Dinklage, John Slattery, and Patrick Warburton with the voice talents of Jason Lee, Amy Adams, and Brad Garrett. Unlike the TV series, the Underdog character is portrayed as a regular dog rather than an anthropomorphic one. Underdog, voiced by Jason Lee, was played by a lemon beagle named Shoeshine sporting a red sweater and a blue cape. The film grossed $65.3 million worldwide and has a 16% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which called it "mostly forgettable". This is also the first film to be distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, after Disney ceased usage of its Buena Vista Pictures Distribution brand.

Plot:

In the Capital City Town Hall {Side note; they don't mention what the city is called so I'm just going to assume it's called 'Capital City'}, a beagle on the police bomb squad sets off a false alarm. Ridiculed and rejected, the beagle leaves in shame, and is abducted off of the street by Cad Lackey, who takes him to Simon Barsinister's lab, where Cad works as an assistant. Bitter that his proposal for genetic experimentation was declined, Barsinister plans to prove the mayor wrong by testing his new serum on the beagle. The beagle escapes and runs amok in the lab, starting a fire and becoming exposed to various chemicals, which modify his DNA and give him superpowers.

After his escape, the beagle avoids an encounter with a Rottweiler named Riff Raff and his lackeys. Dan Unger strikes the beagle with his car, but thanks to the serum, the beagle is unharmed. Dan takes him home and names him Shoeshine after the dog licks his shoes. Dan's son, Jack, becomes jealous of Shoeshine's attention. Dan retired from the police to spend more time with Jack after his wife's death but still seems busy. Jack leaves for school and Dan for work, leaving Shoeshine at the house alone, where he, still unaware of his new powers, accidentally makes a very large mess. After coming home, Jack complains as he cleans up, and Shoeshine shocks both of them by verbally claiming it was an accident. Jack initially runs away, but after they reach a park, Jack and Shoeshine talk and bond over their respective attraction to Molly and Polly, Jack's friend and her dog. After the girls leave, Jack and Shoeshine test the latter’s powers discovering; he has super speed, strength, hearing, and smell in the process.

When Molly and Polly are kidnapped and Molly almost has her backpack stolen, Shoeshine rushes to their aid, discovering he can fly. After discreetly rescuing them, Shoeshine returns home with Jack, making him promise to never reveal his powers. Cad shows up at the door with posters of Shoeshine, but Jack fools him into leaving just before Dan comes home and discovers the mess. Meanwhile, Barsinister and Cad find a new lair beneath the city, then plan a robbery to fund rebuilding the former's lab. Seeing Cad's heist on the news, Jack convinces Shoeshine to intervene. Shoeshine disguises himself as a fish and saves the hostages, but Cad escapes. Shoeshine adopts the alias "Underdog" and becomes the city's resident superhero; donning a shrunken red sweater and blue cape as his disguise.

Barsinister repeatedly fails to recreate his serum and sends Cad to obtain a sample of Underdog's DNA. Shoeshine is rebuffed by Polly, but gets a date with her as Underdog. Cad fails to capture Underdog, but obtains his collar which contains his secret identity's name and address. Barsinister and Cad kidnap Dan and force him to call Shoeshine for help. Shoeshine and Jack attempt a rescue, but Barsinister uses both Jack and Dan as hostages to convince Shoeshine to give up his DNA. Barsinister synthesizes Underdog's superpowers into pills, injects Shoeshine with an antidote to the serum, and feeds the super pills to three trained German Shepherds. He and Cad leave the family trapped in the sewers, but Dan's police experience allows him to free everyone. They pursue Barsinister with a hypodermic needle filled with the antidote.

At the City Hall, Barsinister takes the mayor hostage and instructs Cad to attach a bomb rigged with a mind control serum to the roof; Molly and Polly follow Cad. Shoeshine smells the bomb and, conquering his self-doubt, enters the building despite having lost his powers. Cad discovers Molly and Polly and captures them and ties them up. During a scuffle with Barsinister, Shoeshine accidentally rips open Barsinister's pocket and swallows a super pill, restoring his powers. Shoeshine temporarily incapacitates the German Shepherds after he hears Molly and Polly call for help, but Barsinister ingests a pill and distracts Shoeshine by tossing a shield like a Frisbee. When the German Shepherds recover, Shoeshine convinces them to turn on Barsinister, who has not treated them well. While they restrain Barsinister, Underdog appears on the roof and saves Molly and Polly, instructing them to take the mind control serum to the police while he gets the bomb out of harm's way. After being reinstated and promoted by the mayor, Dan arrives and injects Barsinister with the antidote while arresting him. Underdog takes the bomb and buries it deep underground just before it explodes. Underdog tries to escape, but is caught in the explosion, launched into space, and is presumed dead. Amidst a mournful crowd, Underdog revives, leaving everyone overjoyed.

Dan is reinstated as a police officer, Barsinister and Cad are arrested for their crimes, and Shoeshine returns to protecting Capital City as Underdog.

{It's sad that there's not much on this film either}

Release/Reception/Box Office:

Underdog opened on August 3, 2007, in 3,013 theatres across the United States. It earned $11,585,121 on its opening weekend, placing in third behind The Bourne Ultimatum and the second weekend of The Simpsons Movie. The film closed on December 13, 2007, having grossed $43.8 million in the US box office and $21.5 million overseas for a worldwide total of $65.3 million. The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD on December 18, 2007. Disney has no more plans to reissue this movie on any home media after the first home release, but it is available to purchase on iTunes.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 16% based on 70 reviews and an average rating of 4.14/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Underdog is a mostly forgettable adaptation that relies far too heavily on recycled material and sloppy production." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 37 out of 100 based on 16 critics, indicating "generally unfavourable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.

{But you guys can just watch it for yourself and form your own opinion - Critics don't know anything about good films}

Box Office Total: £65.3 million

Soundtrack:

The licensed soundtrack album is only available as a download on various online music stores. It contains the original score by Randy Edelman and the hip hop rendition of the Underdog theme title, "Underdog Raps", performed by then-Disney star Kyle Massey, which received airplay on Radio Disney. The Plain White T's rendition of the theme, titled "Underdog Rocks", plays at the beginning of the film but was not included on the album.

{Underdog Raps by Kyle Massey is legit an anthem, give it a listen}

{Sorry for the bad quality, this is the best I could find :[}

My Review:

I love this movie, one of my favourites of all time. It's so funny! One of the most underrated Disney movies of all time!!!

The 2007 film, “Underdog”, is a household classic. The movie is not only a masterfully crafted story with a diverse and extraordinary cast, but is also a new threshold for films to aim for. It does this by introducing new technological features on a relatively small budget of just $13.28. To the average family, it might be almost impossible to notice that the whole film is actually a highly sophisticated computer generated image! Crazy right? However, the seasoned eye of an avid movie watcher it provides the beautifully crafted imagery and detail, which simply cannot be replicated by the seemingly ancient techniques used by the entertainment before it, is practically unmissable, and speaks volumes on the crew behind putting the picture on the screen. The people you may be more interested in, though, is the cast. The cast bring the somewhat 2-dimensional characters in to life by applying their own values, ideas, and soul into the people they play. In this way, the characters on screen become almost real people the audience can relate to and be excited by. But enough about the behind-the-scenes technical aspects, what’s more important is what the audience actually sees, hears, and feels from the film. They see the spectacular and exciting arrangement of colors and images that almost tell a story on their own. The audience hears the familiar actors’ brilliant performances along with the thrilling music composed by Randy Edelman and performed by a near perfect orchestra. Perhaps even more essential to the movie is the feel it gives off. “Underdog” manages to create the feelings you expect in any decent movie, happiness, excitement, fear, thrill, anger, sadness, and laughter, but still provides a fresh twist. All together, this film is on the top of my list for it’s storytelling, technology, graphics, performance, music, and twists, and I could not recommend it enough!

{Oh and you'll recognise Shoeshine's/Underdog's voice actor, it's Jason Lee (aka 'Dave' from the terrible live action 'Alvin and the Chipmunks' movie series)}.

I'm kinda shocked at Peter Dinklage and Patrick Warburton's performances. They play the parts of Underdog's arch nemesis' Dr Simon Barsinister and Cad. I'm shocked because you'd think with this being a lesser known film that big actors wouldn't put enough into their performance... BUT JESUS CHRIST, Peter Dinklage was way too into this role. It's like he was waiting for a villain role his entire career. He is so into this character. He's way better than the original version of the character. Then again, I guess in a way this role was meant for him - nobody else could play this role better than he!

On the other hand, Patrick Warburton is... Patrick Warburton. Everything he is in he's pretty much the same. But that doesn't mean he's not good, he is the perfect casting for Cad's role; he really portrays the stupid henchman role well. Both Warburton and Dinklage really compliment the criminal duo - if you get what I mean; they work well together.

I think my argument is justified, this is a very underrated Disney film and I think it deserves so much more attention. Therefore I highly recommend this movie, it's on Disney+ so you can watch it if you have it; I give this forgotten gem a 10/10. {Yeah that's right... SUE ME BITCH}