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Order this DVD from
Amazon.com
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Snow
Dogs
(Buena Vista Home
Entertainment) |
| DVD
Release Date: |
May
14, 2002 |
| Length: |
98
mins. |
| Rated: |
PG |
| Format: |
Standard
(1.33:1) |
| Languages: |
English,
French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Thai |
| Subtitles: |
English |
| Extras: |
Screen-Specific
Audio Commentary, Making-of Featurettes, Deleted and Extended
Scenes, Interactive Game, Theatrical Trailers
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The movie tells the classic fish out of
water story, in this case it's an African American dentist (played by
Cuba Gooding Jr.) from Miami in Alaska. He finds out that he has
inherited his birth mother's estate. He also finds out that he is
adopted. Part of his inheritance includes a pack of huskies that his
late mother used to run the Arctic Challenge - a mushing race. The one
problem that I had is that this movie is primarily a kids movie, and I
felt that it lacked too many moments for kids to understand. Sure, the
scenes with the dogs are funny for kids - and me too - but they only
last so long. The rest of the movie is about Cuba finding his father and
trying to re-connect with him. Not exactly the stuff that keeps kids
riveted.
Don't get me wrong, it is a good family movie, but the kids need to be a
bit older to understand what is happening. Then again my four year old
loves it and watches it at least twice a day since I received the DVD.
The movie also hurts its adult audience by being too predictable. I feel
that if a movie is targeting a low age bracket audience, it should still
be entertaining for adults. We meet the only pretty girl in Alaska, who
is conveniently single, who eventually ends up with Cuba. We have his
hard-ass father James Coburn, who initially rejects his long lost son to
eventually warm up to him and be proud of him. Don't get me wrong -
these were all done well. However, you could see them coming from a mile
away.
The Special Features
Unfortunately presented at a 1.33:1 fullscreen ratio, the disc does
contain a 5.1 Dolby digital surround sound track and one in French. For
these types of movies, I feel it should also include a 2 channel track.
For the special features, the disc includes an Artic Challenge game that
the kids liked. However, some of the moves required on the DVD remote
were a little hard. Heck, it was a little hard for me too! But overall,
it was fun and, on kids movies like this, an interactive game is a must.
There is also a behind-the-scenes look called "Chillin' with the
Actors". They mainly say how much fun they're having, it's cold and
so on - standard stuff here. The next featurette, "Going to the
Dogs" tells of the challenges of working with so many dogs on the
movie. Again, pretty standard. The third featurette, "Tolketna on
Ice", deals with the set and creating the town. There isn't much
here for the kids.
The deleted scenes actually contain some of the funnier moments for
adults. Cuba's line "Show me the mushing!" was cut but it was
a funny reference to his now infamous line from Jerry Maguire. Some of
the other scenes - you can see why they were deleted. The extended
scenes offered a little more to the movie and you wonder why they cut
some of them down. Too bad they didn't come with an audio commentary
from the director.
The menus are easy to navigate - you just follow the blue paw print.
However the chapter selection menu was a little harder to tell which was
highlighted. Also, the menus feature still shots - I prefer small clips
instead.
Not a bad DVD. The extras are rescued by the game, which the kids love
to play.
| The
Movie: |
  |
6/10 |
| The
Extras: |
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7/10 |
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| Recommendation: |
Rent
This One |
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did you think?
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here for more information on Snow Dogs
Blair Barbesin - Contributor
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