Gone are Bruce Willis (too bad) and Roseanne (no loss) as the voices of Mikey and Julie, and in are Danny DeVito and Diane Keaton as the voice of the family pets. Didn't we get this with Don Ameche, Sally Field and Michael J. Fox in two "Homeward Bound" films? Yep, we did. So Mikey and Julie look like their characters just a bit older, and now Mikey is of school age and Julie is near her terrible two's. The third entry has its charms, but they are of the standard sitcom variety, showing Mikey doing a "Here's Lucy" by investigating a luggage tressel and getting the ride of his life and creating all sorts of tension in his disgust over discovering that there may not really be a Santa. For the adults, Kirsty Alley is fired from her job and neer do well hubby John Travolta is hired by the seductive Lysette Anthony to work as her personal pilot.
As Christmas approaches, this goes down the territories of many other films we've already seen ("Home Alone") or would be done better later on ("Marley & Me"), but there certainly are some charming moments like when Alley, Travolta and young Julie perform "The Chipmunk Christmas Song" for a saddened Mikey. Julie goes up against professional basketball player Charles Barkley in her fantasies, a cute but pointless scene. This in fact is a whole 90 minutes of sweet, amusing but unrelated scenes that focuses on the antics of mutt Rocks (DeVito) and purebred Daphne (Keaton) who get along like Mikey and Julie did in the previous film. The result is a film trying to force its audience to ooh and ah at pedestrian comedy that snooty Daphne would stick her nose up at.
Olympia Dukakis, judgmental of Travolta's seeming lack of ambition in the last film, is now proud of his success, while Alley is forced to take jobs way beneath her including an elf working with a department store Santa. In the first two films, it was reversed so it's Alley's turn to be idle which makes her think that something's going on with Anthony while having dreams about Mikey's natural father (George Segal in a pointless cameo). There's a sense of vintage nostalgia with Julie thinking that she can fly like Mary Martin's Peter Pan while Alley dreams of being Ginger Rogers to Travolta's Fred Astair. Unfortunately the voice overs of Devito and Keaton falls flat even though the lines are witty and intelligent. Their voice-overs are supposed to parallel Alley and Travolta as the humans which seems smart on paper but doesn't work in translation.
The situation gets complicated but cloying when Travolta doesn't show up for Christmas Eve, having been trapped by femme fatale Anthony at her luxurious cabin in the woods and Alley takes the kids (and dogs) upstate New York to find him. They have encounters with some vicious wolves (which has a rather unrealistic conclusion) while Travolta tries to outwit the devious fox, Anthony, who could certainly give reason for Travolta's character to claim me too! This attempts too hard to be a feel good comedy, but with what plot that is there, it ends up as a major disappointment.
As Christmas approaches, this goes down the territories of many other films we've already seen ("Home Alone") or would be done better later on ("Marley & Me"), but there certainly are some charming moments like when Alley, Travolta and young Julie perform "The Chipmunk Christmas Song" for a saddened Mikey. Julie goes up against professional basketball player Charles Barkley in her fantasies, a cute but pointless scene. This in fact is a whole 90 minutes of sweet, amusing but unrelated scenes that focuses on the antics of mutt Rocks (DeVito) and purebred Daphne (Keaton) who get along like Mikey and Julie did in the previous film. The result is a film trying to force its audience to ooh and ah at pedestrian comedy that snooty Daphne would stick her nose up at.
Olympia Dukakis, judgmental of Travolta's seeming lack of ambition in the last film, is now proud of his success, while Alley is forced to take jobs way beneath her including an elf working with a department store Santa. In the first two films, it was reversed so it's Alley's turn to be idle which makes her think that something's going on with Anthony while having dreams about Mikey's natural father (George Segal in a pointless cameo). There's a sense of vintage nostalgia with Julie thinking that she can fly like Mary Martin's Peter Pan while Alley dreams of being Ginger Rogers to Travolta's Fred Astair. Unfortunately the voice overs of Devito and Keaton falls flat even though the lines are witty and intelligent. Their voice-overs are supposed to parallel Alley and Travolta as the humans which seems smart on paper but doesn't work in translation.
The situation gets complicated but cloying when Travolta doesn't show up for Christmas Eve, having been trapped by femme fatale Anthony at her luxurious cabin in the woods and Alley takes the kids (and dogs) upstate New York to find him. They have encounters with some vicious wolves (which has a rather unrealistic conclusion) while Travolta tries to outwit the devious fox, Anthony, who could certainly give reason for Travolta's character to claim me too! This attempts too hard to be a feel good comedy, but with what plot that is there, it ends up as a major disappointment.