This movie is a little better than OK. It's wholesome entertainment that makes the not-terribly-original point that people and dogs have a special bond. And maybe it says a little about the alienation some children feel when growing up in a two-career suburban family.
The boy at the center of the film, Owen, is pleasant without stealing the show from the talking dogs. The girl who befriends him is equally pleasant and also not a show-stealer. The two boys who torment our hero and the dogs are sort of standard issue neighborhood bullies. Owen's dad is a stereotypical clueless father.
Owen's mom, however, is an interesting character. I think she's being played as an essentially decent woman who is too caught up in her real estate wheelings and dealings to notice that her son is lonely and a little depressed. However, to me she comes off as really creepy: a rootless, valueless suburban capital gains huckster who would sell the family home (and her son's happiness) in an instant it there was a buck to be made in it.
So why is this movie a little better than average? Well, the dogs are fun. The voice-over work is nicely-cast (old trooper Carl Reiner is especially good), the dogs get some funny lines, and some good computer work makes the dogs look pretty convincing at mouthing their lines.
I decided to write this because I'm annoyed with the review this movie got in the L.A. Times. It's their right to pan any movie, of course, but it bugs me when a reviewer dismissively puts down a movie like this because it's no Citizen Kane, or even Citizen Canine. Well, gee, it's a talking dog movie. It's not supposed to be deep.
