Shelby follows the traditional model for these sort of films:
Boy can't have dog because, in this case, mum doesn't like them. Boy meets dog, or Dog meets boy in this instance. Boy gets emotionally attached to dog. Boy loses dog. Boy decides to get dog back, eventually leading to boy keeping dog.
Okay so the idea has been used many times over, best known example of this sort of film is the 2005 film Lassie and in the same vein as Shelby, is the 1991 film Bingo.
Shelby is the dog who flees from the dog pound and ends up in the basement of a family and is drawn to the attention of a boy called Jake who is (stereotypically in these sort of films) isolated and friendless. The dog pound owner wants him back to receive $1000 from some posh lady and her obnoxious offspring for him, so the (admittedly half-hearted) chase is on. Eventually, as the model dictates, posh lady talks herself out of the dog and Shelby ends up living with Jake and family.
Unfortunately the presence of Chevy Chase, Tom Arnold and the voice of Rob Schneider can't rescue this film. The script depends on fart jokes, the "witty" banter/thoughts of the dog is hit and miss, and the less said about the grandpa when he decides to blog, the better.
Lead boy here is John Paul Ruttan, who won an award for his role in the remade Robocop film and appears to be building up a nice portfolio of work. Unfortunately an actor is only as good as his script, which isn't particularly polished and often comes across as having been made up as you go along.
A watchable film which doesn't bring any new ideas to the table and may have benefited from some extra script work. Ah well, better luck next time.
Boy can't have dog because, in this case, mum doesn't like them. Boy meets dog, or Dog meets boy in this instance. Boy gets emotionally attached to dog. Boy loses dog. Boy decides to get dog back, eventually leading to boy keeping dog.
Okay so the idea has been used many times over, best known example of this sort of film is the 2005 film Lassie and in the same vein as Shelby, is the 1991 film Bingo.
Shelby is the dog who flees from the dog pound and ends up in the basement of a family and is drawn to the attention of a boy called Jake who is (stereotypically in these sort of films) isolated and friendless. The dog pound owner wants him back to receive $1000 from some posh lady and her obnoxious offspring for him, so the (admittedly half-hearted) chase is on. Eventually, as the model dictates, posh lady talks herself out of the dog and Shelby ends up living with Jake and family.
Unfortunately the presence of Chevy Chase, Tom Arnold and the voice of Rob Schneider can't rescue this film. The script depends on fart jokes, the "witty" banter/thoughts of the dog is hit and miss, and the less said about the grandpa when he decides to blog, the better.
Lead boy here is John Paul Ruttan, who won an award for his role in the remade Robocop film and appears to be building up a nice portfolio of work. Unfortunately an actor is only as good as his script, which isn't particularly polished and often comes across as having been made up as you go along.
A watchable film which doesn't bring any new ideas to the table and may have benefited from some extra script work. Ah well, better luck next time.