Shelby (2014) User Reviews

It's Doug, Not Dog

[haamstter · 6/10 · 17 July 2023]

Upon hearing that Chevy Chase turned down many popular films but made many bad movies, I had to find what I thought would be the worst film he made. I sat down with some buddies and we watched this movie with 3 different names. It genuinely has awful jokes and writing, not to mention the horrendous sound mixing, but we got through it all.

The best part of this movie was Tom Arnold as Doug the Dog Catcher, surprisingly. He lands some decent jokes (Christmas Rabies) and near the end of the film absolutely shreds this rich, entitled woman (more on that later). Chevy delivered a few decent lines of his own, but Tom owned it. Oh yeah, and Rob Schneider is in this movie too as the film's titular character. Afraid to say, I did not find the character of Shelby to be funny or really interesting whatsoever. He just kept going on and on and on when you'd think there was nothing to go on about.

Every character in this film is a stereotype of some sort: the all too chill dad, the annoying bratty cousin, the GAMER brother, I could go on. Dialogue felt forced at times and definitely worthy of cringe at times. There's a character in here who serves as a kind of love interest for the older brother, has two scenes, and is never again mentioned nor seen. Needless to say, this was confusing for sure.

So, what actually is the plot of "Shelby" or "Shelby: The Dog Who Saved Christmas" or "Shelby: A Magical Holiday Tail"? Well the story is: Shelby is a "fugitive and a criminal", per Doug the Dog Catcher, and finally escapes the pound after being promised to a rich lady for her entitled son. He then winds up at some kid's house and hides there as Doug attempts to catch him and sell him to the rich lady for $5k. After some #ChristmasChaos, Shelby is taken away back to the pound and the kid and some other kids go on a daring rescue mission. During the mission, rich lady comes to pick up the dog and after many exasperating attempts to get Shelby to do a trick, she tries to hit him with a broom. Here, Doug catches the broom and then BERATES this woman. He goes off about how you don't abuse dogs and then RIPS into her about the way she's raising her son, telling her that she needs to stop badmouthing her ex-husband to the kid and to stop spoiling him. To top it all off, the kid's name is Francis...sorry kid. This was wild for me. Anyway, then Shelby decides to escape and runs into the incinerator room ONLY TO BE INCINERATED. But this turns out to be an elaborate magic act by the kid and Shelby turns out okay and that is the end of the movie. I don't know WHY they decided this was a good magic trick, but they did it.

This film is a mess for sure. I would not have liked it at all, I think, had it not been for my friends. It very well would've gotten less than this score I give it. Perhaps I am being biased in my review, but what review isn't? S or STDWSC or SAMHT is not a great movie, it is pretty terrible. But it is stupid fun with friends.

Oh, and by the way, it's DOUG, not Dog. Doug Jones.

A dog for Christmas

[Prismark10 · 4/10 · 30 November 2015]

Shelby is a corny family film that works if you watch it with kids in the run up to Christmas although even then their mileage will run out by the end.

Shelby is an unwanted beagle always escaping the dog pound and never getting away as the dogcatcher Doug (Tom Arnold) always catches up with him.

However Shelby manages to impress a rich lady and her son who come into the pound looking for a dog and are impressed when Shelby performs some tricks but he again escapes from the pound on Christmas Eve and gets taken in by aspiring young magician Jake (John Paul Ruttan).

However Doug has been offered a substantial sum of money by the rich lady to retrieve Shelby and Jake's family are not keen on another mutt in the house. So Jake keeps Shelby's stay in the house a secret but he just causes canine chaos.

Rob Schneider is the voice of Shelby who narrates the story and Chevy Chase is Jake's grandpa.

The film starts brightly enough as Shelby tries to evade Doug after he escapes. I guess it loses a little impetus when Shelby is hiding out in the family home but then picks up as the kids get together to rescue him.

It is not too schmaltzy or preachy, it has a bit of knockabout humour and even some toilet humour. As I said it is a bit of festive fun if you want to watch it with younger kids.

Seen It All Before

[neiljones1981 · 4/10 · 29 November 2015]

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.

Everything's fine until the humans are introduced.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 25 December 2023]

Call the agency for the protection of dogs against exploitation, and this Christmas movie has that in fleas. The basset hound voiced by Rob Schneider is adorable (wish I could say the same about the cloying dialog he barks out), but the human characters remind me of why I preferred dogs. That is outside of the kid whom Shelby ultimately ends up with, John Paul Ruttan, your typical ignored early teen, overshadowed by an obnoxious older brother (think of Kevin's nasty older sibling in "Home Alone") and the screeching younger sister whose doll Ruttan accidentally destroys in a very funny scene.

I couldn't help but wish that the non-stop chattering mother played by Natalie Lisinska would get laryngitis, and giggled at the slight insinuations that father Jefferson Brown wished for the same. At least in this film, the aging Chevy Chase gets to be likeable as the crotchety grandfather, acting as a Greek chorus. Tom Arnold as the dog catcher basically plays Tom Arnold, and that's not a compliment. I was grateful that the uppity woman and her brat of a child who came into the pound and demanded Shelby didn't get him, because Shelby obviously didn't want them. Ruttan's uncle turns out to be even worse than his mother and siblings, and that's a difficult achievement.

It saddens me that movie studios rush out these underdeveloped raw turkeys by the dozen every November and December, even though this one isn't nearly as bad as the hundreds of others. It could take place at any time of the year, but the dollar hungry cinema factories demand that Christmas be dropped in as if it was a long unseen relative. When most of the characters end up being people you wouldn't want as family, let alone spend the holidays with, that's a sign that the writers don't care about the spirit of the holidays or the creativity, but just fulfilling a quota. The abundance of doggy bodily function jokes adds a genuine smell to the overall product.

Christmas classic

[taragroth · 8/10 · 3 January 2016]

We watched this as a family on Christmas. Plenty of fart jokes for the whole family which the kids thoroughly enjoyed (what kid doesn't like fart jokes?). The characters had dimension and the cast played the characters well. I especially liked Chevy Chase in this movie. I am sure all of the middle children out there are cheering for this movie that focuses on the bond that forms between the middle child and adorable Shelby. There were several twists in the plot that I didn't see coming. In particular, the suspected demise of Shelby scene. Overall, an enjoyable Christmas movie that will be added to our annual list of Christmas movies to watch every December!

Great Family Movie

[lewensr · 10/10 · 2 January 2016]

Watched this movie with my family tonight. My kids can rarely sit through a whole movie but had their eyes glued to the screen from beginning to end. This is a well written film with some popular actors. Great family picture. Chevy Chase plays his part well. Tom Arnold does too. The dog farts got my whole family laughing as we have a boxer and boxers do have gas. I will recommend this film to family and friends next Christmas. The scene towards the end where the dog catcher lays into the rich lady lays out some nice values for the kiddos. This film has potential to be another Christmas classic. I will definitely watch it again as this is one of those movies that I could see more than once and not get sick of it.