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GLENN KENNY'S REVIEW (posted 8/6/07)

I had the great good fortune to attend a screening of Underdog, the Disney live-action adaptation of the lovable but almost terminally goofy TV cartoon fave of the '60s, with a couple of bright, lively children ages 5 and 7, which enabled me to glean the film's enduring appeal to what I presume, and hope, is its key demographic. "What did you think?" I asked the five-year-old as we headed out of the Times Square theater where it was screened. "It was great!" she enthused. "I really liked the part when…" and then she trailed off, distracted by the very garish façade of the newly opened Ripley's "Believe it or Not!" museum on 42nd Street. I never did find out what the part was.

This might indicate that Underdog is in fact the ideal child's entertainment, as it keeps the kids diverted and quiet for 90 minutes or so, after which it completely disappears from their consciousnesses. I myself should be so lucky. For adults — even adults with fond memories of the TV series — this is one bizarre mess, with little actor Dinklage taking his role as evil scientist Simon Barsinister far too seriously, Warburton doing a peroxided Puddy as Cad, Belushi phoning in an ex-cop whose life hasn't been the same since his wife died, and Alex Neuberger playing kind of fey as Belushi's withdrawn teenage son, who winds up the master of the genetically mutated beagle who can talk and fly and do all sorts of Superman-type stuff. This is Underdog, voiced by Lee.

The resultant picture mixes the usual believe-in-yourself hogwash with baroque CGI effects, pedestrian grossout humor (mostly involving the sniffing habits of dogs), and a not-particularly-well-articulated dose of low camp. Given how certain bits of story that might have been played for big action and/or emotion are completely elided, one suspects that director du Chau's um, vision, was subjected to quite a bit of paring down in the editing room. Alas, for a longer version of the film could conceivably have held children rapt…longer. But that same film would probably have sent adults screaming for the exits, subsequently leaving the children in need of adoption.

— Glenn Kenny