MARMADUKE

I’ll be honest: the new trend towards digitizing the mouths of animals and babies to make them “talk” (or dance or rollerskate or whatever) creeps me right out. Unfortunately, that device is in full swing in this fairly uninspired family comedy based on the popular comic strip.

Owen Wilson voices Marmaduke, a clumsy, gangly Great Dane with a serious case of ADHD, who finds himself uprooted from Kansas to California when his owner, Phil (Lee Pace), gets a new job working for an organic pet-food company and moves the family west. Once there, our gigantic canine hero learns the ins and outs of the dog park cliques, which are not unlike those found in a typical high school. In this case, angry, drooling bully Bosco (voiced by Kiefer Sutherland) rules the park with his pack of purebred lackeys, and the hugely likable Mazie (voiced by Emma Stone, whom I adore in anything), Giuseppe (voiced by Christopher Mintz-Plasse, perfect as a nervous Chinese Crested terrier) and Raisin (voiced by Steve Coogan) are the outsiders with whom Marmaduke finds friendship.

It’s not long before both Marmaduke and Phil sacrifice their own morals and values for the sake of advancement, though – Marmaduke tries to impress the “in” crowd and woo fluffy-but-bland-and-forgettable collie Jezebel (voiced by an entirely bland and forgettable Fergie) by turning his back on his new misfit pals, while Phil spends less and less time with the family as he tries to impress his eccentric new boss (William H. Macy).

And, in many ways, it’s that angle that undoes a lot of the potential for good-natured  -- or just plain good – comedy, since Marmaduke becomes kind of a jerk, and Phil devolves into a spineless bore. The scene where Marmaduke pretends to beat up his feline brother, Carlos (voiced by George Lopez), seemed unusually cruel, and much of his behavior makes him seem more unlikable than just “misguided.” The romance with Jezebel seems pointless and forced, and the viewer really needs to suspend disbelief to get past some of the film’s logistical plot holes. Marmaduke throws a party? And hangs decorative lights? And pours cheese puffs into a bowl? Really?

Occasionally, there are small moments that tug at the heartstrings a little – shelter-dog Mazie’s unrequited crush on Marmaduke, a monologue by a grizzly old homeless Mastiff (voiced by Sam Elliott) on how much he misses having humans who love him – and I’m (mostly) not ashamed to admit that I teared up more than once, but they are overshadowed by the filmmakers’ needless reliance on sight gags, CGI (the dogs hip-hop dancing was eyerollingly lame) and cookie-cutter writing. I understand that the target audience for this movie is children, but the dumbing-down of the plot and action is unnecessary – there are plenty of smart, funny films for kids that are no less entertaining just because they choose cleverness over cheap laughs.