Do we really need yet another movie about talking dogs? Yes, apparently we do, judging by the surprise box-office success of this Disney fable about a diamond-festooned, bootie-wearing Californian chihuahua (voiced by Drew Barrymore) who gets lost in Mexico with only a streetwise German Shepherd (Andy Garcia) to see her right.
You have to admit that the dogs — more than 200 in total — are extraordinarily well trained. Even Placido Domingo, the great opera singer, was persuaded to voice one of them without bursting into an inappropriate aria. There are dobermans, poodles, pugs, bulldogs, labradors and dachshunds, to say nothing of an animated rat and iguana, and they do much better than the humans in the cast.
These include Jamie Lee Curtis, slumming it enthusiastically as the ridiculous owner of the pampered pooch. She goes away on business leaving her flaky young niece Rachel (Piper Perabo) in charge — which is why the dog gets lost. Poor Rachel has to enlist the aid of a local gardener (Manolo Cardona) whom she has just insulted — taking him for a Mexican who can’t speak English properly — to find the missing dog.
Of course, they fall in love. But this is the most amorphous part of the plot, and is quickly skated over. It’s the dogs that matter, including the stray chihuahua who falls for our heroine, though I must say the rat and the iguana are almost as much fun.
One of the themes is the fact that canines deserve more than perpetual fussing over by rich, middle-class Beverly Hills types and ought to be treated as animals rather than toys. This is what makes it bearable.
That and the way the talking dogs are trained up for the occasion. You want to cringe as the picture begins, but you end up quite enjoying it.
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
Cert: U
