Snow Dogs - Review

Snow Dogs is a movie that I watched all the time as a kid. It was just one of those movies that we had on VHS and my sister and I would constantly get excited every time we had a chance to pop this guy in the VCR. I guess I was feeling nostalgic the other day and I decided to go down memory lane again. Now, when watching a movie you used to watch as a kid nearly 15 years later, there are generally two different outcomes. One is that the movie still holds up all these years later and you have a different and much deeper appreciation for it (Freaky Friday and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang are films that come to mind). Or you simply think to yourself, "why did I waste so much of my valuable time watching this crap!" (The live-action Thomas The Tank Engine movie for example). Snow Dogs, unfortunately, falls into the ladder category. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing really terrible in this movie. It's not insulting in any way or it isn't full of plot holes and head-scratching moments. It's just that there are plenty of better kids movies out there.

So what's the story? A rich, successful dentist named Ted Brooks (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is living the perfect bachelor life in Miami until one day he finds out that he is adopted and is actually from Alaska. After his birth mother's passing, he is informed that he is entitled to her inheritance. Now questioning his entire life plan, Ted travels to Alaska to see his birthplace and receive the inheritance. What is the inheritance you might ask? Well, it's the usual stuff like a house with all its contents, but what is different is that Ted's mother left him her entire sled dog team consisting of 6 Huskies and 1 Border Collie. The one problem is that Ted hates dogs. While in Alaska, Ted must figure out what to do with said dogs, as well as find a piece of himself that seems to be missing all this time.

From that little synopsis, I'm sure you can tell how the movie is going to end. However, just in case that synopsis has you intrigued, I won't spoil it. So sure, there is nothing terrible about making a movie where the protagonist is suddenly thrown into a situation where they are completely foreign for some humour and having said protagonist come to appreciate a new form of life. In fact, it's a great message for kids. It's just that we have seen in other children's films and told in a more entertaining way.

The fallbacks of the movie are the over-reliance on slapstick humour. Now I get it, I can appreciate slapstick as much as the next person and for a kids movie, I understand why it's there, but it doesn't come across as clever, it comes across as lazy. You can almost guarantee that every single fish out of water joke they will throw at you will involve Cuba Gooding Jr. screaming and running and falling all over the place. Now I would be lying if I said that I didn't laugh out loud a couple of times in this movie. There are some fish out of water jokes that would fly right over the children's heads and will give the adults a chuckle, but they are few and far between and are pushed to the side for scenes like Ted Brooks learning how to mush but nearly dying when he falls off a mountain.

Again, there is nothing extremely wrong with this movie and I'm sure it will entertain the whole family for an hour and a half, but with so many great movies out there that can be enjoyed by the whole family, Snow Dogs is just your average run of the mill kids movie. There are better movies out there folks, but if your kids are absolutely in love with dogs, then this movie will keep them happy for a while. It kept me happy when I was a kid.