Shaggy Dog

According to John Hartl, a MSNBC.com critic, “Shaggy Dog’s (2006) only trick is playing dead” in the 2006 remake of the 1959 top-grossing film Shaggy Dog (1959).



Some of you may remember the 1959 version of Shaggy Dog. I certainley don’t, although my boyfriend, Mike, remembers it.

In this 2006 version of Shaggy Dog "Tim Allen plays an ambitious lawyer and family man who gets bitten by a bearded Tibetan collie that’s 300 years old." After this, Allen starts to act like a dog, even in the courtroom.



Allen’s character, Dave Douglas, is a Type-A careerist and dog-hater. According to Ann Hornaday a critic for the Washington Post, "When Douglas turns into the shaggy dog, he discovers that, as he puts it, he may not be a bad dog, but he has been a terrible husband and father."



This movie is loosely based on a novel, “The Hound of Florence,” by the author of "Bambi," Felix Salten.

The 1959 version of Shaggy Dog was Disney’s first live-action comedy, it marked a turning point for the studio, which began to put less emphasis on fairy tales and more on teen-oriented 20th Century stories.

Several popular spin-offs followed, including "The Absent-Minded Professor" (1961) , "The Shaggy D.A." (1976) and "Return of the Shaggy Dog" (1987). Some say that Disney needs to get some new ideas, because this one has been played out.

I tried for about 20 minutes to find articles that put this movie in a positive light, but I did not find ANY. Maybe critics are overly harsh, or maybe it really isn’t good.

I think I will wait until this comes out to rent.

Have any of you seen this movie? The shaggy dog looks pretty cute, although a little too CGI for my taste, but that’s just from the movie screenshots I found. If you have seen this movie, let me know what you thought!