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Written by Mandroid3000
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ROVER DANGERFIELD
*1/2 out of *****
Genres
Animation
Comedy
Dogs
Family
Musical
1991
Directed by
Jim George
Bob Seeley
Written by
Rodney Dangerfield
Jeff Schimmel
Harold Ramis (story)
Voice Cast
Rodney Dangerfield .... Rover Dangerfield
Ronnie Schell .... Eddie
Ned von Leuck .... Raffles
Dana Hill .... Danny
Sal Landi .... Rocky
Don Stewart .... Clem
I wanted to like Rover Dangerfield, I really did. I’m a fan of Rodney Dangerfield, and while the idea of him as a cartoon dog isn’t exactly a dream come true for me, I thought I’d enjoy it. Sadly, Rover Dangerfield is a rather strained film. Occasionally there’s a laugh, but large stretches go by with nothing of any interest happening at all.
Rover lives on the streets of Las Vegas, and is owned by a showgirl, Connie. She has a lousy boyfriend called Rocky. Rover and his pal Eddie decide to follow Rocky, and see him in the middle of closing some sort of illegal deal. But the dogs smash a window and the other party take off because they think it was the cops. Rocky swears revenge on the dogs.
Unfortunately for Rover, Connie goes on the road and leaves Rocky in charge of him. First thing Rocky does is put Rover in a sack and toss him off the Hoover Dam. Happy stuff so far, perfect for the kids. Luckily Rover’s saved by some farmers and is given to a family.
So that’s the setting. A wise-cracking dog from the big city forced to live on a farm. There’s not a rich vein of comedy gold to be tapped here, and the film comes up empty again and again. Oh I nearly forgot, there are also bad musical numbers. Rodney Dangerfield isn’t the world’s worst singer, but even the world’s best singer couldn’t make these song come alive. They sound like they were written by someone who’s heard a lot of great show tunes, but doesn’t have the talent to write one themselves.
Rover Dangerfield isn’t all attempted singing-and-dancing. Rover gets a girlfriend, Daisy, and they often have quite serious discussions about whether to live on the farm or move to the city. The farmer decides to shoot Rover because he thinks he killed some of the chickens (it was done by wolves). Of course that ne’er-do-well Rover saves the day when they farmer is attacked by wolves himself.
Nothing really comes together to make this much of a movie. The story doesn’t have much urgency to it. Rover gets pretty tiresome, and the jokes on the whole don’t work. Even for Rodney Dangerfield fans, this is more of a curio than anything else.
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