Underdog's mysterious origins begin in the wake of an accident in the high-tech lab of the maniacal scientist Dr. Simon Barsinister. Suddenly, an ordinary, down-and-out young Beagle named Shoeshine finds himself with extraordinary powers, not to mention the unexpected ability to turn his bark into real speech. Now, armed with a "fetching" superhero costume, this unlikely caped crusader and humbly self-described Underdog vows to protect the beleaguered citizens of Capitol City–especially one beautiful Spaniel named Polly Purebred. When a sinister plot by Barsinister and his overgrown henchman Cad, threatens to destroy Capitol City, only Underdog can save the day.
In the Capital building, Capital City's Mayor is giving a speech on crime and unsolved cases. Police dog "Alpha" (voice of Jason Lee), a bomb sniffing beagle, alerts everyone to one of the boxes. Thinking it is an explosive, the mayor is hustled out and everyone leaves. The bomb squad finds that it is nothing but a large slab of ham. Alpha comments that his sense of smell is nowhere near what it should be. He is laughed out of the building by his fellow canines. Outside, he loses his uniform and gets picked up by Cad (Patrick Warburton). Cad takes him to the basement at Growth Research Sciences and Alpha is placed in a cage along with several other dogs, some who look a bit worse for wear.
Security guard Dan Unger (James Belushi) arrives for his late night shift. At first he mistakenly refuses entry to Dr. Simon Barsinister (Peter Dinklage), but Barsinister produces his all access pass and embarrasses Dan. Cad appears and escorts Barsinister to the basement lab. Barsinister has Cad bring him Alpha, intending to do genetic experiments on him. But before the experiments can begin, Alpha bolts. The ensuing chase destroys the lab and gets Alpha doused with several chemicals. Alpha breaks his way out and onto the street.
Hours later while looking for food in a nearby alley, Alpha is accosted by Riff Raff (voice of Brad Garrett), a bullying Rottweiler and his two flunkies. Running to escape, Alpha strikes the car of Dan. Dan names him Shoeshine and takes the seemingly uninjured dog home as a gift to his son Jack (Alex Neuberger). Jack is less than thrilled with the gift and leaves for to school, leaving Shoeshine alone. Alone in an empty house, Shoeshine gets hungry and tries to find some food. Unfortunately, his powers kick in and he ends up trashing the living room and kitchen. When Jack gets home he is shocked to find the mess. He is even more stunned to find that Shoeshine can talk to him. Both agree that they need a breath of fresh are and head to a nearby park.
While at the park Jack and Shoeshine are getting to know the dog's full extent of his powers as well as getting to know each other. Soon they encounter Jack's friend Molly (Taylor Momsen) and her dog Polly (voice of Amy Adams). Shoeshine is smitten with Polly, but Polly is unimpressed. After they leave, Jack continues testing Shoeshine's abilities. Shoeshine hears Molly & Polly in trouble and flies off to save them. A new superhero is born: Underdog!
Do bomb sniffing dogs work only with explosives?
Unfortunately fans of the 1960's cartoon series Underdog will be disappointed in this remake. The cartoon is actually addressed in the first few minutes of the film and then disposed of for the rest of the story. Director Frederik Du Chau (Racing Stripes) seems intent on making a kid friendly film that has little to do with the original concept. What is left is basically a talking dog movie, a dog with superpowers. The script is weak, and some of the pacing moves way too fast. We don't really get to know some of the characters as well as the filmmakers think we have.
At least the cast seems to be having fun. I enjoyed Patrick Warburton's dimwitted Cad. Underdog's voice, Jason Lee, reminds me too much of the voiceovers during My Name Is Earl, but I suppose that can't be helped. Kids watching the film would not be likely to be familiar with his work on that TV series. Alex Neuberger is likeable and does a good job interacting with Shoeshine. The others in the cast, especially Belushi, barely register. They do the job they're supposed to, but the brief screen time they're given doesn't help them flesh out their characters.
In the end, I cannot recommend Underdog to fans of the original 1960's television cartoon series. For people unfamiliar with the TV show and especially children, the film may have some appeal (especially if they love dogs). The "PG" rating seems strong: no one is killed or seriously injured. There are a couple jokes with some mild innuendo, but I don't see anything that could keep this from being a "G" rated film.
The 1080p video is encoded in MPEG4 AVC. The picture quality is merely adequate for Blu-ray: it's decent, but nothing about it stands out to make one sit up and take notice. It's better than DVD, but nothing that you couldn't see on a decent HD cable broadcast. The film is colorful and natural looking with the exception of some outdoor shots that look a bit on the blown out side. There is no artifacts or edge enhancement, and grain is minimal to nonexistent.
One side effect of the transfer is that some of the visual effects come off a bit more cheesy than intended. The opening flyover of Capital City is very digital and unnatural looking, and some of the dog lip-sync effects are a little too rubbery and fake. In fact, it's easy to spot when a cat is supposed to say "freak" that they didn't even bother with a visual effect: the cat is merely licking his lips.
The soundtrack is presented in Uncompressed 16-bit PCM @48kHz (mislabeled 24-bit on the package). Like the video, the audio is merely adequate and nothing in particular stands out to make your ears take notice. Other than a few flybys, the mix is very front heavy. Even in the scene where Underdog gets his powers, the mix is still confined to the front with very little in the surrounds or the .1 LFE channel. The dog is running all over the lab, with consoles shattering and exploding all around the room, yet sound-wise it's all up in front. Other sequences (such as when Underdog first flies) are also missed opportunities. My subwoofer barely registered as he punched through walls of the office building or landed hard in the alley. A disappointing mix.
The sound is also presented in English, French, and Spanish Dolby Digital (DD) 5.1 @640kbps.
The supplement package is almost as brief as its running time. All extras from the DVD have been included, and they have received an upgrade to 1080 HD video. As excited as the director seems to be in his introductions to the deleted scenes, I'm surprised he didn't try to add a commentary to the film itself.
Deleted Scenes (various | MPEG4 AVC | DD 2.0 @192kbps): Six scenes with optional introductions from Director Frederik Du Chau. These scenes were cut or trimmed for pacing or because they were thought to be redundant. Considering the slight running time of the feature I don't see how including these would have hurt.
Bloopers (0:01:37 | MPEG4 AVC | DD 2.0 @192kbps): Gaffes by the cast and crew during filming. Short and sweet.
Sit. Stay. Act: Diary Of A Dog Actor (0:14:51 | VC-1 | DD 2.0 @192kbps): Making of featurette narrated by Jason Lee (in character as Shoeshine). Includes the branching feature "Dig Deeper" which fleshes out certain topics such as the original series or visual effects when selected. Worth a look.
"Underdog Raps" Music Video (0:02:38 | VC-1 | DD 5.1 @384kbps): End title rap song performed by Kyle Massey on a skyscraper set with clips from the film. Disney Channel filler.
Underdog Cartoons (9:28 total | VC-1 | DD 2.0 @192kbps): The first Underdog cartoon from 1964 "Safe Waif" along with the first cartoon featuring villain Simon Barsinister "Simon Says". Although presented in 1080i HD, they are limited by the original made for television source materials.
A harmless romp, Underdog will appeal mainly to the younger set. Adults who expect an exact recreation of the cartoon series will be disappointed. Those adults unfamiliar with the show may find it entertaining. Its brief running time doesn't give the audience a chance to get bored, and the kids will enjoy it. Worth a rental...barely.
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