Director: Tony Randel
Writer: Jim Wynorski (Screenplay)
Starring: Kurt Yaeger, John Henry Richardson, Walker Mintz, Jayden Hedden, Jonathan Tysor, Sydne Thackray, Dilan Patton
Plot: A telepathic dog enlists a group of fun loving kids to help him solve a mystery. The K-9 detective leads the children down a road filled with action and adventure.
Runtime: 1 Hour 24 Minutes
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Fun Family Film
Story: A Doggone Adventure starts as four children David (Mintz), Ricky (Hedden), Jeremy (Tysor) and Jenny (Thackray) are looking to follow in David and Ricky’s father Steven (Yaeger) footsteps as a unsolved mystery hunter, role in Murphy the Jack Russell whose owner has gone missing, now he is looking to locate Steven to help solve the mystery.
Murphy meets the children and joins thm on investigating their haunted house with his telepathic ability, only for the real owner Masters (Richardson) to arrive after leaving him and with an evil organisation after Murphy the mystery turns into an adventure.
Thoughts on A Doggone Adventure
Characters – Steven Hill is the father of the family who has just seen his show cancelled on television, his show has given his kids the inspiration to follow in his footsteps one day, but now he must be the responsible father. Masters is the former owner of Murphy that had to let him go free instead of getting captured, he puts the plan together to save Murphy. Murphy is the Jack Russell with telepathic powers, he talks to the people and soon shows his intelligence while trying to stay ahead of anyone that is after him.
Performances – The performances in the film are good throughout, we have our adults that show the experience, which gives us a mix of the serious levels and comedic levels the film needs, while the child stars are good too, as they seem like they have been friends for a while now.
Story – The story here is about a telepathic dog which befriends children to stay ahead of an evil organisation that wants to use him for their own benefits. The story is targeted to a young audience and does deliver on this, but if filled with Easter Eggs for the older audience to look out for. The film does keep everything simple to follow and does sprinkle comedy in the story which will get you chuckling through the film.
Adventure/Family – The adventure we see unfold here is everything the children want from their own lives which is what we like seeing from an adventure film, the family side of the film is how the film is targeted to a young family member but does have references the older family members will understand.
Settings – The film uses the idea of a haunted house and government cover ups, the settings do however show us the level of budget which is lower and makes this feel like a television series over a film.
Scene of the Movie – The escape.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The kids are given one too many lines when it comes to puns or one liners to commentate on what is happening.
Final Thoughts – This is a fun family film that animal lovers can enjoy, it has a nice amount of comedy which hits more than it misses and gives us a good sense of adventure.
Overall: Grab the family and enjoy.
Rating
