AGW Entertainment reporter Lynn b. saw a new Disney family comedy. Here are her thoughts on....

SNOW DOGS

Walt Disney Pictures

Star of the family comedy Snow Dogs, Cuba Gooding Jr. says "I'm out in the cold, thirty-something below and they put me on the back of a snowmobile. There's wind and it was the first time that I'd ever been in the extreme cold like this. The moisture on your nose hair freezes immediately, so it feels like you have rocks in your nose...but you get used to it". Ewwww, don't think so, Cuba. Shooting near Banff, Canada, the whole "Dogs" cast and crew had to deal with extreme conditions and a beautiful but high maintenance cast of canine actors....but they all say it was a really happy shoot.

Successful Miami dentist Ted Brooks (Cuba Gooding Jr.) runs an upscale office called "Hot Smile" and his sports car's plate is "Open Wyder". His face is on buses and his partner is his wacky cousin Rupert (Sisqo). Life is sweet but when he learns he's adopted and his birth mom has named him in her will, he travels to Alaska where he discovers his inheritance is a crack team of ornery sled dogs. Crusty Mountain Man Thunder Jack (James Coburn) wants to buy the team for peanuts and Ted becomes attracted to local bartender Barb (Joanna Bacalso).

At first, Ted wants no part of all of this great White North fiasco but curiosity about his birth parents and a challenge to learn to "mush" and enter a big sled race, keeps him in town to prove himself to Thunder Jack, Barb and the townspeople.

Snow isn't the only thing that is "clean" in this film. It's definitely geared to please the whole family and, at least part of the time, succeeds. Poor Cuba Gooding is in totally new territory in this comedy. He gets the work-out of his life as he (and his stunt man) is dragged behind sleds, is sprayed by a skunk, is thrown off cliffs, lives through a plane crash, almost drowns in an ice-filled lake and is knocked off his feet by gale force snow. Younger kids will get a kick out of all the physical comedy but, for the older crowd, it gets a little repetitive.

The cute "Northern Exposure"-style Alaskan town is stocked full of cliche quirky characters and one babe that you just know Cuba will hook up with. Native American actor Graham Greene who plays Peter Yellowbear was a regular in the "Northern Exposure" t.v. series so the similarity is probably intentional. The scenery throughout the film is amazing. Veteran actor James Coburn is appropriately cranky as Thunder Jack and the elegant Uhura of Star Trek fame (Nichelle Nichols) is fun as Cuba's adoptive mom. It's wild to see recording star Sisqo as a rather nerdy dentist.

The dogs are beautiful but the trailer for the film is a bit misleading. They only talk in a dream sequence. So no "Babe" with sled dogs here. They do wink and communicate in other ways, however. The wrap-up of the film goes overboard in the "happy ending" department and is almost too cutesy. Snow Dogs is a bit corny but there's enough there to make it worthwhile to take your younger siblings or make it a family outing.

I give the film 3 out of 5 stars.

Directed by: Brian Levant (Beethoven, Jingle All the Way, The Flintstones)
Screenplay by: Michael Goldberg & Tommy Swerdlow (Cool Runnings, Little Giants, Bushwacked)
Starring:
Cuba Gooding Jr. as Ted Brooks
James Coburn as Thunder Jack
Sisqo as Dr. Rupert Brooks
Nichelle Nichols as Amelia
Joanna Bacalso as Barb
Graham Greene as Peter Yellowbear

Rated: PG

Official website: www.disney.com/snowdogs