- Content: “Flawed But Heartwarming Superhero Adventure”
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What You Need To Know:
CHARLIE THE WONDERDOG is an entertaining tear-jerker of an animated movie with solid animation, a committed voice cast, fun action, a surprisingly emotional core, and honorable messages. A few inconsistencies and production problems should have been addressed to make the movie a little more polished. However, CHARLIE THE WONDERDOG has a strong moral worldview with redemptive elements. It extols friendship, family, kindness, motherhood, and helping others. The title character saves people and puts others before himself. The movie also says good values are what make a true hero. CHARLIE THE WONDERDOG has some violence, name calling and rude humor. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for young children.
Content:
Very strong moral worldview with some Christian elements in a redemptive sense where title character saves people and put others before himself, an emphasis on true heroes not needing to have superpowers, but that what makes them heroes are the virtues they practice and their belief in themselves and others, two songs by Bryan Adams during the end credits accentuate the ideas that anything is possible, and that people don’t need to be like Superman to do good, and movie extols friendship, family, kindness, teamwork, the role of motherhood, and helping others in need;
No obscenities or profanities, but there are some vulgarities, some minor gross humor and rude moments, including words like sucks, runt, moron, dimwit, dumb dog, what the hoot, stupid-looking, and “dundermutt,” plus a dog licks his owner’s face, a Froot Loop goes up a human nostril, cat slurps another cat’s drool, cat sneezes on a human, a character burps a couple of times, a cat vomits, a fly goes up a cat’s nose, and an end credits illustration depicts a hot dog eating contest;
Several instances of characters in peril, some superhero violence with no blood, a character slaps another character on the cheek, and a dog bites a human, but there is no blood;
No sex (a man and a woman peck on the lips);
No nudity, but a schoolgirl wears a blouse showing a little bit of skin;
Characters drink celebratory champagne, and one of them spits it out;
No smoking or drugs;
A good character destroys a window to get to a location where people are in danger and throws people out of a museum to save them, a character lies, mother allows her child to disobey her, and a character gets food while people are in danger and eats while trying to save them at the same time, an evil dog says he identifies as a cat, but he’s not good at being a cat, and a human doesn’t acknowledge him as one, and a character says, “We’re making dog food fabulous again,” parodying Trump’s MAGA slogan.
More Detail:
CHARLIE THE WONDERDOG begins with an alien pet chasing after a ball in a spacecraft. The pet runs on top of an escape pod’s flight commands and inadvertently sets the pod’s coordinates to Earth, where it crashes. A woman witnesses the crash and runs to the landing site. She sees the injured pet crawl out of the pod and takes care of it.
A few years later, the woman gifts her infant son, Danny, with a golden retriever puppy whom she names Charlie. As both Danny and Charlie grow up and play together and Danny attends school, Charlie gets weaker and unable to go up the house stairs. One day, an alien spaceship arrives at Charlie’s backyard and kidnaps him and the neighborhood cat, Puddy.
The alien queen instructs her spoiled alien prince to pick out of the many creatures his new pet, including Charlie and Puddy. The prince gives powers to several of the creatures. After the prince refuses to decide on a pet, he throws every pet through the airlock. The queen sends every creature back to their planet of origin.
Danny wakes up the next morning. To his surprise, he finds Charlie talking to him. Charlie explains to Danny what happened, and he realizes that not only can he talk, but he can fly and has super strength. Meanwhile, Puddy reveals to his owner, Otis, that he can talk and has telekinetic powers. Puddy throws objects at Otis and demands to be fed, but Otis and Puddy live in a dirty home where nothing gets cleaned.
Despite Danny’s initial hesitation, Charlie saves people in danger and becomes Charlie the Wonderdog. This gets the attention of the President of the United States. As Charlie’s popularity grows and dog food demand skyrockets, cat food product declines, and Puddy will stop at nothing to ruin Charlie and take over the world. Charlie and Danny must step up to the plate to save the day.
CHARLIE THE WONDERDOG is an entertaining tearjerker of an animated movie with mostly solid animation, a committed voice cast and fun action. It also has a surprisingly emotional core that compliments well with its honorable message. The only recognizable star, and the movie’s selling point, is Owen Wilson as the title character. After what he did with Lightning McQueen in the CARS trilogy, viewers will recognize his signature twang and immediately fall in love with Charlie.
A few other standouts include Ruari MacDonald as Puddy, Dawson Littman as Danny and Tabitha St. Germain as President Rose. Both MacDonald and Germain deliver maniacal performances as expected for their characters. However, the beating heart of this whole movie is Dawson Littman. He portrays a boy who only wants one thing: for his talking superhero canine companion to believe in himself and to be true to the kind person he already is.
The animation mostly hits with its slick design. A couple of inconsistencies and head scratchers, including a sign facing the wrong direction, a scene where they show an obvious fake video, or the question about who Danny’s father is, should have been addressed to make the script a little more polished. Older audiences will wish the movie had taken time for more story and character development, but younger audiences will not ultimately care and will laugh and enjoy what unfolds onscreen.
CHARLIE THE WONDERDOG has a strong moral worldview with some redemptive elements. For example, the title character saves people and puts others before himself. Also, the movie acknowledges that true heroes don’t need to have superpowers, but that what makes them heroes are the virtues they practice and their belief in themselves and others. Of course, as Christians, we know that God is the one who truly helps us be good.
In addition, an evil dog in the movie says that he identifies as a cat, but he’s not good at being a cat, and a human doesn’t acknowledge him as one. A character also says, “We’re making dog food fabulous again,” parodying Trump’s MAGA slogan. Two songs by Bryan Adams during the end credits accentuate that anything is possible and not needing to be like the Man of Steel. Finally, the movie also extolls friendship, family, kindness, teamwork, motherhood, and helping others in need.
However, CHARLIE THE WONDERDOG has some violence, name calling and rude humor, So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for young children.
Because of the cartoon violence, language, gross moments, and a character not making amends for bad behavior, MOVIEGUIDE® recommends media-wisdom to discuss.
