I found out that the plot of the movie has absolutely nothing in common with the cartoon it's based on. The movie version has Underdog as a regular dog who gets genetically altered, providing him with superpowers and the ability to talk. Later he befriends a 12 year old kid. This is worse than Garfield: The Movie.
I had a feeling it would be like this from the first trailer previews. It would have been sort of cute to see him working his day job as a dog that somehow everyone thinks is not a dog (like maybe he just puts on some glasses. I forget what Underdog's day job is or if he even has one, I'm thinking of Hong Kong Fooey probably) but clearly they aren't taking that route.
He shines shoes. As Shoeshine boy. In the cartoon everyone else was a dog too, but a full cast of dogs (rendered or otherwise) probably isn't as profitable as a few starring roles filled by B-list Hollywood actors.
At least it's not Bill Murray further degrading his twilight acting years.
G.Silver wrote:I had a feeling it would be like this from the first trailer previews. It would have been sort of cute to see him working his day job as a dog that somehow everyone thinks is not a dog (like maybe he just puts on some glasses. I forget what Underdog's day job is or if he even has one, I'm thinking of Hong Kong Fooey probably) but clearly they aren't taking that route.
Now that you mention that, a Hong Kong Phooey movie would've been kinda cool, as would a Secret Squirrel movie, or even an Atom Ant movie.
They could've easily made it closer to the cartoon by not making it live-action. At least the Rocky and Bullwinkle movie kept the characters as they were supposed to be.
...and Fearless Leader, I know. I can't say I'm a fan of the whole "TV is a seperate reality" thing. They pulled the same crap with the Fat Albert movie. If they really wanted to avoid having the cartoons' age get in the way, they didn't have to do it like that.
Or rather, Eggman was the sole human in a world filled with one furry that had yet to be called one and a bunch of little animals. Way, way back in the day.
Speaking of which that really messes with my head. Why the hell are some animals five feet tall and some like, ten inches? I assume this has come up before on these boards and I just wasn't around?
I just assumed that some species evolved and some didn't, or that they all evolved but their ancestors continued to be prosperous, like wild dogs and cats do with domestic ones. Or that a few select animals were blessed by the 7 fairy queens with the gift of human likeness, that they might save the world from the demon warlord Black Cock, king of moist nightmares, Eggman's true identity, and if their friendship is pure they will one day become real humans! It could be anything, really.
Sonic is what I'd have classified as a an "Inkblot". A character who looks humaoid but possesses some inhuman qualities along with one solid body color. Examples of this are Mickey, Felix, Oswald, Bosko, and probably Flip the Frog. The difference here is that Sonic blue rather than black.
Shadow Hog wrote:Funny, I thought the point of "inkblot" was that a good character should be distinguishable if all you could see of them was their silhouette.