Arctic Dogs review
Know Before You Go:
Movie: Arctic Dogs
Rating: PG
Age Suggestion: 5+
Running Time: 1 hour 33 mins
Release Date: November 1st, 2019
Stars: 3 out of 5
Themes: Self identity, Love, Dreams, Honesty, Friendship, Heroes
Warnings: Parents should know there are some slow scenes and concepts younger children would not understand, as well as your typical scary villain cartoon scenes.
Quick Summary:
A fun winter movie about the importance of dreams, knowing who you are, friendship, and being proud of who you are. Swifty is an arctic fox with dreams of being a “Top Dog”, the mail delivery dogs idolized by the entire town. As Swifty tries to impress those around him and does everything he can to be a “Top Dog”, he discovers that sometimes your dreams aren’t always what they seem. the importance of loving yourself for who you are, friendship, and the importance of honesty are all part of Swifty’s journey in this lighthearted family movie filled with great voice actors.
Warning: SPOILERS beyond this point
Movie Discussion Questions:
- Who is a hero you look up to?
- What do you want to be when you grow up?
- How do you think that you can be a hero?
- How do your differences make you special? How do you think you can use those differences to help others?
- All of Swifty’s friends had to band together to save their town. Who would you ask for help to save the day?
Arctic Dogs Review:
Characters & Acting:
– Swifty is a fun character with the familiar voice of Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye- Avengers). He wants desperately to be the hero of the story and does not think he is good enough the way he is. He lies and stretches the truth regularly throughout the movie. Although in the end he discovers this is not the best way of life.
– We thoroughly enjoyed figuring out who all the voices were. there were a lot of big voices on the screen like Anjelica Huston, Alec Baldwin, James Franco and John Cleese! And that was just a few of the voice actors, definitely check out the imbd article after you see it and see if you caught who was who.
Script & Story:
– The script is comedic, light hearted, and well done, however the redemption of the main characters comes within the last 5 minutes of the movie and almost seems like an after thought,. Which was disappointing, they could have done a lot more with that.
– The humor was well thought out and was not the classic “silly” humor you sometimes get in children’s movies. The entire movie was very well scripted.
– There are many themes in this movie and they are done very subtly, but it is almost too subtle. I didn’t realize what they were trying to portray until the very end. They were trying, unsuccessfully, to go in too many directions.
– Overall they do have redemption of the main characters and show that being yourself is the way to go, and it is a fun movie. There are no major plot holes and they do wrap everything up. Not a great movie, but it is fun.
Film Quality:
– The movie had some really wonderful animation, with some really beautiful scenes of the arctic. There were some fun and really creative types of animation throughout the movie. Overall really great quality.
Final Thoughts:
A fun movie that is worth seeing with your kids, but you can wait to rent it. It won’t be a classic that will have sequels and will be watched for years to come, but kids will really enjoy it. A good family movie and a safe watch in theaters for the long fall/winter breaks coming up.
What to check out next:
-Check out our review of the movie Abominable here!
-You might be interested in our review of Dora, Descendants 3, Toy Story 4, Aladdin, Lion King or the Missing Link. Also check out our blog about 10 questions to ask the people you live with besides “How was your day?” here.
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