accessAtlanta

'The Shaggy Dog': Tim Allen rolls over a bumpy plot

It's not often an actor gets a chance to literally chew up the scenery. But the cast members of "The Shaggy Dog," especially stars Tim Allen and Robert Downey Jr., sink their teeth so far into the suspect material that what could have been a routine Disney remake joyfully bounds past its mediocre script and plot. It's simply hard to watch the cast having this much fun and not go along for the ride.

Buena Vista Pictures 'The Shaggy Dog' 3 out of 5 stars The verdict: When Allen and Downey have fun, so do we. Director: Brian Robbins Starring: Tim Allen, Kristin Davis, Danny Glover, Craig Kilborn, Robert Downey Jr. Run time: 92 minutes Release date: March 10, 2006 Rating: PG for some mild rude humor. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'The Shaggy Dog'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Allen plays Dave Douglas, a district attorney hopeful arguing a case against his daughter's teacher — an animal-hugger accused of setting fire to what he claims is an evil corporate lab engaging in illegal animal testing. The lab is run by Dr. Kozak, played with dismissive, sociopathic glee by Downey. Through convoluted and improbable means involving Kozak, the lab and Tibetan mysticism, Douglas finds himself taking on canine characteristics and eventually transforming into a full-fledged sheepdog.

The legal-battle plot is hackneyed but better than the original's Cold War spy caper. And it allows for the funniest courtroom scenes since Jim Carrey's "Liar, Liar." In fact, this is the kind of role that Carrey once might have played, but, although it seems strange to talk about nuance when referring to grown men acting like dogs, it's hard to imagine him matching Allen's finesse here.

The film is funniest when Allen is in human form but acting like a dog. At first, he enjoys his heightened senses of smell and hearing (like Jeff Goldblum in "The Fly," but without the horrific consequences). He laps his cereal straight from the bowl and chases cats through the neighborhood on all fours ruining landscaping and sending old ladies flying into trees.

But post-transformation, when we see a sheepdog but hear Allen's voice-over (a cutting-edge special effect in the 1959 original!) the flick kicks into boring, moral meandering as ambitious Douglas learns how his neglected family (thematically plucked from so many other Disney remakes including "The Parent Trap," "Cheaper by the Dozen" and "Yours, Mine and Ours") really feels about him.

Speaking of special effects, they bear mention here. Kozak's lab is filled with computer-generated genetic mutations that might frighten small children at first but eventually become comic heroes: snakes, mice and monkeys that act like dogs, barking and chasing their own tails. There's also a particularly creepy/cute hybrid: an amphibian with the head of a bulldog (my son called it a bullfrog) that looks like it might have hopped out of Sid's twisted toy chest in the original "Toy Story." (I can't wait to see the plush dolls at the Disney Store.)

The film is 10 minutes too long and veers into "Dr. Doolittle" territory toward the end, but, in spite of that (and a scary "cow-prod" scene — it's funny in a slapstick way when the tazing victim is an evil human, not so much when it's a helpless dog), Disney has taught this old "Shaggy Dog" some entertaining new tricks.