Laura Hall-Schordje I found Good Boy! while flipping through channels this afternoon and was pulled in to watch it all. There is not other word for the movie but cute--it is not great art, but a delightful little fantasy about dogs and people and their special bond. The voice actors for the dogs are excellent, with a special shout out for Brittany Murphy's nervous Nelly--quite touching. There is not much computerized distortion of the dogs' appearance so the dogs are cute and natural. If you are going to make a movie about dogs, it is nice to see real dogs. Hubble is adorable! The acting is a little stiff and formulaic from most characters, but Liam Aiken gives an amazingly natural and touching performance. I cared about this kid and Hubble the dog. I admit to a few tears at the end. Nice for the whole family--even my cat-person son liked this.

robert-temple-1 This film, made in Vancouver with the Jim Henson team, speaking dogs, and the assistance of Canine Co-Stars of Canada, is an excellent dog comedy on a way-out theme. Indeed, the theme is so way out that it is 8.6 light years away to be precise. It concerns the colonization of Earth by dogs from a planet in the system of the Dog Star, Sirius, in the distant past, and a contemporary inspection visit by a terrier who crash-lands in his space ship in a suburb of Vancouver. Sirius today is ruled by a matriarch known as the Greater Dane (real dog's name, Valentino, and her voice is that of Vanessa Redgrave), whose ears rise up in points exactly like those of the ancient Egyptian Anubis. Dogs are supposed to be the masters of the planet Earth, but they are discovered to have sunk to the ignominious status of pets. This a deep shock to Agent 3942, the terrier. He is taken in by a human boy named Owen, engagingly played by Liam Aiken. Aiken's parents, well played by Molly Shannon and Kevin Nealon, are charmingly eccentric and amusing, which all adds to the light-hearted atmosphere of this dotty spoof of a film. There are lots of great dogs, ranging from the pathetic to the splendid. They are all superbly trained and we get countless laughs from the wild antics in this story. No one is embarrassed that the plot is intentionally ridiculous, they just go for it shamelessly and with gusto. It all adds up to lots of fun for all, and the dogs must have enjoyed it. The tale has its perilous side: there is a threat of 'Global Recall' by the Greater Dane, who is so horrified at the lowered status of Earth Dogs that she threatens to evacuate them all back to Sirius, leaving mankind destitute of our 'best friends'. Only Owen and Agent 3942 (re-named Hubble, as in the space telescope) can save the world from this terrible fate. As the film progresses, Agent 3942 alias Hubble lightens up a bit, and when Owen tells him he is a 'Good Boy', Hubble, who of course can speak, tells Owen he is a 'Good Boy' too. But will the world be saved from 'Global Recall'? Will we all lose our dogs? The disappearances begin, and some are taken away in a flying saucer. Can this be stopped in time? They say that for every time warp there is a corresponding woof, and we certainly have lots of woofs in this film. Its ending must remain a Sirius mystery. And by the way, the Sphinx is Anubis. So don't be too sceptical about the origins and dignity of dogs, and their innate superiority to humans. But I wonder where they got all these ideas from, from some blog on the dogosphere no doubt. This is the only film directed by American actor John Hoffman, who also wrote it, and did both jobs very well. Which star system will he visit next? The Hollywood Star System?

KCRein This is a great movie for anyone. I bought the DVD a week ago and I must have watched it 11 times since!! O.K., the whole dogs as aliens thing is a little strange, but it sure is cute.This movie is about a 12 year old boy named Owen (Liam Aiken) who walks neighborhood dogs so he can make money to buy his own dog. Owen finally gets his own dog and names him Hubble. But Hubble isn't your ordinary dog. Turns out Hubble is an interplanetary agent from the dog star Sirius and he can TALK!! In fact all the dogs Owen walks can talk, too. Owen discovers that dogs were first sent to Earth to rule the world.What makes this movie so entertaining is the voices of the dogs. Lets see, there is Mathew Broderick, Delta Burke, Donald Faison, Cheech Marin, Brittany Murphy, Vanessa Redgrave, and Carl Reiner.This movie is a must see!!

rantinghuman I have an 8-year old, so I see a lot of films for kids, many of which I like. And in general, I like Molly Shannon and Kevin Nealon. There also were a fair number of respectable names doing voices, like Vanessa Redgrave and Carl Reiner. Matthew Broderick annoys me (except for "Ferris") but that's just me. A universal truth, however, is that this was the worst film I've ever seen: the worst acting, the worst writing, the clumsiest transitions and the most nonsensical developments. Even the make-up was bad. It was almost as if they were trying to make you squirm with dissonance. My GOSH it was awful! It was all I could do to keep from howling in pain in front of my daughter. ....My 8-year old daughter gave it the "thumbs up", though.