My 3 year old loves animal movies, even Beverly Hills Chihuahua (which let's face it was pretty average at best). She didn't like this movie at all.

It's not cute, it's not adult, it's not a lot of things and the most important thing it isn't is entertaining.

This film is a horrible adaptation from a beloved cartoon - the characters are not really likable, there is a confusing mish-mosh of adult aimed humor and situations involving the dogs, and then just horrible parts featuring the humans. William H Macy is sinister and extremely creepy as the dog food company owner - he could have been kooky and funny, a little zany perhaps, but no, he comes across as aggressive, pushy and sinister.

The story itself is stupid and lacking in any real interest for the young kids this movie is really supposed to be aimed at. The adults forced to take the kids won't find anything better in it either.

I would advise anyone not to even both renting it for a dollar, it's not worth it, and I don't say that about many movies.

CGI may be very clever and way better than it used to be, but this movie over uses it to the point of boredom on the part of the viewer.

CGI isn't enough if there is no real, interesting story - I for one could care less about Phil and his new job at the pet food company.

Nothing about this movie is appealing!

Since I'm a big dog lover (and I loved 'Beverly Hills Chihuahua'), I had great expectations for 'Marmaduke'. It's based on a well-known comic strip but isn't as intense as 'Chihuahua'. The plot focuses on Phil, a marketing consultant, who moves his family from Kansas to Orange County, California after being hired by Don Twombly (William H. Macy), owner of Bark Organics, a new age pet food company. Phil owns the star of the film, a Great Dane named Marmaduke (who speaks to the film audience but cannot be heard by the characters in the film). Marmaduke the film is less sophisticated than 'Chihuahua' since its human antagonist, Twombly, is a wacky passive-aggressive type as opposed to the more realistic, sinister gang member/dog napper in Beverly Hills Chihuahua (BHC).

Just like in BHC, Marmaduke, our dog protagonist, is opposed by an aggressive and intimidating canine, Bosco (a Beauceron). Phil's internal arc is linked to Marmaduke's as they both make the mistake of becoming social climbers and turn their back on family and friends. In Phil's case, he comes up with an ad campaign involving a dog surfing contest, designed to attract Petco as a possible buyer of Bark Organic pet food. Phil becomes so involved in his job that he doesn't pay enough attention to his children.

Meanwhile, Marmaduke is trying to impress Bosco's girlfriend, a beautiful collie named Jezebel, by staging a fight with his cat friend, Carlos, at a dog park (George Lopez voices Carlos and also can be heard as a canine sidekick in BHC). Soon afterward, Marmaduke wins the dog surfing contest but alienates the Petco executives when he gets into a fight with Bosco.

Things only get worse for the human and dog protagonists. Marmaduke's mixed breed friends which include Mazie (who jealously watches from afar when Marmaduke goes on a 'dream date' with Jezebel) Raisin, a brainy Dachshund with an English accent and Giuseppe, a fearful Chinese crested pooch, boycott the party he throws for the pedigree dogs from the dog park. After Bosco exposes the link between Carlos and Marmaduke, the uppity pedigree dogs led by Bosco, trash Phil's house and leave Marmaduke with a shattered ego. Crushed by the rejection by those who he considered his friends, Marmaduke runs off to the woods where he meets a dog in the wild, Chupadogra, an old English Mastiff who is reputed to have killed his owner.

Chupadogra reinforces the theme of the movie: never judge a book by its cover. Chupadogra, in actuality, was the leader of a pack of strays who abandoned him. He's not as scary once you get to know him and ends up saving Marmaduke by chasing off a rather unpleasant dog catcher. Meanwhile, Phil returns from his work/vacation and promptly drops his laptop in the backyard pool which contains his final ad campaign to woo Petco.

Phil finally realizes that he has betrayed his values and tells Don he can't attend the big meeting with Petco since he has to find the lost Marmaduke. In a dramatic denouement, Phil saves Marmaduke from drowning after he falls into a rainwater conduit and is swept away by raging waters. Marmaduke too sees the light by returning to the dog park, speaks out against prejudice (he argues mixed breeds are just as good as pedigrees) and wins over all the dogs, except for Bosco who exits, vowing revenge.

Unlike BHC, where I was laughing out loud at some of the jokes, 'Marmaduke' will not have you rolling on the floor. A lot of the jokes are pretty corny (especially the bit about Marmaduke farting). Nonetheless, at its core, 'Marmaduke' has a positive message in its rejection of careerism and the need for tolerance between people who come from diverse backgrounds.

I am not going to compare copiously here, but I do agree about Marmaduke being a poor adaptation. It isn't completely awful, as the locations and photography are striking and the soundtrack is infectious. Plus there is the occasional good amount of CGI. However, what let it down was the weakness of the story and script. The story is the sort of story that works better as a 30 minute animated short at least, the whole plot felt not only very predictable but very overstretched too. While the script is decidedly lacklustre at best, with humour that would be perhaps too sophisticated for kids and too childish for adults. Kids may like it because the dogs are quite cute and do look good, though in regards to the CGI I do think there is too much of it. The direction is not exactly a high point either, like the story it is never sure of what it wants to do, and the acting is pretty weak, well the voice work was passable but the human characters are not developed or written well at all and the performances suffer as a consequence. In conclusion, partially succeeds as a kids movie, fails as a family movie, in my opinion of course. 3/10 Bethany Cox