The Good
This is a good film for kids.
The Bad
This is a good film for kids.Beverly Hills Chihuahua is the tale of Chloe (voiced by Drew Barrymore) and what happens to her when she gets lost in Mexico. Aiding her in her quest to return home is the another Chihuahua named Delgado (voiced by Andy Garcia), and trying to help her come back from the other side of the border is Papi (George Lopez). As you can guess this movie is filled with the usual amount of pratfalls, site gags and other things that go into making up a film of this nature.
If you have a young child and you can afford a Blu-ray player in today's economy, I would suggest picking up this film.
Features
Blu-ray Bonus Features
Pet Pals
For this well put together featurette Barrymore, Lopez and the other actors sit down, play nice, and say all the right things for the camera. Anybody expecting anything groundbreaking from this segment might be very disappointed. I will say that Disney has really made things look good on this featurette but I am not sure that High Definition was totally needed in this segment. I am sure that people unfamiliar with the voice talent will be happy to watch this but do kids really care?
Hitting Their Bark
Deleted Scenes
Director Raja Gosnell has taken it upon himself to introduce these deleted scenes. I seriously can't believe that he felt the need to justify cutting certain portions of this film. I am not going to focus on this. What I will say is that these scenes look every bit as good as the rest of the movie. Please check out the "Look" section of this review to see what I mean.
Standard Bonus Features
- Deleted Scenes
- Bloopers
- Legend of the Chihuahua
- Director's Commentary
Okay, I had to comment on this. Who in their right mind wants to sit back and hear Raja Gosnell talk about making this movie? What cineaste actually needs that behind the scenes information about this film? Could there have been a bigger waste of 91 minutes than there was creating this commentary track?
Video
1080p High Definition / 2.40:1. This feature can be screened in 1080p or 1080i. As much as I didn't enjoy viewing this movie, I will say that it did look good. It was rich with vibrant colors and texture (I can't believe I just wrote that about this Blu-ray disc). Since most Disney films have that dyspeptic look about them, I can't say that I am really surprised that things look so good here. While I never felt that Director of Photography Phil Meheux was really doing anything that special, I do think that he had the Blu-ray format in mind when he was lensing this Chihuahua opus.
Audio
English 5.1 Uncompressed (48 kHz/24 bit). English, French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital. One can also access English, Spanish 5.1 or 2.0 Dolby Digital. Subtitled in English and Spanish. This movie sounded good but I have to be honest, as I have absolutely no hearing in one ear, I can't say for certain that I really got what they mean by "uncompressed" audio. Things sounded as rich as a movie about Chihuahua's can sound, I guess. Nothing really blew me away but this isn't the kind of movie that you're going to test out your speakers with (even though it is in the next generation format).
Package
The main dogs in this film are featured on this front cover with the palm trees of Beverly Hills behind them. The back cover offers up technical specs, a Bonus features listing, a movie description, some shots from the film, and a cast list. There isn't anything that different about this packaging but I think the name recognition alone should be enough for it to sell many units.
Final Word
Disney knows better than to make a movie like this.
Yes, I know that it's a kid's film but to be so blatant as to put "The Greatest Chihuahua Movie Of All Time" on the front cover of the Blu-ray box, this really says something. I know that the Mouse House has a history of releasing movies of this nature (Air Bud, anyone?), but there was something so off putting about this film that it almost bordered on the obscene.
I could continue to write about this movie but it's Sunday and I have other better things to do. That said, my review, good or bad, isn't going to impact the success that this movie has on DVD and Blu-ray disc. With $138 million in worldwide revenue, something tells me that we haven't seen the last of these little critters.
Beverly Hills Chihuahua was released October 3, 2008.