Walt Disney Pictures Home Entertainment sent me a bullet in the mail and I decided to pull the trigger by sitting down to review the Blu-ray disc release of Beverly Hills Chihuahua even though I had already given it a “D-” in my theatrical review. However, one thing I hate doing is receiving an endless amount of DVDs and Blu-ray discs and not reviewing them based solely on the fact they are terrible movies. I feel it is immoral to receive a ton of free stuff and not give it at least some sort of mention. As for Disney I had already forgone reviewing Miracle at St. Anna and Swing Vote, two other awful movies, and Beverly Hills Chihuahua came along and I just couldn’t continue to ignore all their films. Thankfully they are paying me back with the just-arrived Blu-ray release of Pinnochio due out next week. Nice!
Obviously, the movie itself didn’t get any better and I can’t be sure who exactly this film was made for. I know Chihuahua lovers seem to be infatuated with the idea of seeing the little dogs talking and interacting on the big screen, but I have a hard time believing they would be so interested in the overgrown rats they would want to buy this movie and watch it over and over again. Perhaps young viewers would have some fun with this movie, but even that I have a hard time believing. Like I said, I don’t know who this movie was made for, but based on the $94 million it made at the domestic box-office there are people out there interested in seeing it and likely to pick up a copy for themselves. So, in that case I will let you in on what this disc has in store.
First off, yes, the picture looks great and the audio is a 5.1 uncompressed track. So sound and visuals are up to snuff. Beyond that you get a handful of featurettes, an audio commentary and a batch of deleted scenes.
First up is “Legend of the Chihuahua,” a three-minute animated short with details on the origins of the breed; “Pet Pals: The Voices Behind the Dogs” is a nine-minute self-explanatory feature that offers up questions such as “What kind of dog would I be?” to which Drew Barrymore says, “That’s a great question.” It is?
“Hitting Their Bark” is a 13-minute feature going behind the scenes of how to train and keep control of the dogs on the set. Considering the nature of the film and some of the things the dogs need to do, this one actually has some level of interest, but I wouldn’t feel bad for myself had I never seen it. There are also ten deleted scenes totally over 24 minutes and if you think I dug into those you can guess again. I did watch the three-minute blooper reel, which involved crazy antics and dogs disobeying commands. My dog disobeys commands on occasion so if you’ll excuse me I am going to go make a blooper reel while you read the final two paragraphs.
Most surprising is the fact they got director Raja Gosnell to sit in for an audio commentary. Of course, as silly and dumb as this movie is it would be irresponsible to not admit it must have been a nightmare to make. Dealing with dogs, plenty of stunts and trying to put it all together could not have been easy and during the commentary Gosnell even talks about some of the difficulties in pulling it off. This doesn’t make it any better, but I guess if I was Gosnell and put a ton of work into trying to make this trash I would want at least some recognition for my work. Then again Gosnell’s filmography, which includes the Scooby-Doo films, Big Momma’s House and Yours, Mine and Ours, isn’t exactly stellar so there may come a time when he would like to forget any of it ever happened.
In the end, I feel I have fulfilled my requirement in trying to review this disc, but I would never recommend it to anyone. There are so many other kid flicks to watch and plenty of dog related films if that is your desire. I would even say give Good Boy! a try before this one, but I really can’t imagine anyone even got this far in this review to even take in that suggestion. You are either buying this one or you aren’t, I don’t even see how renting it is a viable option.
