Posted in: Disc Reviews by Athena on February 11th, 2015
Athena here. That’s right, I’m the Siberian Husky that kind of runs things here at Gino’s house. Since I did such a great job doing the review on Snow Dogs, I decided to step in when I saw Gino watching yet another dog film. This time it was Walt Disney’s classic 101 Dalmatians. Naturally the film would have been better if it had been called 101 Siberian Huskies, but unfortunately the film was based on a popular children’s book by Dodie Smith who happened to have Dalmatians herself, so let’s not blame her; she didn’t know any better. Walt Disney himself discovered the story and took a personal interest in having it made into an animated film.
I’ve gotten to see a lot of these Disney classics, and the first thing that I noticed is the film was made in a dramatically different style than the previous Disney projects. The studio decided to abandon its smooth animation with fluid motion in exchange for a far more art-deco look. I don’t know about you humans, but this movie was a little harder on this doggie’s eyeballs. Lines jitter and move in such a way that there is always movement even if everything is standing still. You have to understand that this was not a studio getting cheap or failing in its own quality control. The animation style was a conscious choice by production head Bill Peet. Walt himself was publicly dissatisfied with the style. He was far more attached to the very fluid style his studio had become known for. The look had much to do with a new Xerox process that allowed the original artist drawings to, for the first time, be transferred directly to the transparent cel. This, of course, put a lot of artists out of work who used to do those transfers. The cruder character design was offset by a far more detailed background design. Using actual photographic plates of London locations, the animators created visually detailed backgrounds for the film. The movie is front-loaded with the credits in some clever dog-spot animation. It takes nearly four minutes to get to the story. Your human puppies might get a little impatient. By the way, look for Dodie Smith’s small credit size. It was the only thing she complained about in the film of her book.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Athena on March 23rd, 2009
Hi, Athena here. Well, this is going to be my last post for the doggie movies at Upcomingdiscs. Gino says it’s time to retire. He says my investments need to be cashed in so I can take it easy, before they’re all gone. I guess that means someone’s trying to eat up my treats. They better watch out or I’m going to go Siberian Husky all over them. I may be 14 years old and a little slow, but my teeth work just fine. Just ask Baby. She’s the newest member of the family here, and I had to let her know who the boss is right away, if you know what I mean.
Anyway…enough about me; of course there can never really be enough about me. Let’s talk about the latest Disney animation film, and the latest in a long line of movie dogs, namely Bolt (Travolta). Now, when this movie starts you get to meet Bolt and his human friend, Penny (Cyrus). Penny’s some kind of a spy or something, ‘cept she’s not really very good at it. You see, the bad guy is about to catch her, and I don’t think he wants her to give her some belly rubs. So, supercharged Bolt comes to the rescue. Man, that dog’s almost as cool as a Siberian Husky. He’s got something called super powers. He can shoot laser beams from his eyes and run faster than a race car. He even has a super bark that can cause earthquakes. Gino says it sounds and feels a lot like when I snore at night. Of course, Bolt is some kind of a white shepherd, and while they tried to make him look a little like a Siberian Husky, he isn’t one, so you know he doesn’t really have these super powers. Trust me, if Baby doesn’t watch out, she’s gonna see some real super powers, and that spells B I T E. Bolt is really just the star of a television show. The only thing is no one told Bolt that. So, when he thinks Penny has been kidnapped by the show’s villain, the Green-Eyed Man (McDowell), Bolt goes into action. He escapes his studio trailer and heads out into the great unknown to rescue her, just like on the show. He ends up locked in a box and shipped all the way across the country. Now he has to get back to California, before, at least he thinks, the Green-Eyed Man can do something bad to Penny. Along the way he meets up with a cute kitten, named Mittens (Essman) who was abandoned by her family, so she doesn’t think too highly of humans. He also meets Rhino (Walton), a hamster in a ball, who is a huge fan of Bolt’s television show, and like Bolt, thinks it’s all real. Along the way Bolt finds out that he really is an ordinary dog, and not a Husky, after all. But, this is a Disney film, so Bolt finds out that you don’t have to have super powers to be a super hero. He might not really have to rescue Penny, but she misses him a whole lot and he needs to get back to her.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Athena on March 5th, 2009
Athena here again. Yup, that’s me, the 13 year old Siberian Husky who sometimes “sub-woofs” for Gino. For some reason he only gives me these dog movies to review. Something about being an expert witness. ‘Cept there aren’t any Siberian Huskies in this movie. So, I settled into Gino’s theater, but almost got kicked out when I decided to pass a little Air Athena. Turns out that while we may share a taste in movies, Gino and I don’t share a taste in smells. Actually I was pretty excited to see this one. I’ve seen a couple of the Buddies movies now, and you can check out my reviews is the movie that started the whole ball rolling, the basketball, that is. Turns out that Buddy was the Buddies’ Papa. But, that’s another movie.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Athena on February 13th, 2009
Athena, here again sub “woofin’” for Gino. For those who don’t remember me, I’m a 13 year old Siberian Husky, and Gino lets me watch and review some of the movies for you guys. Times like these you need a dog’s eye view, and I happen to have two of them, a blue one and a brown one. Who says dogs are colorblind? I don’t get to go into the theater here a whole lot, something about fur in the equipment. I thought I was bein’ helpful because Gino’s always saying he doesn’t get enough software for his PS3. Hey, I got the softest wear around here. Well, Gino let me in again a couple of nights ago to watch the latest in the “Buddies” films. You might remember that I told you about Snow Buddies about 7 years ago. (That’s 1 year in human years). That was the first “Buddies” films I got to see, and I liked it a lot. Of course, that might have something to do with the star, Shasta, who’s about the cutest dog this side of…well…me. She was a cute little Siberian Husky puppy. I’m sorry to say that Shasta isn’t in this one. But before you start to decide you don’t want to watch this movie, let me give you my rulin’.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Athena on August 19th, 2008
Can animals actually talk to humans? Can we understand each other enough to consider it communication? Heck. You don’t need to watch some show on television to answer that question. I can do it for you right here and now. I’m Athena. I’m Gino’s 13 year old Siberian Husky, and Gino’s letting me communicate with you so that I can tell you what I thought about When Animals Talk. I’m here to tell you that we can talk pretty good. We also understand a lot of your human words as well. My favorite are words like Belly Rub, and Want. If you have a dog of your own, you already know how to communicate. And that spells T R E A T. I don’t know so much about other kinds of animals so I watched this DVD that Gino got, and here’s what I thought:
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Athena on March 6th, 2008
Athena here. That’s right, I’m the 12 year old Siberian Husky that kind of runs things here at Gino’s house. Since I did such a great job doing the review on Snow Dogs, I decided to step in when I saw Gino watching yet another dog film. This time it was Walt Disney’s classic 101 Dalmatians. Naturally the film would have been better if it had been called 101 Huskies, but unfortunately the film was based on a popular children’s book by Dodie Smith who happened to have Dalmatians herself, so let’s not blame her; she didn’t know any better. Walt Disney himself discovered the story and took a personal interest in having it made into an animated film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Athena on February 8th, 2008
OK. Listen up. My name’s Athena and I’m a 12 year old Siberian Husky living in Florida. When I heard Gino say he needed a break and some down time, I decided to pitch in. It turns out that pulling a speaker from the shelf was not the kind of “break” he was talking about, and maybe not what he meant by “down” time either, now that I think about it. So, in between the “bad dogs” and those funny little words that come out whenever I get creative, I was able to figure out what he was really talking about. He was tired from watching all these DVD’s for you guys and then telling you all about them. It seems he wanted to take a day off is all.You humans aren’t very good at saying what you really mean sometimes. So, with no selfish desire for a treat or belly rub, and partly to make up for the messed up speaker (guess I’m the only big woofer right now :-) ) I agreed to watch Snow Buddies and write a review of this doggie film from a dog’s point of view.
![Bolt (Three-Disc Edition w/ Standard DVD + Digital Copy) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/bolt-three-disc-edition-w-standar-large.jpg)
![Space Buddies (BD Live) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/space-buddies-bd-live-blu-ray-large.jpg)
