The Hotel for Dogs is an American family comedy 2009 based on Lois Duncan's 1971 novel of the same name. The film, directed by Thor Freudenthal, was adapted by Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle (both of Kim Possible fame) along with Jeff Lowell. Image starring Jake T. Austin, Emma Roberts, Troy Gentile, Kyla Pratt, Johnny Simmons, Lisa Kudrow, Kevin Dillon, and Don Cheadle. It tells the story of two orphans, Andi and Bruce (played by Roberts and Austin), who try to hide their dogs in an abandoned hotel after their strict new guardian tells them that pets are banned in their homes. They also take other dogs to avoid the dogs being taken away by two pound animal workers and a cold-hearted police officer.
The film is the second Nickelodeon film produced by DreamWorks Pictures after Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events and the first Nickelodeon film ever produced outside Paramount Pictures, which still distributes movies for DreamWorks. The shooting began in November 2007 and the filming took place entirely in the city of Los Angeles and Universal City, California. The dogs in the film were trained for several months before filming. Nearly 80 boys auditioned for Bruce's role before Austin was finally chosen. The film was released in the United States on January 16, 2009, and earned about $ 17 million on its opening weekend in 3,271 theaters.
Video Hotel for Dogs (film)
Plot
In New York City, orphans Andi (Emma Roberts) and Bruce (Jake T. Austin) deceive pawn shop owners to buy food to feed their dogs on Friday. However, they were quickly arrested and taken to the police station where they were picked up by social worker Bernie Wilkins (Don Cheadle) who brought them back to their foster parents, Lois and Carl Scudder (Lisa Kudrow and Kevin Dillon), who did not appear care about both Andi or Bruce. Despite his sympathies for the two siblings, Bernie warns them that they are playing a dangerous game deliberately getting into trouble to escape from Carl and Lois.
The next morning, Friday went to find food, only to be caught by Animal Control. Desperate and worried, Andi and Bruce go to the local pet store to ask if anyone has seen it. They meet Dave (Johnny Simmons) and Heather, (Kyla Pratt) who advise them to check the pound. They learn that Friday is indeed in the Pound but can not be claimed without the presence of their parents. On their way home, they find a group of young men who commit crimes, causing them to flee before the police arrive. They searched for Friday, who had started hiding in an abandoned hotel. They found a small Boston Terrier and English Mastiff and gave them the names of Georgia and Lenny. The dogs' self-confidence will get along, Andi and Bruce leave Friday at the hotel for the night.
The next day, Bruce was staying at the hotel to keep the dog calm, while Andi headed to the pet store to get food for the dog, where he ran to two of Dave (Johnny Simmons) and Heather (Kyla Pratt) employees. Andi lied to them that their parents often rescued dogs, causing Dave to ask him to pick up three more dogs that he did not seem to want to adopt by anyone he reluctantly agreed to. With six dogs to take care of, friends start trying to get the hotel in a decent state to accommodate the needs of the dog, with help from a local boy named Mark, as they save more stray dogs to occupy the hotel.
Finally, Dave invites Andi to the party, which he approves. Meanwhile, Bruce was caught stealing a hairdryer from Lois and was immediately interrogated by his adoptive parents. The party was marred for Andi when he met an old acquaintance who accidentally revealed to everyone that Andi was an orphan. Bruce manages to escape from his home, only to find out that the hotel has fallen into chaos. Lois and Carl follow him, while the police are called, and the dogs are found and sent to the Pound, while Bruce and Andi are taken away by the police. When Lois and Carl refuse to bring Andi and Bruce back, Bernie is forced to send them to a separate orphanage.
The dogs were all scheduled to be demoted the next day, but Friday managed to escape from captivity. She rushes to find Dave, Heather and Mark, who in turn find Andi and Bruce. Meanwhile, Bernie explores the hotel and realizes why children like to do what they do. Andi and Bruce manage to break into the Pound and release the dogs in an attempt to drive them across the county line, where they will be safe. However, the dogs instead walked to the hotel, believing it to be their home. Strange events drew the attention of the police, who followed the dog to the hotel, causing a large crowd to gather inside the hotel. Bernie appears and tells them how Bruce and Andi succeeded in creating a dog family. He introduced all the dogs that lived in the hotel and told stories from their previous owners, who won over the crowd, and the police allowed the kids to keep the dogs together.
The movie rights for Lois Duncan's novel were acquired by DreamWorks in June 2005. According to Thor Freudenthal, DreamWorks first approached him about working on films after the short film he had played at the Sundance Film Festival. Freudenthal said that DreamWorks "really embraced and responded" to the film and sent him an early version of the script. He initially hesitated to sign the project, rejecting a seemingly superficial title. However, he states that after reading the manuscript, he "realizes that you are not too concerned about the logistics involved" and sees deeper messages and more complex aspects of the film. Freudenthal was interested in the "fairy tale city" of the film, noting in an interview:
Basically these unwanted children, these unwanted animals gather together and make their own place in their own homes. That's what I like. Not the fact that it is the Fox Terrier and things like that. So kind of it makes me sign and ready for it.
Film producer Lauren Shuler Donner is also an activist and dog lover, and believes that the book's message on the importance of the family "makes the novel an ideal property to be brought to the big screen." Shuler Donner insists that the film "Stand out from other family films visually" and it is Freudenthal's background in animation that gives him an edge over other directors. According to him, "It's the way he frames shots, the way he moves the camera, the use of colors, the use of light, he's very clever and very specific."
Casting
Emma Roberts was held in August 2007 to portray Andi's teenage brother. Freudenthal began his search for a young actress "who could bring the whole movie" and settled on Roberts who was then 16 years old. Ewan Leslie, the film producer, said in an interview with Roberts that he "is one of the young actors whose face only illuminates the screen and he has the ability to play emotions without dialogue."
The filmmaker did a national search for an actor to play Bruce, Andi's strange and inventive brother. Jake T. Austin auditioned late, after nearly 80 other boys had tried for that part. Jason Clark, another producer of the film, stated that Austin was "outstanding at every level, he played emotionally beats very well, felt the role and also understood the time."
The rest of the role is cast in the following months. Don Cheadle, who acts as social protection worker Andi and Bruce, joined the film in September 2007. Lisa Kudrow was elected as the adoptive mother of the sibling in October, and Johnny Simmons plays Dave in the same month. Kyla Pratt was chosen to play Heather soon after.
The dogs were carefully cast as well. Filmmakers want a variety of breeds with different colors and facial structures "so that their appearance shows their personality." Freudenthal says that he purposely chose a very small and very large dog to create a contrast similar to that of Lenny and George in John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice And Men. The majority of dog cast is a lifesaver. The main dog, who played Friday, was rescued about six months before the filming began. Crew members also helped find a foster home for abandoned dogs and some dogs that were adopted by themselves.
Filming
An animal trainer from Hollywood, Mark Forbes, was hired to prepare a dog before the filming began. Forbes and his team started working with the dog about four months before filming. Dogs without previous training were first taught basic commands, such as "sitting" and "rolling over." They are then trained to respond to more complex commands and learn to take objects and wave.
The next stage of training involves using dog body language to express emotion: sadness, for example, delivered when a dog inserts its tail between its legs. Finally, the dogs are taken to a public place to review the commands they have learned. The goal is to make sure that the dogs will perform at any location. According to Forbes, "You want the dogs to feel that everything is okay and they will still get their food regardless of the location, that set becomes another place for them to go." The trainers work with human actors as well to "familiarize them with how dogs behave and create a level of comfort between humans and dog actors." The dogs were also trained to interact with various gadgets in the film with an early prototype built by a special effects team.
The special effects watcher Michael Lantieri was registered to create the various tools found by Bruce throughout the film to keep the dogs fed. One such gadget is a device that can be operated by a dog to throw the ball to be taken.
The first is a simple spring device that throws the ball and down the hall, while the second device is a bit more sophisticated. 'This carrier uses a bicycle and a hand from a mannequin. It's time for the wheels to spin, and the ball is a magnet so that it sticks in the hand, which comes round and launches the object so that the dog can catch up to it, 'explains Lantieri. 'Everything can seem simple when you read it, but making it work on screen has to do with time, the weight of the ball and how the ball stays in the hand until you want it to move.'
Other devices built for the film include feeder machines dropping food into each dog's bowl on scheduled schedules, vending machines filled with shoes and other chewing toys, a room filled with doors that ring themselves, and others contains replicas of cars surrounded by fans who simulate the dogs the experience of placing their heads through the open car windows while driving.
All the tools were made using objects that might actually be found in an abandoned hotel, and in such a way that they looked like they were made by a talented 13-year-old boy.
Maps Hotel for Dogs (film)
Release
box office
Hotel for Dog was released in Puerto Rico on January 15, 2009, and in the United States on January 16, 2009, it became 3,271 theaters. It earned $ 17,012,212 on its opening weekend, the 5th best-selling movie of that weekend behind Paul Blart: Mall Cop , Gran Torino , and others. It remained released for 19 weeks and generated a total of $ 116,983,275 worldwide. It is estimated to have earned a total of $ 22.5 million over four weekend days.
Moviefone called the opening, "good enough to open a rather anonymous little family movie to a more famous family movie." In August 2011, the film had a gross box office of $ 73 million for the United States and $ 44 million internationally, for a total of $ 117 million.
Critical reception
At Metacritic, the film received a score of 51 out of 100, based on 25 reviews, showing "mixed or average review". According to Rotten Tomatoes, the website that compiled movie reviews, 45% of critics gave the Hotel for Dogs positive reviews; the site consensus further states: " Hotels for Dogs may appeal to children and dog lovers, but ultimately contrived, predicted and simplified". Roger Ebert gave the film 2.5 out of 4 stars and summed up his review by saying, "What I think is, Marley has a lot of things he can learn from these dogs". Kent Turner, writing for the School Library Journal , states that while this book is "really realistic", the film is "fantastic" and thus essentially different. Stephen Holden, writing for The New York Times, writes that the film was "filled with pets and humans dumb enough to satisfy David Letterman for years to come."
It's related to Up for Best Feature Films at the 24th Genesis Awards.
Home media
The film was released on DVD on April 28, 2009. It sold 773,000 units in the first week, bringing in $ 13,584,527 in revenue. As per the latest figures, 1,778,736 DVD units have been sold, translating into over $ 30 million in revenue. This does not include the sale of Blu-ray. The film was re-released on DVD on January 24, 2017.
Soundtrack
The score for Hotel for Dogs was compiled by John Debney, who scored at Eastwood Scoring Stage at Warner Brothers.
References
External links
- Official website
- Hotel for Dogs on IMDb
- Hotel for Dogs at AllMovie
- Hotel for Dogs at Box Office Mojo
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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