Disney's Tale of Doggie Diva is an exceptional delight! | Beverly Hills Chihuahua

All Bark, Some Bite | Beverly Hills Chihuahua | Jaime Lee Curtis, Drew Barrymore

DVDs:


	• Beverly Hills Chihuahua Jaime Lee Curtis, Drew Barrymore Walt Disney Pictures, 2009 average customer review:based on 110 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

great dog movie

I bought this disc after seeing the trailer on the hsm dvd. The trailer pretty much has the feel of the movie. I am glad that Amazon.com put clips on its website because that pretty much sealed the deal for me. Yes there are slap-stick moments, but it never gets down to Home Alone slap-stick, which I am greatful for.

Disney's Tale of Doggie Diva is an exceptional delight!

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Before seeing 'Beverly Hills Chihuahua' I was expecting a completely insipid comedy strictly for ten year old's. Boy was I wrong. 'Chihuahua' is one of the best comedies I've seen in the last few years. It's got an 'A' story with a cast full of talking dogs and a 'B' story consisting of a supporting cast of humans. The star is 'Chloe', the cutest little Chihuahua you'll ever meet, expertly voiced by Drew Barrymore. Chloe is a prissy, pampered Beverly Hills doggie diva owned by a highly successful cosmetics CEO, 'Aunt Viv' (played by a still good-looking Jamie Lee Curtis). Aunt Viv's only sin is that she indulges her precious Chloe but is basically a very good person. That's evidenced by her warm treatment of the newly hired Hispanic landscaper, Sam (warmly played by Colombian actor, Manolo Cardona). Sam's Chihuahua, Papi (hilariously voiced by George Lopez) falls in love with Chloe and later figures in her rescue.

Chloe's counterpart is Viv's niece, Rachel, who also needs to learn a few life's lessons by not talking down to people (Rachel assumes that the 'lowly gardener' Sam, can only speak Spanish). Meanwhile Chloe's uppity attitude is exposed from the very beginning. She's "born to shop, not fight"--and proudly proclaims she's an heiress; only to be met by one of her buddy's retorts: "a hairless". Chloe objects: "Not a hairless...I have a trust fund." When Aunt Viv has to fly to Italy on a business trip, she leaves Chloe in Rachel's charge. Disaster strikes when Rachel impulsively drives down to Mexico with some of her friends and Chloe ends up getting 'dog napped' by criminals who hold dog fights in Mexico City. The head of the dog nappers is the nasty Vasquez who has an evil Doberman, El Diablo, (menacingly voiced by Ed James Olmos), who all the other dogs fear.

Despite all her spunk, Chloe manages to remain out of touch even when she finds herself in the middle of a dog ring about to be chomped on by El Diablo. First off, she mistakes the applause of the seedy crowd as approval when in fact they're laughing at her, expecting her imminent demise. Chloe has some great lines though, inside the ring ("Clearly I'm not in the right place--call the concierge"; along with telling El Diablo that she knows a great dentist in Beverly Hills who can clean up his yellow teeth!). Chloe is saved by a former police dog, Delgado, a gutsy, world weary German Shepherd voiced by a perfect, gravely voiced Andy Garcia. I was in stitches when Delgado dumps Chloe in the muddy puddle of water and proclaims Delgado has got her scent--and she replies "Of course he does, it's Chanel #5".

Rachel realizes the big mistake she's made and leaves her friends to find Chloe. There's a very funny scene when she gets a call from Aunt Viv at the police station and she has to pretend she's Chloe barking into the phone. Meanwhile, Chloe, now all muddied up, returns to her hotel and gets a taste of her own medicine: a bunch of snobby poodles want the horrible mutt immediately evicted from the premises. Chloe stares in horror at herself in the mirror and exclaims: "I'm hideous". Now she's beginning to realize that she's not so special.

When Rachel meets up with Sam at the police station, the police only have limited information on the dog ring's whereabouts. Sam wants to wait for more information, but Rachel insists on continuing the search for Chloe on their own. Papi states he's with Rachel and utters the film's #1 iconic line: "We're Mexican, not Mexican't". Soon Chloe discovers the ever so cute con men, Rat and Iguana, and I almost fell out of my chair laughing when Chloe observes them fighting and exclaims: "This is just like Animal Planet"!!! Then when El Diablo confronts the rat after he pilfers Chloe's diamond collar, the rat has that great line: "Please don't eat me, I've got a wife and 300 kids to feed."

Wouldn't you know it but coyotes smuggle the dogs over the border! Eventually, Chloe and Delgado find themselves in the desert where Delgado reveals his dark secret: he's lost his sense of smell. Then our doggie heroes have their 'dark moment' when a bunch of mountain lions are about to have them for lunch. The film is just full of so many incredible surprises--there's a sandstorm, kicked up by a pack of Chihuahuas, led by the mighty Montezuma (aka Monte). It's Monte who gives Chloe a dose of 'Chihauhua pride' and the film's loftiest moment is when the Chihuahuas loudly proclaim: "No mas, no mas!" Rachel still needs to learn a lesson when she and Sam come upon some strays and she says with disdain: "Just what we need--stray dogs"; and it's Sam who wisely points out: "Papi was a stray dog".

Things are neatly wrapped up when Chloe and Delgado aid in their own rescue by gaining the attention of a couple of Mexican Park Rangers. Soon, the evil Vasquez appears on the scene and snatches Chloe again (he's figured out that Chloe's owner is worth a lot of money). Delgado's arc is complete when he regains his sense of smell and leads the police to Vasquez, saving Chloe in the process.

Both Chloe and Rachel have improved their lives after their great adventure. And they're both rewarded with true love along with their respective honeys (Papi and Sam). The further reward is that they get home just in time to prevent Aunt Viv from learning of Rachel's big faux pas.

I don't know how Disney does it, but the direction of man's best friends in this film is superlative (undoubtedly some computer enhancement helped things along). 'Chihuahua' is not only funny but it's touching due to the underlying message of tolerance it so successfully conveys.

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All Bark, Some Bite

Trying to complain about Disney's obsession with movies about talking animals is self-defeating. Like taxes, they will never go away, and we'll see more them in the future. As long as kids eat this stuff up, there's an audience for this cheap marketing scheme. This might sound like I'm already hating "Beverly Hills Chihuahua", but I can't for the life of me say it's awful. It's just another silly talking animals movie, but at least no one's singing for its own sake or people throwing arms at verbally-understood creatures like hypnotized drones since the dogs and humans are in their own communicative world. Already, the movie's a step up from "The Country Bears".

Chloe is a selfish, materialistic spoiled chihuahua raised by a rich Jamie Lee Curtis. While the dog's under the care of a babysitter (the barkeep/diver from "Coyote Cave"), the neglectful babysitter and her friends go off to Mexico, where Chloe will eventually be dognapped by a crime lord who controls the dog fights. She escaped with her allies, and while she tried to head home, she learned about the flaws of her character, realized what's important and all that typical Disney schlock. Even she eventually gets better, I just can't stand this dog: not because of how self-absorbed and demeaning she is, but how obnoxiously chatty she is. Always has to worry about what she wears, often making sly comebacks, and frequently pointing out the needs of her rich style. She's the benefactor of my disdain for animal chatter.

Delgado, on the other hand, is an upside to the verbal animals concept; he's the main protector Chloe met before she escaped with him from the villain's hideout. Cool name aside, he's not much of a chatterbox, can't tolerate Chloe's high-strung behavior, reliable, and takes a direct approach to everything. I actually like tha dog, since I can sorta identify with him in a non-species manner. Too bad, much like every other combative stray in many romantic films, he has to grow all caring about Chloe even though he shouldn't; at least he didn't fall for her, but he still worries for her. As you can see, talking animals has never been annoying because of the concept of talking; it's how much they talk and the attitude they have when they speak that can be damaging. For Delgado, he's a tolerate exception.

The movie was fine enough with just dogs with obvious CGI lip-synching, then it had to bring in the rat and iguana. I never liked them, because they represent they are bad habit of Disney. Because it's a requirement for Disney movies to have a comic relief (and the George Lopez-voiced Chihuahua doesn't seem to be good enough, apparently), there has to be two bumbling thieves to crack jokes and cause chaos. That's just peachy, an obviously CGI rat and reptile doing forced laughs to bug me. But the movie does have other interesting characters. It does surprise me that the main human antagonist, in a movie about dogs talking in puns and accents, actually appears threatening and not a corny villain desperate for laughs (I'm looking at you, clown from "Air Bud"), and the nefarious doberman named El Diablo ain't that corny either (though I wonder why dobermans always have to be bad guys).

What else can I say? It is what it is, nothing to get enraged about. "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" has a story that plays it straight: it's a dog who lost his way, facing challenges and peril in an exotic scenery. Is it really best Chihuahua movie ever made? Close, but it sure didn't beat "Oliver and Company"; sure, that movie is about a cat, but it does have a chihuahua playing a racist stereotype.

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Chi-WOW-wa!

I am not a chihuahua lover but I think this movie is clever! This movie is enjoyable whether you have kids or not. I was skeptic before renting the movie if the movie would be good at all! The title makes it sound really dumb. Yeah some parts are cheesy but it really is a good laugh. The movie was well thought out and it must have taken forever to make! I feel this one is too overlooked. My spouse thought it was better than originally expected.

Thoroughly enjoyable!

An absolutely delightful movie. Viewable by all members of your family and completely enjoyable. Couldn't ask for better fun.

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Get ready for a hilarious fun-filled adventure starring Chloe (voiced by Drew Barrymore), a diamond-clad ultra-pampered Beverly Hills Chihuahua who gets lost while on vacation in Mexico. Papi (voiced by George Lopez), an amusing Chihuahua who's crazy about Chloe, springs into action and heads south of the border to rescue her, while Chloe gets help from Delgado (voiced by Andy Garcia), her newfound friend and self-appointed protector. Beverly Hills Chihuahua from Walt Disney Pictures is a heartwarming and outrageously funny tale proving once again that good things do come in small packages. It's a real treat for the whole family. This DVD has fullscreen or widescreen capabilities.

Bonus Features:
*Deleted scenes with introductsion by director Raja Gosnell
*Blooper scooper
*Legend of the chihuahua
*Feature audio commentary by director Raja Gosness (Widescreen version only)

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