The 12 Dogs of Christmas

The title of this movie is very inviting for one to come up with a negative title for a review. I'll leave that for anyone else and just tackle the major flaws of "The 12 Dogs of Christmas". The idea for the plot comes from a 1998 32-page children's book of the same title by Emma Kragen. So, the screenplay would pretty much be an original story with characters not included or barely sketched in the book. And, this screenplay is very weak. But for a couple of very odd characters along with a couple more who are very hammy, this movie would be very dull. Yet, combined with very wooden or forced acting by most of the cast, it soon makes this video film boring.

It's not at all hard to get the conclusion, so one looks for and waits for some good performances in a good story to get to the end. But this film made for video release just falls flat all around. While there may be some sentimental heartstrings for people who love dogs, for this reviewer who likes and has had dogs, this picture just doesn't even present much by way of cuddly, warm, or fuzzy attachments to dogs.

With the characters in this film - notably Aunt Delores, Dogcatcher Doyle and Mayor Doyle, it struck me that the producers may have been trying to imitate the early Disney comedies with Fred MacMurray - "The Shaggy Dog" of 1959 or "The Absent-Minded Professor" of 1961. But most of the comedy turns out to be overly hammy acting rather than any real humor. The producers couldn't seem to make up their minds - did they want a comedy, or a drama, or a combination? With the comedy pretty much limited to some very hammy personas, what drama there may have been hoped for never gets developed. The goofy behavior of the dogcatcher and his accomplice never leads to any mistreatment or abuse of the dogs, and most of the time when one sees dogs, they are wagging their tales, trying to lick someone's hand or just lying down or standing and looking at people.

There is one instance of a serious matter that the film might have delved into a bit more for dramatic effect, but that was even glossed over quickly. That was the dogcatcher selling dogs from the pound for dog fights. The last aspect that shows this film to be below what in the days of the studios would have been a "B" film, is the acting. The lead character, Emma O'Conner could have been replaced by a real puppet on strings, her acting is so wooden. She is mostly expressionless and lifeless throughout the film, having most often a look with just a slight smile or upturn of her mouth.

Susan Wood as Cathy Stevens is just fair when she, too, doesn't seem wooden. Eric Lutes as Coach Cullimore has a little bit of a nutty professor persona, neither serious nor funny, but not quite believable as a coach and teacher. The four hammy characters aren't always that way. The rest of the time they, too seem wooden, or forced. The one character who passes in this regard is Richard Riehle aa Mayor Nobel Doyle, and that's because he's the only recognizable member of this cast who has played some other roles as similar characters, and had more than 400 acting credits before 2020. About the only role that showed some able acting was that of the boy, Mike Steven, played by Adam Hick.

Some reviewers have said this film is dreadful, and after waiting impatiently for it to end, I has some of the same sense. But I give it three stars for the production effort in the set, costumes and scenery that did give it a feel of the early 1930s during the Great Depression.

Where's the pug? Being a pug owner, when I saw the pug on the box cover I HAD to buy the movie. Imagine my disappointment when there is no pug in the show at all.

Oh, well. After getting over that, I really did enjoy the movie. Sure, it was a little predictable but it was charming enough to overlook that point. The dogs are cute, though I did wish that we could have seen a little more of them. The kids were cute and did a good job with their parts. I did enjoy watching the coach try to get the Christmas pageant together.

All in all, it's a fun, fluff family movie and it was an enjoyable way to pass some time

This review is all over the place.

The film is seriously awful. I can't believe that anyone who didn't not the cast or live in the town could find this anything more.

I found it exploitive - it didn't exploit dogs directly but those who may chose to watch this because of the dogs. Who knew you could be more exploitive than Disney? Or have a final worse than the CBC? Maybe you, not me.

The acting was poor with the exception of "The Dog Lady", the quality of the filming was as poor and the dog fights were so unbelievably unrealistic (thankfully so) to make this nothing but turgid and make me nothing but angry.

I loved the movie. It's great sometimes to be able to sit back and watch a good family squeaky-clean enjoyable film. Granted, the plot line is not very deep and the movie could be watched and understood by a five year old, but that's one of the things I enjoyed about it. A make-believe situation where dogs are not allowed in the town gave the movie an interesting and unique plot. I thought it was even more remarkable when I found out that the plot was written by a young child. Remarkable! The dog-catcher's bike was also very unique, reminded me of something out of Mad-Max. I also thought they did a good job with giving the movie a "vintage" feel/quality that matched the time period. Overall two thumbs up!

Our family watched this film and we just enjoyed the film. It is a good film for dog lovers. At first when we picked up the film from the rental store there was only 3 copies. at first I thought that this was a sign that this is a bad film. But I was so surprised that there was not more copies available to the public. There are very few family movies out there for people to view. I think the principal from the school reminded me of a famous actor who played the telephone operator in a old comedy series. And also the Aunt played a good role. Our favorite person who played a very small role was the little girl in the end who sang the part about a poodle in a dog house. You will know what I mean if you watch the film.