When 16 year old Andi and her younger brother, Bruce, find themselves in a foster home with a strict “no pets” policy, Andi has to use her quick wit to help find a new home for their dog, Friday. The kids stumble upon an abandoned hotel and begin transforming it into the perfect home for Friday – as well as all the strays in the city. In no time, the kids have transformed the old hotel into something truely magical: a home for both the dogs and themselves. But they have also aroused the suspicions of the police who want to know – who let the dogs in? --©Paramount Pictures.
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Reviews
The Los Angeles Times
Betsy Sharkey
“What it is packed with is lots of sneaking around, very cool gadgets, excellent stunts and some clever kids, though not in the precocious, all-adults-are-stupid way.”
16/01/2009
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The Daily Mail
Chris Tookey
“Good place to park the kids”
20/02/2009
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The Mirror
Mark Adams
“It is a nice blend of slapstick fun, a little family pathos and a whole bunch of dogs of all shapes and sizes and is likely to be a popular draw for harassed parents looking for a little respite from the youngsters.”
08/02/2009
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The New York Times
Stephen Holden
“Children and dogs: those two magic words distill the appeal of “Hotel for Dogs,” the cuter-than-cute, sweeter-than-sweet family film about animal-loving kids who embark on a crusade to rescue all the stray pooches in a fictional city.”
16/01/2009
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Time Out
Trevor Johnston
“Strictly half-term fodder it may be, but this amiable kiddie flick delivers on its promises: you get lots of dogs doing cute stuff.”
23/04/2009
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Channel 4 Film
Holly Grigg-Spall
“Hotel For Dogs feels like a film from a more innocent time. The children are inventive, curious and compassionate. The humour contains no snide asides to adult chaperones, but most importantly the dogs don't talk.”
23/04/2009
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Total Film
Neil Smith
“Once you’ve tittered at the Heath Robinson contraptions employed to entertain the patrons in Emma Roberts and Jake T Austin’s absence, however, there’s nowhere else for Thor Freudenthal’s comedy to go...”
09/02/2009
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Variety
John Anderson
“The stickiness factor, as one might expect, sort of scampers off the charts eventually, as all the love of dogs and children is heaped upon the audience like a Dumpster full of Alpo.”
11/01/2009
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The Financial Times
Karl French
“The premise is sound but the script is rather clunky and the film suffers from an uncertainty of tone. Still, there is clearly a pre-teen audience out there keen to see dogs of varying cuteness interacting with the winsome Emma Roberts.”
11/02/2009
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The Guardian
Cath Clarke
“The schmaltz is laid on thick, but kids love this sort of stuff and, refreshingly, the dog bits are done the old-fashioned, fun way: with animal trainers rather than CGI.”
13/02/2009
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The Independent
Anthony Quinn
“This family entertainment is decently made but incredibly boring.”
13/02/2009
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The Independent on Sunday
Nicholas Barber
“It's a fine premise for a half-hour Wallace and Gromit episode, but does it really fit into a melodrama about sobbing children in search of loving foster parents? No, it doesn't.”
15/02/2009
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Empire Magazine
Anna Smith
“Inventive and endearing in places but ultimately an unsatisfying mix of slow plotting and superficial characterisation.”
23/04/2009
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The Evening Standard
Charlotte O'Sullivan
“Alas, it gives way to cuddles all round and even some light petting. At the start, Kudrow’s character tells the time-wasting kids, “You owe me 30 seconds of my life.” I’m owed rather more.”
12/02/2009
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The Daily Express
Allan Hunter
“Anodyne family fare, Hotel is awash with all-American sentimentality but the many cute canines might just make it bearable for younger viewers.”
13/02/2009
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The Times
Peter Whittle
“Unfortunately, the dogs are never quite as entertaining as they should be for the kids in the audience, and the hypercutesiness and speechifying at the end will lead to much tightening of adult sphincters.”
15/02/2009
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Scotland on Sunday
Siobhan Synnot
“There's a passing observation that orphaned kids are like stray dogs – people only want to take home the sweet little puppies – but after performing a few cute tricks, the predictable plotline rolls over and plays dead and what we're left with is a receptacle for jokes about dog poo.”
08/02/2009
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The Observer
Philip French
“Young dog-loving children will enjoy Hotel for Dogs in which two orphans (the charming Emma Roberts and Jake T Austin) get together with three other kids to turn a deserted hotel into a home for strays.”
15/02/2009
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Time Magazine
Mary Pols
“The adults are cartoons, the production values basic at best, and the ending is mindlessly sentimental, but overall it's an amiable experience.”
16/01/2009
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The Daily Telegraph
Tim Robey
“It's not so very painful – debuting director Thor Freudenthal gives it a passable sugary zing, despite devoting half his running time to the workings of a bespoke sewage system for our furry friends involving a fire hydrant and shrink-wrap.”
13/02/2009
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The Scotsman
Alistair Harkness
“Aimed squarely at the can't-think-of-anything-better-to-do-with-the-kids end of the family film market, it features lots of dogs doing tricks, as well as the more pitiable sight of the brilliant Don Cheadle giving an honest performance in a film so far beneath his talents he should be wiping it off the bottom of his shoe.”
13/02/2009
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