Good bad starts
Bradley Jay Anderson was an American cartoonist and creator of the comic book Marmaduke . His works, created since 1954, were awarded the National Cartoonists Society Newspaper Panel Cartoon Award (1978). Currently in Jamestown, the artist’s hometown, we can visit Anderson’s studio, where the original drawing board and other historical materials are located. In addition, a year after the cartoonist’s death, in 2016, a monument to Marmaduke and its creator was erected in Portland. His original idea for a dog sold successfully and remains in the memory of fans. The latest movie – XXL size dog– it is a nod to him, but Marmaduke returns unnecessarily. Let the fact that you can watch the reviewed animation abroad only on Netflix be a harbinger of what I described in the review .
Marmaduke barked out , and everything is clear!
The title character (Cezary Pazura) is a really big animal. He remains under the care of the Winslow family, who show him a lot of love and care. He spends his free time fooling around (generally ruining a house, hurting people and making a mess …) that lead him to some promising success! When his flip-flops series hit the internet, Marmaduke is rapidly gaining ground. In addition, he is becoming interested in the world-famous trainer – Czarek Owczarek (Przemysław Glapiński), who probably really cares about teaching his four-legged acrobatic tricks and, perhaps more importantly, iron discipline. The family, with the dog at the forefront, faces a huge challenge – they have to find themselves in the world of purebred dog shows, consistently supporting their pet.
In a world of absurdities
The title of the animation raises doubts. Marmaduke is a private label – Anderson published his comic strips back in the 1950s! In my opinion, making an effort and coming up with an original title is a completely unnecessary procedure (originally, I will not surprise you – the title is Marmaduke). In addition, the description of the distributor states that the size of the Marmaduke, a Great Dane, “exceeds the size of a standard couch.” It is seemingly impossible to disagree with it, but during the screening we get doubts – we see the title animal lazing around on the couch, while its limbs do not even protrude beyond its limits. Another doubts concerns the poor plot – it is not only boring, but also extremely distasteful (Marmaduke turns out to be not only unruly, but also disgusting). My biggest doubts are the escape scene of the quadruped (if you watched Forrest Gump , then in Psie in XXL sizeyou’ll see something similar, only from a dog’s perspective). Graphically – not better. Just watch the trailer to make sure you don’t want, really really don’t want to see this animation. Characters, landscapes, objects look unreal, and the lack of fluidity tires the viewer’s eyes. One can get the impression that the animation of Mark AZ Dippé and Byron Kavanagh was produced for the idea: “children will persuade their parents to go to the cinema anyway”. However, do not be surprised if the youngest ask their guardians to leave the cinema during the screening.
Waste of time
The animation idea wasn’t (very) bad. Marmaduke is a slightly clumsy XXL dog that falls out – compared to other dog heroes – colorfully and interestingly, but in the context of the animation itself, it does not matter. The dialogues on which the plot is built are simply unsuccessful and – what’s worse – homophobic. So it is not surprising that they do not laugh at all – neither small nor large. The Polish version of the dub was directed by Maciej Kosmala ( Asteriks and Obeliks: The Secret of the Magic Brew , Agent Kot , Playmobil Film ), while Piotr Cieński is responsible for the dialogues ( What animals dream about today , Guliwer , Lena and Śnieżek , Zając Max: Mission Pisanka) – so nothing indicated the described faults. The performances of the actors also raise my doubts – either Marmaduke is such a cynic, or no one told the actors that they sound incredible in their jokes. It’s a pity, because the animation looked really good.
