Space Dogs Adventure To The Moon (2016) opens Friday

The latest in the series of Space Dog films has Pushok, the son of Belka and Kazbek, going to America on a friendship mission. There he ends up winning the heart of the First Daughter much to the chagrin of her other pets (A rude cat, a French poodle and flighty bunny). Meanwhile Belka and Strelka go on a theatrical tour. And while all of this is going on Kazbek ends up going back into space to investigate a green beam that is lifting things off the earth and bringing them to the moon. Of course everyone ends up on the moon-including a monkey from America…

I have not seen the other films in the series, though that may change since I liked this film enough that I may go back and see the first two. The fact that I want to go back and see what went before is high praise because normally I will avoid this sort of film that screams “direct to home video" like the plague since they tend to be a tad too juvenile. That’s not the case here. While clearly geared to kids the dialog, at least in this English version, is hip enough and clever enough that adults will be laughing just as much, if not more, than the kids.

As much as I like the film there are two problems which keep me from being totally over the moon about the film (sorry). First the film is little too busy. There is simply too much going on to the point that the film loses momentum as it moves from plot thread to plot thread. Any traction the film creates lessened as we go to the next character’s bit. Give the film for points for juggling so many, but take one away for bobbling them.

The other problem is that some of the voice work isn’t the best. Whomever does Lenny the rat is doing a weak Steve Buscemi. The vocal work on the American pets also is just okay.

All of that said I really liked the film a great deal, much more than I thought I would.

The film hits selct theaters Friday and is recommended