As a 30-year-old going on 13, I’m quite the animated movie buff. But admittedly I have not had the movie Show Dogs on my radar until recently — as in today, recently.
But when I saw the strikingly opposing reviews surface on the film in terms of kid-friendly content, I couldn’t even wrap my mind around the contrast.
On one end of the spectrum, it’s described as a breeding platform for child grooming and on another a 4-star family-friendly movie.
According to Macaroni Kid blogger Terina Maldonado (who took her kids to see the film), the movie is “meant to groom children to be open to having people touch their privates.”
Popular Christian movie review site, PluggedIn, however, says Show Dogs “feels like a talking-dog version of Miss Congeniality: a canine caper the youngsters will giggle at”…with less “doggy doo-doo humor than expected.”
Well, I couldn’t IMAGINE what could be more doggy-doo-doo-like humor than exposing children to grooming through the unsuspecting lens of an animated movie. But with that being said, as someone who hasn’t observed the movie myself, I’d like to offer a comparison of how both sites evaluated the film so you may come to your own conclusion in regard to Show Dog‘s safety for your child’s eyes.
Plugged In, a site whose mission is to ‘go deeper, diving into specific content and the meaning behind it,’ elaborates on the positive, negative, spiritual, and sexual elements as follows.
POSITIVE ELEMENTS
Though they are initially at odds, Max and Frank eventually come to respect and support each other. In fact, that get-along-with-others-philosophy is a central theme here. One of the show dogs even spells it out clearly, saying, “Everything works out a whole lot better when we trust others and show them respect.”
Along with that lesson, Max and Frank also make a number of self-sacrificial choices in the course of solving their case.
SPIRITUAL CONTENT
A seasoned show dog named Philippe agrees to help Max prepare for the dog show. And at one point he prays, “Dear Lord, please forgive my student’s ignorance.”
Another dog named Karma repeatedly voices spiritual-sounding statements. Among them, he uses the Hindu greeting “Namaste,” and he encourages others to meditate on their situations.
SEXUAL CONTENT
Some of the female dog handlers wear formfitting, low-cut outfits. A male handler ushers in his dog while shirtless.
A trainer offers to let Max breed with his dog. Frank repeatedly cups Max’s nether regions (off-camera) to prepare him for the judge’s on-stage inspection of him. Max and another female show dog share a “kiss,” à la that iconic canine canoodle in Lady and the Tramp.
OTHER NEGATIVE ELEMENTS
The film includes some predictable toilet humor—though perhaps not quite as much as I’d anticipated. During a grooming session, Max passes gas in a tub where he’s being scrubbed. He purposely distracts some humans by dragging his backside around on a carpeted floor. And a group of deputized pigeons wonder if someday their feathery descendants will “poop on statues of us.”
But what’s most surprising, is that after scrutinizing each of their key categories, the reviewers reached the following conclusion: