- Released: October 7 2014
- Directed by: Richard Rich
- Running time: 45 min
- Rating 1/5
Synopsis
Runt must find the courage within himself to face a haunted forest and help a she-wolf in need.
My Thoughts
Or, as it seems to be title online often, Legend of the Saw-toothed Cave? I don’t know? The cover says Saw Tooth, so that’s what I’m rolling with, I suppose.
I know I’ve said in the past that this is by far the best of the Alpha and Omega sequels (still bad, but decent for A&O sequel standards), but honestly, after years of not watching this thing properly, I’m honestly not as certain of that anymore. So, now that I’m re-visiting all of the sequels, I might as well have another look at this one.
The story was, alright, but it could’ve been tons better if it wouldn’t constantly take random detours to add running time. The stuff with the valley girl porcupines, Paddy and Marcel babysitting the pups, the part where Lloyd gets tired and drops down on the road, the stuff with the twins. Honestly if this had been an animated series, this would’ve made a pretty decent episode story-wise if they didn’t add constant needless padding. The core of the story was Runt taking Daria to her home-pack to see if her mother is still alive, and after that to get her safely to the Western pack. The subplot with Humphrey and Kate being worried sick over their pups could’ve been added to create a b-plot and give them a reason to show up during Runt’s journey. But the rest…come on, just cut it already.
The characters are still less than great, but at least Runt shows that he has a good heart here, even if that means being disobedient. He also grows over his fear of the wolf ghost. All Claudette did in the last one was just desire to win a race, which honestly I couldn’t give a shit about. The other characters are still very bare bones, though. The valley girls are obnoxious as shit and could’ve been cut or at least replaced with characters that were likable, Lloyd was okay as Daria’s guardian, but he didn’t really do anything else other than that. Daria feels like a character I could really appreciate the way I do Lilly, but she has very little presence in the movie, despite being one of the main characters. She does have quite a few lines, but none of them really tell of her personality. All we know is that she’s somewhat shy, but we really have nothing else to work with with her. She does have that desire to re-unite with her mother, but even with that they don’t go into any depth with it. They also could’ve made her a very sheltered character, because it’s heavily implied she’s spend the majority of her life in Saw Tooth Cave being looked after by Lloyd, who is a tad overly worried over her, but even that isn’t show. They really could’ve just cut the needless padding I mentioned above and added more depth to her and Lloyd this way. The other characters (Stinky, Claudette, Humphrey, Kate, Lilly, Tony, Winston, etc.) really don’t do that much in this story, at it is really mainly Runt’s time to shine here. Lilly for some reason, besides being shy, also keeps going on and on about critters here (is she turning into Fluttershy? You're a wolf, aren't you supposed to eat those?), before vanishing in the second half of the movie completely.
The animation is…still quite bad. Like said in my previous A&O sequel reviews, the pup models simply cannot pull off all the things they want to have them do in these movies (aside from being ugly as shit), so that’s bad. The animation in general in this is at the very least slightly better than in A Howl-iday Adventure and especially Great Wolf Games. It’s really not much and still bad, but it at least looks better than the previous two movies, which had awful running and weird(ly stretched) expressions and faces. There is still one part in the movie where Kate and Humphrey randomly jump after running though, I have no idea what that was about still.
The visuals/environments are still very recycled and bland. They still look as rough as before. Everything just kinda looks the same. Even Shadow Forest, once it’s no longer haunted and therefore no longer all shadowy and dark, turns into that generic forest we’ve seen before so many times. Rabbit Poo Mountain’s territory looks exactly the same as the Western pack’s territory.
The same goes for the music. Recycle, recycle, recycle. It’s just so bland and cheap and, once you’re familiar with the soundtrack, you can’t unhear the constant re-purposing of everything. I just wish they’d hire a new composer already and got rid of the old scores completely. The soundtrack is one of the very few things the first movie had going for it, and hearing it re-used into oblivion until they’re no longer likable anymore in these sequels just hurts.
The sound effects used here still are dated sometimes, with them being of horrible quality and all sometimes, but at least it was less prevalent here than with the other two sequels I’ve review so far.
The voice acting was still very much bland, as is to be expected by now. There’s only one moment where someone seems genuinely upset or worried, which is when Runt calls out to Stinky, who is in danger. But that’s literally it.
I guess it’s also about time to address all this stuff: the plot holes and errors. There were those in the last two movies, but it’s very noticeable here. First of all, Rabbit Poo Mountain is now suddenly a real place. Didn’t Lilly make it up in the first movie? The leader of the RPM pack is now suddenly called King? Wasn’t King the antagonist of the second movie? This is a completely different wolf with a different look and voice and “name” (he’s referred to as “Head Wolf” in the credits)? It’s just a clumsy mistake that once more shows that there is seemingly no quality control on these things. The pups that are in alpha school now are suddenly the age of Runt, Stinky and Claudette, despite them being months older in the first movie when attending said school. The forest, which Lilly claims to be full of critters, has barely any wildlife in it. It takes a few days to travel to RPM, but on the flee back to Shadow Forest in the climax, they’re there really fast without any explanation. Why is the name Saw Tooth Cave used? This isn’t Sawtooth National Park?
The villains are varying. Our main villain is Head Wolf (or “King” as Humphrey called him lol), who has no motivations or personality other than being bad. He even barely appears on screen. He does quite dark things, actually, much darker than you’d expect in one of these sequels. He tried to kill Daria for being blind and then had her mother killed after she tried to save her daughter. Honestly, I wish we could know a little more about Head Wolf? Why the heck did he do this? Give him some motivation, damn it! We could’ve actually had an interesting villain for once, since shit actually goes down here, but I guess not since the team behind these movies is lazy and effort is not a word they like to hear. The other two villains, Lyle and Link, are very much nothings. They have a subplot where they want to chase the ghost away and be hailed as heroes, but it goes nowhere and is dropped really quickly after they simply get scared out of the woods by the valley girl porcupines. They could’ve been done without and the movie would’ve improved. Also, Head Wolf’s death was a huge cop-out. He just vanishes when the ghost attacks him and that’s it.
So is this as good as I remember? Definitely not. It’s still really bad. While it is a better sequel than the other two I’ve seen so far, it really says nothing, because the Alpha and Omega sequels are just all-round terrible. While this movie does have a better plot, slightly improved animation and a more serious tone going for it, it still suffers from needless padding, plot holes, cop-outs, recycling and very bare bones characters.
While I do put this one above A Howli-day Adventure and especially Great Wolf Games, I still suggest that you stay away from these sequels in general. It’s really not worth wasting your time with these things. Even if this one has more potential than the others, they botched it in the execution big time. There’s much better wolf movies out there, you know?
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