Movie Thoughts: Sniff the Dog: Catch the Thief (2010)

 

• Released: December 15, 2010
  
• Directed by: Steven de Jong
  
• Running time: 1 h 25 min
• Rating 2.5/5

Synopsis

During a boating vacation, Tom and Mirjam are wrongfully blamed for theft and are arrested. They manage to escape, but from here on they're wanted by the cops. Tom, Mirjam and Sniff are determined to prove their innocence by finding the real culprits.

My Thoughts

I guess that out of the latter two Snuf movies, this one is the least bad. I don't consider anything beyond the first movie to be great, but this one is definitely better than the third, which I just couldn't get into at all.

The story isn't big or anything once again, but I do like that the stakes are very personal by Tom and Mirjam now being wanted "criminals". I mean, even if they're innocent, they're definitely wanted after escaping police custody. The antagonists this time around aren't some boring gang but rather a very personal-feeling trio of two boys led astray by their abusive father. Like, yes, they're the antagonists, but they're still sympathetic (except the abusive dad, of course). So I like that this isn't a black-and-white situation and that the boys eventually find the courage to stand up to their father. 

That said, the movie still wasn't all that exciting. I'm personally someone who doesn't like boating and being out on the water at all so the fact that the plot hinged upon boats for a decent chunk was a bit boring to me. I still can't get into Tom and Mirjam's new actors all that much (they're not horrible but the ones playing them in the first two movies were definitely better) and the movie didn't hold my attention as much as I'd have liked. 

Another trend I'm noticing in these last two Snuf movies is that they use way too much CGI to give Snuf "expressions". Like, he still doesn't talk and he isn't cartoon-y or anthropomorphized or anything, but they try to give him actual emotive reactions (that do feel out of place for this real dog) by using some CGI over his face, such as narrowing his eyes or widening them to show shock. I think the first two movies may have done this, but very sparingly so it doesn't feel over the top. 

These last two? They definitely overuse it and it makes this real dog look like a cartoon at times. I think it'd be much more effective if they got the dog to communicate its emotions by, you know, doing it in a dog way? If he's mistrusting, instead of having his eyes narrow like a human expression, instead have him growl lowly and lock eyes, maybe lift his lips a little or flatten his ears? But now they give this dog these human expressions and it just doesn't work.

If this were one of those talking animal movies such as Pride or Cats & Dogs that could definitely work, since animals in that are heavily anthropomorpized. But Snuf is supposed to be a realistic dog. So randomly giving him these exaggerated CGI expressions feels off. I think they used it just right in the first two movies, where they barely did it except to have Snuf frown just a little or wink here and there. Not to turn him into a realistic cartoon.

So yeah, not a fantastic film but I guess it's better than the last. I still am baffled by the choices to completely change the setting and time in which this series takes place halfway into the franchise, but I guess there's nothing to really be done about it. It's just weird, very weird. But these aren't awful movies, just not very good except maybe the first and second.