Hotel for Dogs 2009

Ben Lyons, At the Movies: Dog people will like it. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The dogs include a fine three-legged fellow who reminded me of my in-law's old dog, Buddy, and that's the sort of movie we have here. You use it to think about dogs you once knew, or the ones whose company you're enjoying at present. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: It's sad to see a promising fantasy turn into yet another industrial-scale fantasy-delivery system that beats up on its audience with mindless intensity and undercuts its own humanity. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: A sweet reminder of the importance of family and community, human and canine alike. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: There's no disguising fluff this fluffy. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Although younger children will doubtless love it, Hotel for Dogs is too often cute for its own sake to really entertain anyone else. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Friendly, formulaic, completely harmless. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: All in all it's a very pleasant way to spend the afternoon with a bunch of kids. Read more

Adam Markovitz, Entertainment Weekly: Marking its territory in the mind-boggling 
middle ground between Schindler's List and Beverly Hills Chihuahua, the cartoonish kid pic Hotel for Dogs turns out to be a weirdly oblivious Holocaust parable. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: The dogs, nearly 100 of them, don't talk or shop or show the sentience to take a Mexican vacation. In fact, they leave all the acting to the humans Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: In the department of small mercies, the dogs don't talk, but the human dialogue is as stale as the characters bathing in love-the-family-you're-with pathos. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: It's all silly but remarkably fun and should wring smiles from even the grouchiest cat lover. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: The crisp look director Thor Freudenthal brings to the visuals isn't matched in its story or its characters, all of whom, including the dogs, lack a special zip. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: A laughless, gadget-geared and poop-obsessed kid comedy based on a Lois Duncan book, it will sorely test any parent hoping to have a few laughs with the kids and make it home without a side trip to the Humane Society. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: By movie's end, I had whiplash from the movie's lurches between frivolity and seriousness. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Hotel for Dogs is a sweet, innocent family movie about stray dogs that seem as well-trained as Olympic champions. Read more

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: It's no great shakes as a film, but its combination of mild comedy, slapstick, pathos, many photogenic canines and a positive message will make it irresistible to families. Read more

Daniel Getahun, Minneapolis Star Tribune: You'd probably be just as entertained chasing your own tail. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail: It's like flipping through five years of dog calendars. Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: Plot and character development are pretty much irrelevant in the sunshiny fantasy world of this movie. Read more

Drew Toal, Time Out: The film would've been better served if the maudlin human struggles and teenybopper romance had been cut and replaced with a bunch of Shiba Inu puppies rolling around the hotel lobby. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: True, there's only the merest suggestion of an education system for these juveniles, but credibility's secondary when you've got lots of dogs doing cute stuff. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The human dramas are less involving [than the dogs'], and a pair of teen romances feel like something on the Disney Channel. Read more

John Anderson, Variety: A chihuahua-sized concept served up in a doggy bag of contrivances and shtick. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: A clever concept that quickly runs out of room to roam. Read more