Talking Dog Movies

A dark and all encompassing illness has struck my household.  About a year ago it began innocently enough, in search of a family friendly film that Patrick and I too could watch (read not Frozen for the 100th time or Barbie Takes Paris) Patrick put on a Super Buddies Film.  After about 10 minutes I felt the life (or was it intellect) slowly slipping from me and decided to save myself from the gloom. I tried to entice the rest of my kin to step away before it was too late, but, alas, they had already fallen under the strange spell of The. Talking. Dog. Movie. Once captured by this strange genre (and yes folks it is a genre... or at least Netflix thinks so) it is all but impossible to shake the icy-cold cuteness of its grip. The illness starts slow, one talking dog movie interspersed with three or four regular movies, but as the sickness spreads throughout the body (and soul) one finds themselves gravitating to nothing but the talking dog movie. 

The problem with this obsession is that there are hours (days!) of viewing to feed the disease.  From the well known like Beverly Hills Chihuahua (1, 2 and 3!) to the obscure like Underdog (a charming story about Shoeshine the police dog with, you guessed it, superpowers that, yup, saves the city) Then there are the Buddies Movies, which I am pretty sure there are a dozen of...Air Buddies, Super Buddies, Space Buddies, Santa Buddies, Snow Buddies, Treasure Buddies, Mall Buddies, Office Buddies, Vacation Buddies, and Inane-Formulaic-But-Oh-Too-Cute Buddies. Other household favorites are Santa Paws (Christmas in July, and June, and February, and April), Bingo (way to be creative naming your dog and movie), Cats and Dogs (this one almost had me because of the alien theme....), Beethoven (and sequels 1 through at least 5, right?), Marmaduke, Scooby Doo (this is Izzy's preferred dog movie...although almost not really talking dog), Milo and Otis (OK this one is a classic...), and the movie of last weekend... Good Boy.... a sweet story of a boy who finds an alien dog (again aliens, so I was intrigued) sent to earth to determine if earth dogs had, in fact, taken over the world as they were sent to do. With this much fodder for their doggone disease it is no wonder I have lost my family to the canine cinematic chasm that is the talking dog movie.  Sigh.