Space Dogs: Pros And Cons

Today, I'm going to review a movie I recently watched on demand. I had my doubts about it, but I'm happy to say it far exceeded my expectations. THE FOLLOWING MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!

Pros:

Lenny was the perfect comic relief. I loved his personality, and he's just one of those classic rodent sidekicks that the audience almost always falls in love with. I know I did.

Though they of course had to exaggerate a little, they seemed to keep plenty historically correct facts in tact. Pushok (or however you spell it) was in fact the name of Strelka's puppy and also was sent to the President. Mice also accompanied Belka and Strelka in real life, and so on. Personally, the fact that it was based on a true story at all was cool enough for me.

The whole idea of dogs training other dogs. Now that's something I would obviously fall in love with. Plus, I've always envisioned a German Shepherd as a leader of a "troop", per say, and Kazbek as a character on his own had a great personality.

Speaking of Kazbek, the fact that he followed the girls into space was an honest shock to me. I expected the dog in the spacesuit approaching the ship to be Strelka's dad or something! I had kind of an "oh I see" moment (as my 8th grade science teacher would say) when I realized that Kazbek didn't want them to leave because he knew no dogs had come back from space alive yet.

The music flowed very well with the movie. It made it feel like a regular old American-made animated film. And to be honest, the songs were pretty catchy.

I loved the real clips shown during the credits. I always love when movies tie into the true stories like that. Plus, who else dawwwwed at the bunny in the space suit? Come on people, I know I wasn't the only one.

I thought the fact that Strelka and Belka came from different backgrounds was pretty cool. I loved the whole circus dog idea.

The group of mean dogs were actually pretty entertaining, and I liked their designs, as well as Kazbek's.

Cons:

There were no major cons in this movie. The only real turn-off for me was the animation. Now I understand that this isn't coming from as advanced of a studio as most animated films these days, but it just wasn't all that easy on the eyes.

Speaking of the animation, was it really necessary for the dogs to be anthropomorphic half the time? I have a big thing against anthropomorphic animals, and when they just look like a real dog would when he/she stands up on her/his hind legs, it looks really wrong. Now with characters like (Roadside) Romeo and Alex the lion, they make it look more natural. But with the female dogs in both Roadside Romeo and Space Dogs, it just looks odd.

Did Kazbek really have to fall in love with Belka? I thought she was way younger than him! I know size doesn't always determine age, especially in animals, but I think that was a highly unnecessary addition.

There was really no turning point in Belka and Strelka's friendship. They were fighting, they were okay, they were fighting, they were okay, and suddenly, they stopped fighting. I saw no driving force behind that "make up", so that made the movie a little confusing.

Over all, I really enjoyed this film, and the cons weren't near enough to make this film unenjoyable.