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DISNEY

MOVIE INFO

Director:
Raja Gosnell
Cast:
Drew Barrymore, Piper Perabo, Andy Garcia
Writing Credits:
Analisa LaBianco, Jeffrey Bushell

Synopsis:
Diamond-clad ultra-pampered Beverly Hills Chihuahua Chloe gets lost while on vacation in Mexico.

Box Office:
Budget
$20 million.
Opening Weekend
$29,300,465 on 3215 screens.
Domestic Gross
$94,514,402.

MPAA:
Rated G.

DISC DETAILS
Presentation:
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Audio:
English PCM 5.1
English Dolby 5.1
French Dolby 5.1
Spanish Dolby 5.1
Subtitles:
English
Spanish
Closed-captioned Supplements Subtitles:
English

Runtime: 91 min.
Price: $9.99
Release Date: 3/3/2009

Bonus:
• Audio Commentary with Director Raja Gosnell
• “Legend of the Chihuahua” Featurette
• “Pet Pals” Featurette
• “Hitting Their Bark” Featurette
• Deleted Scenes
• “Blooper Scooper”
• Sneak Peeks
• Easter Egg


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EQUIPMENT
-LG OLED65C6P 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart OLED TV
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-Panasonic DMP-BD60K Blu-Ray Player
-Chane A2.4 Speakers
-SVS SB12-NSD 12" 400-watt Sealed Box Subwoofer


RELATED REVIEWS


Beverly Hills Chihuahua [Blu-Ray] (2008)

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (November 16, 2021)

Never underestimate the appeal of talking animals. In the category of unexpected box office success, we find 2008’s Beverly Hills Chihuahua. The movie featured no big names and went with a modest premise but scored a pretty nice US gross of $94 million.

Unsurprisingly, this led to two sequels. In this flick, we meet Chloe (voiced by Drew Barrymore), the chihuahua owned by cosmetics tycoon Viv (Jamie Lee Curtis).

When Viv needs to leave on a last-minute overseas business trip, she needs emergency supervision for Chloe. Out of desperation, she recruits her flaky niece Rachel (Piper Perabo) to care for her beloved pooch.

All goes well at first until Rachel and her friends take a road trip to Mexico. Chloe scampers out of the hotel room and promptly gets abducted by a dog-fighting ring.

She nearly meets her demise at the jaws of a monstrous canine named El Diablo (Edward James Olmos), but a courageous German Shepherd named Delgado (Andy Garcia) rescues her. This sets an adventure into motion, as Delgado grudgingly tries to guide Chloe back to her owner.

In the meantime, Rachel attempts to locate the lost pup, and the leaders of the dog-fighting group try to track Chloe. Why? Because as she escaped, they noticed her diamond necklace, so now they want to hold her for ransom.

Frequent readers will probably be aware of my intense fondness for dogs. I love animals in general, but I’m a sucker for canines – especially the little ones.

As the proud long-time parent of toy poodles and Yorkie mixes, I just adore small dogs. All dogs are great, but the tiny ones are the best!

So if even I can’t find much charm in Hills, that means there’s something wrong. Oh, I won’t say that it’s a bad movie, as it remains reasonably watchable.

My biggest complaint comes related to the dog-fighting sequence, as the film gives that segment too much of a comedic tone. There’s nothing remotely funny about dog-fighting, and that subject shouldn’t be treated in such a light manner.

Otherwise, this is perfectly mediocre material. Granted, I recognize that I’m not in the film’s target audience.

The flick aims at a pre-teen crowd. My love for dogs makes me a little more open to its charms, but I remain far outside of the targeted element.

Just because a movie shoots for a kiddie crowd doesn’t mean it can’t entertain adults, though. Unfortunately, Hills just doesn’t have much going for it in that regard.

Its canine cast offers virtually all of its charms. We find an abundance of sweet pups on display here, and they prove consistently adorable and lovable. No, they’re not as sweet as my dogs, of course, but they add charm to the film.

Speaking of my pooches, they enjoyed Hills. They remained glued to the screen, as they were clearly fascinated by all the canine sights and sounds. We certainly find plenty of yips and yaps, so my pups found a lot to love.

As for me, I couldn’t locate much to enthrall me, as Hills provides relentlessly average “family” entertainment. It follows a mix of predictable story lines along with tired jokes and not much inspiration. The dogs are cute enough to make it watchable, but that’s the best I can say for it.


The Disc Grades: Picture B/ Audio B/ Bonus B

Beverly Hills Chihuahua appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. While the film often looked pretty good, some drawbacks made it less than spectacular.

Sharpness seemed largely good, though not great. I suspect the visual effects used to make the dogs “talk” created a looseness that meant some shots felt a bit ill-defined, but since some scenes without canines also became a little loose, this wasn’t a perfect rule.

No issues with jaggies or shimmering materialized, and I witnessed no edge haloes. I saw no source flaws, as the movie consistently seemed clean and smooth.

Colors tended toward an amber feel, with occasional instances of brighter hues. These seemed pretty well-rendered.

Blacks were dark and firm, while shadows looked clear and concise. Much of the flick seemed well-reproduced, but the problems with softness left it as a “B“ transfer.

The PCM 5.1 soundtrack of Hills seemed solid for this sort of movie. Although the soundfield displayed a fairly strong orientation toward the forward channels, it broadened nicely when necessary.

For the most part, the track concentrated on good stereo imaging for the music as well as ambient effects. The soundfield wasn’t wildly active, but it broadened the audio well, especially during Chloe’s attempts to get home. Those sequences featured chases, trains and other action elements, so they brought out some good material.

Sound quality seemed fine. Speech was natural and distinctive, with no issues connected to edginess or intelligibility.

Effects were concise and accurate and showed positive low-end at times. Music sounded good as well, with nice range and clarity. At no point did the mix excel, but it satisfied.

How did the Blu-ray compare to the DVD version? The uncompressed audio felt a bit warmer and fuller, while visuals appeared better defined and smoother. Even with some drawbacks, the Blu-ray showed improvements.

When we move to the extras, we open with an audio commentary from director Raja Gosnell. He offers a running, screen-specific chat that looks at cast and performances, sets and locations, visual and production design, working with the dogs, visual effects, and musical choices.

Gosnell offers a good examination of the film. He keeps matters light as he digs into the various aspects of the production. The chat proves enjoyable and provides a more than competent look at the flick.

A cartoon called Legend of the Chihuahua runs three minutes, eight seconds. The animated short gives us a quick and semi-irreverent history of the chihuahua. It’s cute and mildly informative.

10 Deleted Scenes fill a total of 24 minutes, 59 seconds. That includes introductions from Gosnell.

One gives us a substantial look at Chloe’s transformation, and another provides added exposition to Rachel. Others give as additional views of existing scenes and some padding as well as alternate versions. I can’t claim any of these should’ve made the final cut, but fans will enjoy the ability to see them.

Gosnell’s intros set up the clips, and he only occasionally tells us why he cut them. It’d be nice if he offered that info for each scene, as the basic intros seem useless.

Note that the Blu-ray expands on the DVD’s selection of deleted scenes. The DVD included three clips, not the 10 found here.

Blooper Scooper runs three minutes, eight seconds. Some of the bits provide the usual goofs, but we also get outtakes of the dogs. I like those elements, as they let us learn a little more about how the filmmakers got the pooches to act.

We also find two featuretes exclusive to the Blu-ray. Pet Pals spans nine minutes, 28 seconds and offers notes from dog walker Heather Tannis, head trainer Michael Alexander and actors Drew Barrymore, Andy Garcia, George Lucas, Paul Rodriguez, Cheech Marin, Edward James Olmos, Placido Domingo and Luis Guzman.

In addition to some comments about dogs, they discuss their roles and their voice work. While a fluffy reel, we get some good insights.

Hitting Their Bark fills 12 minutes, 55 seconds with remarks from Gosnell, Alexander, producers David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and John Jacobs, executive producer Steve Nicolaides, animal trainers Jennifer Henderson, Bobby Scott Schweitzer, David Sousa and Raymond W. Beal, costume designer Mariestela Fernandez, property master Colin Thurston, Humane Society representative Chris Obonsawin, writer Jeff Bushell, and actors Jamie Lee Curtis, Piper Perabo, Maury Sterling and Manolo Cardona.

They cover working with canine actors in this light but engaging discussion.

The disc opens with ads for Pinocchio, Up and Bedtime Stories. These also appear under Sneak Peeks along with clips for Bolt, Monsters Inc. and Morning Light.

The trailer for Chihuahua appears here only as an Easter egg. If you go to the “Special Features” page, click down from the “Audio Commentary” option and you’ll highlight a paw print. Hit “enter” and you’ll find the movie’s trailer.

With a broad collection of adorable pups, Beverly Hills Chihuahua occasionally delights the dog-lover in me. However, even as sweet as these pooches are, they’re not enough to make this flick anything more than mediocre family entertainment. The Blu-ray offers generally good picture as well as appropriate sound and some extras led by an interesting audio commentary. Hills doesn’t become a painful viewing experience, but it lacks much to make it memorable

To rate this film, visit the DVD review of BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA

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