Disney Month IV: Snow Dogs

Snow Dogs (2002)
Starring: Cuba Gooding, Jr., James Coburn, Nichelle Nicols
Directed by: Brian Levant


When I was talking about George of the Jungle, I had no idea how much it would parallel a movie like Snow Dogs. In George of the Jungle, the filmmakers knew the kind of movie they wanted to tell and fully committed themselves to it. It resulted in a fun family film that got a good number of laughs from people of all ages. Snow Dogs, on the other hand, is trying to tell two different types of movies and can't commit to either in the process. The result is a movie that is so stupidly unfunny and so phoned in, that it has been considered one of the absolute worst live action movies that Disney has ever produced. My goodness, this movie was bad. Not even actors like Cuba Gooding, Jr. and James Coburn could save this piece of junk. And this was the first time in a long time that my wife and I have seen this movie, and trust me when I say we remember the disappointment more than the actual plot. So join me as I suffer the pain of reviewing Snow Dogs.

Cuba Gooding, Jr. stars as Ted Brooks, a dentist from Miami. I will give Cuba Gooding, Jr. some credit and say that he's actually trying here. But the material gives him very little to work with. Another actor that tries his best with the material is James Coburn, who plays Ted's biggest competition Thunder Jack. These two are accomplished actors and belong in a much better movie. This was part of a time when Cuba Gooding, Jr. couldn't pick a good movie role to save his life and sadly, James Coburn died 10 months after the film's release. This film proved to be poison to the careers of both leading actors. What's worse is that they had a story going on that really could've worked had the film been committed to it. It's a film that could've focused on overcoming adversity, meeting your competition and challenges, bonding over similarities and differences. Unfortunately, the tone that would follow for that particular story doesn't flow with everything else in the movie.

The movie was marketed as a comedy centering on a team of sled dogs, and that's what we get...sort of. The poochies are a great thing to see if you like dogs, but the comedy is so over the top and disjointed with the other subplot, that it really splits Snow Dogs into two completely different movies. We have the competition between Ted and Thunder Jack, but we also have the slapstick of seeing Ted try to train the sled dogs. The dogs were probably what you came for, but they're the story that's focused on the least. Someone give the Disney marketing team kudos for fooling all of us, right?

What really doesn't work about Snow Dogs was that it came, went, and left little to no impact in Disney history. I mean, some movies can be so bad that they become memorable. But here, does anyone actually remember seeing this movie? Does anybody actually enjoy watching this? Does anybody dust this off their DVD shelves and pop it in from time to time? No? Why do I even own this on DVD? Simple. I bought it for the dogs. Another point goes to their marketing team. This movie is a waste of time, a waste of energy, a waste of resources, it's unfunny, it's lazy, it's cliched, it's unmemorable, and I don't like it.


Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

While Cuba Gooding, Jr. and James Coburn are trying their hardest to make this film work, it just doesn't. Snow Dogs is lazy filmmaking in a nutshell and is a huge blemish on the legacy of film Disney has left us. Only watch this movie if you really, REALLY love dogs.

Snow Dogs and movie images are copyrighted by Walt Disney Pictures