(PG, 84 mins)
Bravery on two and four legs during the First World War wags the tail of director Richard Lanni’s charming if lightweight computer-animated history lesson.
Sgt Stubby: An Unlikely Hero pays tribute to the most decorated dog in US history, who served his country for 18 months, predominantly alongside one master for 17 battles and four military campaigns.
This remarkable tale of camaraderie during bitter and bloody conflict made headlines across America and Lanni’s picture concludes with photographs of the real-life Stubby and his proud handler, Robert Conroy.
Patriotic pride courses through the veins of a script co-written by Mike Stokey, which narrates the flourishing bond between man and beast in the words of Conroy’s sister Margaret (voiced by Helena Bonham Carter), who received letters from her younger sibling during his time behind enemy lines.
“This is the true story of a special friendship my brother made while training for the war,” she coos in the opening voiceover.
The narrative is simplistic in order to appeal to children and parents, both of whom will struggle to resist the wide-eye charms of the titular terrier.
More than once, a tear welled in my eye as Stubby demonstrated his unerring, selfless devotion to his human master.
During a military parade in 1917 New Haven, Connecticut, wet-behind-the-ears US Army recruit Robert Conroy (Logan Lerman) tosses food to a stray dog on the street.
The mangy mutt follows Conroy — a member of the newly formed “Yankee” Division — to a nearby training ground where the animal charms fellow enlistees Olsen (Jordan Beck) and Schroeder (Jim Pharr).
Sergeant Casburn (Jason Ezzell) allows the dog, christened Stubby because of its tail, to stay as the regiment’s mascot and Conroy trains his four-legged companion to salute.
The men ship out to France with Stubby in tow and commanding officer Colonel Ty (Pharr again) gives his blessing to the creature’s tour of duty.
The title character follows in the paw prints of Lassie by warning allied soldiers about an impending mustard gas attack and locating fallen soldiers in No Man’s Land.
Vocal performances are muted but hit the requisite emotional notes to complement Patrick Doyle’s rousing orchestral score.
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Jason Statham has made a career out of playing hard men and bad guys. From The Fast And The Furious franchise to Snatch, The Transporter and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, he hasn’t had much time to cram in heroics.
But that all changes in his new blockbuster The Meg, in which he finally gets to come to the rescue.
He plays deep-sea diver Jonas Taylor, who is trying to save the crew of a submarine that is under threat from a 75ft-long shark, known as the Megalodon.
“I’m used to ending people’s lives on camera, but this is a guy who spent his life saving people, and I thought there was something cool about that,” Statham says.
“He also has a good sense of humour and I could certainly relate to some of the emotions he goes through. And the physicality the role required was something I’m very familiar with.
“So, given all those things, Jonas was a character I thought I could do some kind of justice to, and that’s what I tend to look for.
“I like the conflict he is up against. People were saying he was a crazy man, that he’d lost his mind. But he had an instinct that something was down there. And now he gets to prove himself right.”
In the film, Statham’s character is still recovering from a traumatic brush with a massive creature powerful enough to crush the hull of a nuclear submarine.
The attack killed two of his friends and kept him out of the water for five years, until the emergence of a Megalodon at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean threatens the lives of a crew from an oceanic research institute off the coast of China.
“I think this is the ultimate