Toothless tech and a bloodless vampire

Show Dogs (PG) Verdict: Not much pedigree, chum ★★✩✩✩ The Little Vampire (U) Verdict: Frankly, it sucks ★★✩✩✩

BY THE time that Show Dogs yaps to a conclusion, you might find the charm of a crime caper involving talking animals has not just worn off, but has been entirely extinguished. It’s not a long film but, even at 90 minutes, it outstays its welcome. It starts promisingly, however, as Max, a handsome New York cop who also happens to be a Rottweiler, investigates a plot to smuggle valuable animals. Reluctantly, he teams up with human FBI agent (Will Arnett) on the trail of the criminal masterminds behind the dastardly scheme, which leads our two sleuths to a dog show in Las Vegas. The voice cast includes Stanley Tucci (enjoying himself as a French Papillon called Philippe), Alan Cumming (a Yorkshire Terrier) and the famous U.S. former basketball player Shaquille O’Neal (a Hungarian Komondor).

They can’t be faulted, and nor can the wizardry that skilfully combines computer-generated imagery with live action. But the narrative starts looking tired and a bit desperate long before the concluding showdown in an aircraft hangar — just not as tired and desperate as the over-tens in the audience.

AS FOR the under-tens, Show Dogs is a marginally better half-term option than

THE LITTLE VAMPIRE, an animated remake of the mediocre live-action comedy-horror film from 2000 that might actually suck the life out of you.

Again, there’s a decent voice cast, which includes Jim Carter, Miriam Margolyes and the late Tim Pigott-Smith.

But an unnecessarily convoluted story about a 13-year-old American boy who befriends a vampire of the same age will fly over the heads of the target audience and bore accompanying grown-ups.