Should dog lovers see ‘ A Dog’s Purpose’?
Fluffy film tethered with doubts about how dog was treated
A Dog’s Purpose is amost unlikely movie to be at the center of an international controversy.
The family- friendly film makes a furball-filled appeal directly to the hearts of families and dog lovers with its story of a dog’s spirit that reincarnates into the bodies of various adorable tail- waggers ( all voiced by Josh Gad, whom kids will recognize as the voice of Olaf the snowman from Frozen).
But outrage found A Dog’s Purpose before its opening this weekend, leaving parents and pet owners to make a decision about the PG- rated film: see it, avoid it or even boycott it.
“Families are looking for something to see in the theaters, especially with this terrible weather,” says Tara McNamara, entertainment correspondent for Social Moms. com. “But people are going to have doubts about Dog’s Purpose. When I talk to dog lovers and parents, they immediately say, ‘ That’s the movie with the leaked video scandal.’ ”
Unsettling footage shot in 2015 on the movie’s set resurfaced last week on TMZ, a week and a half before the film’s release. It showed a German shepherd named Hercules unwilling to shoot a water rescue scene, clawing to stay out of the pool as the trainer coerces the dog in. Later, the edited video shows Hercules’ head submerged below choppy water.
Everyone from Gad to director Lasse Hallström was shocked, calling the video “disturbing” on Twitter and demanding an investigation. Activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals called for a Dog’s Purpose boycott, echoed by international petitions that sprang up on Change. org
With the film in free fall and a Hollywood premiere canceled in the wake of the scandal, filmmakers countered. Producer and animal activist Gavin Polone, along with screenwriter and A Dog’s Purpose author W. Bruce Cameron, reviewed all the day’s raw video and concluded that the footage was misleading and didn’t reflect how Hercules or other dogs were treated on the set.
Cameron wrote in a defiant USA TODAY op- ed that his family had received death threats and “berserk rage,” but “I stand behind the movie and the message.”
The question remains whether families will see themovie. Jeff Bock, senior box- office analyst for Exhibitor Relations, says the damage was acute, given the timing just before themovie’s release. But he says A Dog’s Purpose may be clawing back and is tracking to open at $ 18 million, close to what was expected before the uproar. Ticket site Fandango. com reports that A Dog’s Purpose was its top- selling movie going into the weekend.
“I know people who are not going to see this movie,” Bock says. “But this is fluffy escapism, and many operate with the idea that if you apologize, then all is forgiven.”