Well now. I’m sure by now most of you have seen the trailers for Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Like me you might have been led to believe it was a singing and dancing extravaganza, filled with Chihuahuas, well… singing and dancing. Fortunately, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Beverly Hills Chihuahua actually has a storyline, slim and silly as it may have been, and there is nary a song or dance sequence to be found. I was a bit hesitant to watch Beverly Hills Chihuahua, though I knew I would have to review it for the site. That, and the fact that my 5 year old was dying to see it steeled my nerves enough to sit through it. What didn’t help was my wife’s aversion to watching it because while she loves dogs… she abhors Chihuahuas. Yet, she joined us and despite her feeling towards the ‘shaking little rat dogs’ (as she calls them) actually ended up enjoying the movie.

Beverly Hills Chihuahua refers to a little pooch named Chloe (voiced by Drew Barrymore) whose owner, Vivian (Jamie Lee Curtis), is one of those rich boorish people who pampers and dresses their pets in little costumes. (This did nothing to help the Chihuahua’s image in my wife’s eyes.) Chloe’s idea of a rough day is sitting around by the pool and being harassed by the gardener’s Chihuahua, Papi (voiced by George Lopez) as he tries to dazzle her with his professions of love.

When Vivian goes away on a business trip, she leaves Chloe in the care of her highly irresponsible daughter Rachel (Piper Perabo). Right off the bat we can see where this is going. Rachel almost immediately gets an invite to go to Mexico with some of her friends, and as it is an offer she can’t refuse packs up Chloe and takes her along. All it takes is 5 minutes of drunken partying and Chloe is out the door and (get this) dog-napped and taken to an illegal dogfighting ring.

One daring escape later, Chloe finds herself lost in Mexico and teamed up with an ex-police dog named Delgado (voiced by Andy Garcia) and on the run. Again you can kind of guess where the move will end up, but after all it is a Disney film and you gotta have a good ending.

Most movie purists will watch Beverly Hill Chihuahua and probably grimace. It is often very silly; relying on the CGI movement of the dogs mouths to do the acting (think all those Air Buddies movies) and a completely CGI rat and Iguana for laughs. However, in spite of the terrible puns (“talk to the paw”) and rather formulaic plot, this movie purist actually enjoyed the film. This was partially because of my daughter’s reaction to the movie (which was nothing short of unabashed glee) but also the fact that it is a simple and enjoyable movie. As I mentioned, even my wife was mostly won over.

Disney is releasing the film on DVD and Blu-ray, and I opted for the DVD. There are a handful of special features available on the DVD version, including “Legend of the Chihuahua”, which is a rather short history of the Chihuahua as well as a Blooper reel entitled… ahem… Blooper Scooper. There are also a couple of deleted scenes, most of which are kind of ‘ehhhh...’ Director Raja Gosnell also provides a commentary, and while he spouts a lot of information, his delivery is also kind of ‘ehhhh…’ All in all the special features on the DVD version aren’t really all that great. I understand the Blu-ray version has more but I cannot speak to their quality.

Make no mistake, there are no Academy Awards being sought out by Beverly Hills Chihuahua. It is meant to be nothing more than silly, fun and entertaining. And that is exactly what it is.

Directed by: Raja Gosnell
Starring: Jaime Lee Curtis, Piper Perabo, and the voices of Drew Barrymore, Andy Garcia, George Lopez, Edward James Olmos
Extras: Legend of the Chihuahua, Deleted Scenes, Blooper Scooper, Audio Commentary by Director Raja Gosnell
Specifications: Widescreen (2.35:1), Dolby 5.1
Studio: Disney
Release Date: 3/3/2009
Region 1
MPAA Rating: G
www.DisneyBluray.com

We'll give Beverly Hills Chihuahua a B.