Hotel for Dogs

As I have discussed previously, my son Kile has a great love for any movie that has anything to do with dogs. Our latest viewing in dog related cinema was Hotel for Dogs. It is a cute kid movie that came out earlier this year. The movie is based on a Lois Duncan novel also called Hotel for Dogs. I have not read the novel, but did love Lois Duncan as a teenager.

The movie is about two orphaned siblings, Andi (Emma Roberts) and Bruce. They live in “central city” with foster parents Lois (Lisa Kudrow) and Carl (Kevin Dillon) Scutter. Their foster parents are want-to-be rockers who only seem to be foster parents to get on the good side of the kids’ social worker Bernie (Don Cheadle). The Scutters are the latest in a long string of foster parents the kids have had. Bernie tries to help them out, but as they are older children, it is hard to find them a home.

Andi and Bruce have a secret; they have a dog named Friday that they have been hiding for years. Luckily Bruce is a budding inventor who is able to create all sorts of devices that help to hide Friday. They discover an old hotel that they use to help hid Friday and also to save other dogs that are on the streets. They are joined by friends Dave and Heather that are able to get them supplies from the pet store they work at and by Mark, who lives nearby. Will the kids be able to keep up the hotel or will they be discovered?

As a kid, I would have loved this movie with its secret hotel and cool inventions. It is probably a good movie for kids a bit older than Kile at three. Even though he didn’t always understand what was going on, Kile was riveted by the movie and really enjoyed it. SPOILER ALERT: Kile did pick up on some things though – he called Bernie their “Daddy” at the beginning of the movie and wanted to know why he was leaving them. We told him that Bernie was just their friend, but by the end he had adopted the kids and was their dad. I guess Kile understands more than we think! I thought it was a cute kid’s movie, but I think my husband Ben was bored. I loved Emma Roberts in this movie; it will be interesting to see what she does as she gets older. The other actors were also fantastic, especially Don Cheadle.