After One Direction last August and Postman Pat in May, Simon Cowell’s influence is all over this canine caper led by the 2012 Britain’s Got Talent winner, Pudsey.
Judge David Walliams even voices the stray dog via some dodgy lip-synching.
Siblings Molly (Izzy Meikle-Small), George (Spike White) and Tommy (Malachy Knights) take him in, except they are about to move to a cottage without wi-fi in sleepy Chuffington where landlord Mr Thorne (John Sessions) hates dogs.
Pudsey then stows away – ready to fight Mr Thorne’s shopping mall plans.
The humour is British but universal – people and things fall over. A lot.
Pudsey inevitably runs around and dances on his back legs. He can look angry, mournful or happy on demand, with quickfire action edits plugging copious holes in the script.
And there’s a pig that keeps trying to lay an egg. Repeatedly, for those slow on the uptake.
Happily, there’s only a fleeting reference to Simon Cowell compared with Postman Pat’s over-egged talent show theme.
Pudsey: The Movie is like a cross between Nanny McPhee and Babe made on the cheap.
It’s more rounded than The Harry Hill Movie and inoffensive compared with Keith Lemon.
It isn’t pawsome and could make you feel howling mad.
But if you voted for Pudsey on BGT and have children under seven, the least you can do is to watch this wonder dog have his day on the silver screen.
