This holiday tale has all the elements of a classic heartwarmer--cuddly dogs, small town spirit, and even a full-fledged Christmas pageant. Set during the meager years of the Great Depression, 12 DOGS OF CHRISTMAS follows the story of Emma, a 12-year-old who is sent to live in Doverville, a rural town, with her aunt. The town has, like the rest of the nation, fallen on lean times and seem to have lost all interest in celebrating. However, Emma manages to enlist the town's dogs into a colorful holiday pageant that reminds the inhabitants that even the Great Depression cannot ruin the spirit of Christmas.
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Reviews
Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.
It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
12 dogs of Christmas girl who uses dogs to teach people about the true meaning of Christmas during the Depression. so we have a film in the great depression about dogs and the values to us each Christmas and their true meaning with a great cast like Jordan Claire green of school of rock she stumbles up the idea from 12 days o Christmas when her teacher is goes on maternity and a sub teacher cannot get the class to get the song wright john billingly from out of time Mindy sterling from Austin powers bonica friendericy who was in Christmas with the kranks and Adam hicks so in the tradition of Beethoven set in the 1930 Pittsburgh Emma O'Connor father sends her to her aunt Delores in small town called dover ville where no dog are allowed her aunt is strict the mayors brother who is the dodgy dog catcher and with Emma who stirs up the dog catcher with adventurous chases hiding animals and plot twist in this funny film comes up with a plan to save the dogs a spectacular finale that the mayor get cordially invited to the play since dogs are banned and the media get invited so he has not choice but watch the stunning pageant of 12day of certain animals on the song with a difference
Don't watch this if you love dogs. The synopsis to this movie is misleading. You will not get through the first fifteen minutes without wondering when in the heck is anyone going to be NICE to a dog??? In one scene, they show a mother dog and puppy wandering aimlessly in the snow; the dogcatcher catches the mother and the little girl "rescues" the puppy. Later it is asked; " What happens to the mother?" " Oh we don't know; they take them and they just disappear." Plus they go on a semi high-speed chase trying to catch the little girl as she runs away with the puppy and you're hoping the whole time that the bad guy doesn't tip his vehicle over ( not, obviously, that we'd care if HE went over a cliff but that the mother dog was supposed to still be in the vehicle with him and is probably being slammed from side to side as they show this supposedly "mad-cap" styled chase. ) The "good" guy she goes and applies for a job from has his dogs tied up to short leashes outside in the snow. Basically, it is a whole town filled with small people who dislike dogs. That's entertainment? Nope. To be honest, I didn't watch the whole thing. The balance of the film could have been all of the dogs taking over the world and chaining up all the humans but it was too late for me. The somber and cruel theme throughout the set-up of the story ( the important first fifteen minutes ) was enough to make me stop watching.
This review is all over the place.The film is seriously awful. I can't believe that anyone who didn't not the cast or live in the town could find this anything more.I found it exploitive - it didn't exploit dogs directly but those who may chose to watch this because of the dogs. Who knew you could be more exploitive than Disney? Or have a final worse than the CBC? Maybe you, not me. The acting was poor with the exception of "The Dog Lady", the quality of the filming was as poor and the dog fights were so unbelievably unrealistic (thankfully so) to make this nothing but turgid and make me nothing but angry.
Our family watched this film and we just enjoyed the film. It is a good film for dog lovers. At first when we picked up the film from the rental store there was only 3 copies. at first I thought that this was a sign that this is a bad film. But I was so surprised that there was not more copies available to the public. There are very few family movies out there for people to view. I think the principal from the school reminded me of a famous actor who played the telephone operator in a old comedy series. And also the Aunt played a good role. Our favorite person who played a very small role was the little girl in the end who sang the part about a poodle in a dog house. You will know what I mean if you watch the film.