RobertVinceRobert: “We’ve been a big fan of The Dove Foundation for a long time, as you know.”

Dove: Thank you. You have some great voice talent in this film with Kaitlyn Maher and John Ratzenberger.

Robert: “You’ll notice that John’s a staple in a lot of our movies—we’re big fans of his. He’s been in every Pixar movie that’s ever been done so I figure if he’s good luck for them he might be good luck for me as well. It’s that ‘birds of a feather flock together’—I mean John and I have great conversations and we like each other and we have similar ways of thinking about faith and life, and I think that’s probably as much reason he’s in our film as anything else”! (He laughs heartily while saying this) “Not to mention he’s a fantastic performer, actor, and great human being as well.”

Dove: Since you’re an executive producer in this film as well as its director and writer, how did you get started in this business?

Robert: “It’s been a long road and a long-term legacy for myself and our company, Air Bud Entertainment.  Obviously the name goes back to the original movie we did 20 years ago, Go Air Bud, and we found our passion and our calling. We were making all sorts of movies back then, my brother and I—Bill Vince, who has since passed.”

Robert added his mother felt they needed to do something important and felt great about their movie so “from that point on we just started making family movies. And what we learned along the way was that if we put the right ingredients together—that being strong messages for parents, kid-centric humor, and make sure that our movies are not only entertaining but they have something to say. Of course everybody loves animals and I always say to people we have a lot of dogs and animals in our movies.”

Robert added that he makes movies that are comfortable for the entire family to watch together.

Dove: What were the challenges in getting the movie made?

Robert: “We wanted to lip sync the voices with the dog’s mouths moving and we managed to do that in a way we are really pleased with. We have advanced in what we can do to make it convincing. It’s a challenge to get it right but well worth it.”

Robert went on and on about what a delight Kaitlyn Maher is in the film, a wonderful voice and terrific singer, and that she truly adds a spark to the film as Tiny, the dog.

“We have a lot of premieres I will be attending in the next few weeks but I love to see the audience’s responses.”

It was obvious by the enthusiasm in his voice that Robert Vince has a passion for making family movies, and one can picture him doing so for a long time to come.

Interview by: Edwin L. Carpenter – Senior Reviewer


Read the Dove Review of Pup Star