Not Approved

Animal

From the same people who did “Deuce Bigalow” comes a story about a small, wimpy man, who desperately wants to be a cop who’s respected in town. Marvin’s (Rob Schneider) luck changes when he's critically injured in a car accident and a scientist (Michael Caton) secretly uses animal organs to rebuild him. Energized by his animal parts that give him incredible skills, Marvin becomes a supercop but has to contend with his animal instincts and behavior.

After trying to save a tree by living in it for a year, Rianna (Colleen Haskell) works at a pet shelter taking care of abandoned animals and first meets an embarrassed Marvin in a men's washroom and later when he out-races a dog. John C. McGinley is Sgt. Doug Sisk, the cop who’s out to take Marvin down. Michael Caton plays the eccentric scientist Dr. Wilder, who saves Marvin's life by transplanting animal organs into him. Ed Asner portrays a slightly demented police Chief Marion Wilson, who hasn't had a lot to do in this small town for years and has gone a little over the edge.
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Negative Rating
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Positive Rating
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Dove Review

Schneider had a dual role as the co-writer and star of the film so his character is a sample of his creative writing ability that has its funny moments. Schneider learned well from his SNL days and sometimes his comedic timing works well with his silly expressions. But the amount of crude humor ruins the lighter moments in the movie. Colleen Haskell rose to fame during the original Survivor television series and makes her feature film debut because of that fame. For an amateur, she does a decent job playing a sweet, naive character.

Although Rob’s scenes as a man with animal behavior are humorous, after awhile the running joke runs right out of steam. One scene that will be most talked about is when Schneider does some personal grooming (like a dog) which involves lifting his leg and licking himself like dogs do, out-racing a dog, climbing trees like a monkey, swimming like dolphins and running like a cheetah. There are other behaviors that he imitates and funny instincts he portrays, including feeding a baby bird from his mouth. Adults can reason through the comedy element of a man receiving internal animal parts and mimicking that behavior and hopefully, most teenagers can too. But these days there are so many teenagers imitating stupid stunts and behavior from TV shows like “Jackass” it makes me shudder to think what might be copied from this movie (the perverted goat scene comes to mind).

Dove Rating Details

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Faith

None

0
Integrity

None

2
Sex

The scene where Schneider sees a goat, approaches it from behind, slaps it’s rear as if to send a sexual, frisky message, then tries to get romantic with it before getting kicked across the yard, is the scene that (in context with the storyline) is funny, but when kids see that (especially adolescent boys) what message does this scene send kids who maybe don’t understand the adult humor?

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Language

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2
Violence

None

1
Drugs

None

0
Nudity

None

2
Other

There are many stunts Schneider performs that are presented as comical, but would be dangerous in real life: Schneider’s face is shoved into an aquarium, he slurps up a catfish, takes a plunge as a dolphin, wrestles with badgers and cougars, a baby bird eats from his mouth, he jumps across a gorge.

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