Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Excellent but underrated film

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

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.

Whatever happened to truth in advertising? Despite the appearance of a pug on the box cover, there were no actual pugs or likenesses of pugs in the actual movie!!! Was this a ploy to squeeze a few extra dollars in profit from the pug owners out there who love seeing the most wonderful breed of dog on earth on film? The evidence points to... YES! To show a pug on the cover and to not contain one was a severe disappointment to us and our two pugs. Mr. Kieth Merrill, (if that is your real name) you are a treasonous trickster of deceit, you got a few dollars from a few pug owners who thought there would be pugs in this movie.. does this make you happy???? How dare you!!!

Every year there are several movies that pop up in stores that have the appearance of being quality family entertainment. Generally, most of them are disappointing at best. To my surprise, "The 12 Dogs of Christmas" isn't among the disappointments, though it does have its share of flaws.Young Emma's father leaves her with her aunt in a small town that has just outlawed dogs. In an act of heroism, she rescues a puppy from the town's maniacal dogcatcher, and finds that she has a deep-rooted for canines. Along the way, she befriends the town's supposedly crazy "dog lady" and her son, as well as the local coach, a Russian dog-sledder and her initially angry aunt. In the process, she also makes enemies of the mean-spirited dogcatcher and his brother, the town's mayor. Yes, some of the characters are cookie-cutter, and the results are more than predictable. However, the movie uses the characters' -- and the viewers' -- love for dogs to bring about some very warm and pleasant results.After viewing, we realized we enjoyed this movie enough to add this DVD to our holiday collection. I recommend it in the best spirit of a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I'm old, and I don't mind admitting it. I remember when family movies were made by Disney, and they had story lines that kids and parents could watch together without embarrassment or fear, and which were just plain old simple entertainment. Somehow somewhere along the track Hollywood slipped off the rails and decided that little kids needed to hear naughty words, and parents wouldn't take their kids to a show if they couldn't see some at least some implied sex. WRONG!!! Kieth Merrill seems to have remembered. Here is a story where the bad guys are bad, but on a level that kids can cope with, and the good guys are good, but on a matching level. Folks like I know and live around. The protagonist boy and girl are nice kids, they don't kiss, they don't even get romantic. The school marm looks a bit like Lily Tomlin, and is just the right level of taught and nasty, and redeems herself at the end. The mayor is pompous and stuffy, and comes around in the end too.It is all wonderful fluff, with dogs that behave a lot of the time, and don't, just enough of the time, to make the film extra believable. The camera work and acting are outstanding. I have no hesitation in recommending this film to any family anywhere for watching together as a family. Please buy it and thumb your nose at the "experts" in Hollywood who just don't "get" it that nice clean family fun like this is worth making, and has a market.