The 12 Dogs of Christmas (2005) Online

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.

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!

Where's the pug? Being a pug owner, when I saw the pug on the box cover I HAD to buy the movie. Imagine my disappointment when there is no pug in the show at all.

Oh, well. After getting over that, I really did enjoy the movie. Sure, it was a little predictable but it was charming enough to overlook that point. The dogs are cute, though I did wish that we could have seen a little more of them. The kids were cute and did a good job with their parts. I did enjoy watching the coach try to get the Christmas pageant together.

All in all, it's a fun, fluff family movie and it was an enjoyable way to pass some time

My husband and I enjoyed watching The 12 Dogs of Christmas. Not only were we impressed with the vintage feel, character development and wonderful display of dogs we were impressed with Eric Lutes, my husbands brother who played the coach. The next morning we tested the movie on our 3 year old daughter. She and her 14 month old brother were totally delighted! Often she would gleefully shout out Uncle Eggie!, Uncle Eggie!

I do hope folks spread the word about this endearing movie. Oh, our local Walmart in Vermont was sold out of the DVD's!

Happy Holidays! ~The Lutes Family

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.

The 12 Dogs Of Christmas will steal your heart, It stole my heart. I really loved this movie and I loved the way Jordan-Clare Green played 12 year old Emma O'Conner. She is a wonderful actress. 14 year old Emma Kragen wrote this story and I have to say she did a wonderful job.

This is the kind of movies I love to watch, there is no bad words in the movie. Little Kids and the whole family will love this movie. I love the part where Emma tells a crook to give her the dog and he gives her a funny look and she gets mad and kicks him and gets the dog. I also love the part while the pageant is going on, where Emma asked the main crook what he done with the dogs after he let them out to mess up the pageant. It was funny the way he said I let them out for a little walkie, and Emma kicks him in the leg and takes his cat. Watching that whole pageant was great with the kids and dogs. There is a lot of funny stuff in The 12 Dogs Of Christmas that everyone will enjoy. I almost let The 12 Dogs Of Christmas pass me by, I had a wonderful feeling that it was going to be great, and my feelings was wright, I am so happy that I purchased the DVD to this movie and I know other people and kids will love it too. Don't let The 12 Dogs Of Christmas movie pass you by because if you do, you are going to be missing out on a wonderful, fun loving, holiday family movie that will steal, and warm your heart. This will be a holiday tradition for me to watch this movie every year at Christmas time. I love it.

I want to thank everyone that was in on making The 12 Dogs Of Christmas possible. It has really touched my heart.

I loved the movie. It's great sometimes to be able to sit back and watch a good family squeaky-clean enjoyable film. Granted, the plot line is not very deep and the movie could be watched and understood by a five year old, but that's one of the things I enjoyed about it. A make-believe situation where dogs are not allowed in the town gave the movie an interesting and unique plot. I thought it was even more remarkable when I found out that the plot was written by a young child. Remarkable! The dog-catcher's bike was also very unique, reminded me of something out of Mad-Max. I also thought they did a good job with giving the movie a "vintage" feel/quality that matched the time period. Overall two thumbs up!

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

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.

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 was the worst movie I've seen since the Pokiman films (which I was forced to go to by my kids). The script was terrible. In summary, a little girl is sent to live with a woman who hates her father's guts (but still lets her stay) and teaches a town to love dogs by putting on a play with dogs. Huh? I actually felt bad for the actors having to say these lines (especially the guy who played the coach who could only use sports terms with the kids). What was the deal with the guy who drove the motorcycle for the dog catcher? And why is it when the girl tries to get away from the dog catcher, she literally WALKS past him, and he has to run and chase her. This is a good alternative to "Full House" reruns to keep your kids busy for 90 minutes. Otherwise, save your money.

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!!!

This movie was horrible, the actors sucked, the little girl looked like a boy, the plot was super dumb, even the children watching the movie quickly lost interest and left to do other things. I wish i could give this film a -10. I am shocked they spent 2 million to make this film, i could have done a better job with a cell phone camera and homeless people.