The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema & Tv
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
      • Shows
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureMovie reviews

StarDog and TurboCat

StarDog and TurboCat | Movie review
2 December 2019
Jake Cudsi
Avatar
Jake Cudsi
2 December 2019

Movie and show review

Jake Cudsi

StarDog and TurboCat

★★★★★

Release date

6th December 2019

Certificate

UPG121518 title=

Links

FacebookWebsite

Director Ben Smith calls on Luke Evans (Beauty and the Beast) and Nick Frost (Hot Fuzz) to front StarDog and TurboCat, a story of unlikely friendship and heroism in the face of adversity. But the talented cast can’t save this dog’s dinner of a feel-good animation about a dog shot into space only to come crashing down to a pet-free Earth.  

Gratingly unfunny, with scant charm, StarDog and TurboCat are unlovable and forgettable. The film’s tagline runs “The greatest superheroes ever unleashed”, but the stars are chained to a vapid plot and a script bereft of wit. The film’s wearisome descent into mediocrity is all the more ironic, and unforgivable, given the boundless potential of its supernatural leads.  

TurboCat, real name Felix, is a technological whizz with trust issues: basically Batman, but feline. Stardog (aka Buddy), meanwhile, is trusting to a fault, with a can-do attitude. Their paths collide when Buddy’s space shuttle crashes back down to earth. But nothing is familiar to our protagonist, and the mood in town is decidedly suspect. Enter Felix, to swiftly bring our hero up to speed on what’s happened in the intervening time between his lift-off and crash landing.

The pair must work together to save themselves, as well as a town that has fallen out of love with animals. As they struggle to form a fruitful working relationship and win the interest of audiences, the pair enlist the help of the headstrong rabbit Cassidy (Gemma Arterton) and the scientist cat Sinclair, voiced suitably by a dour Bill Nighy.

There’s little chemistry between any characters, which will leave audiences disinclined to adopt the lead duo into their hearts. Good family cartoons usually lean heavily on the relationships they portray, with their cute dialogue and warming familiarity. But StarDog’s shuttle seems to have parachuted him onto a world without either the warmer aspects of family entertainment or the ingenuity to keep it interesting.

★★★★★

Jake Cudsi

StarDog and TurboCat is released nationwide on 6th December 2019.

Watch the trailer for StarDog and TurboCat here:

Related Itemsreview

More in Movie reviews

Sheep Without a Shepherd

★★★★★
Musanna Ahmed
Read More

Forget Everything and Run

★★★★★
Dan Meier
Read More

Fear of Rain

★★★★★
Mark Worgan
Read More

The Last Photograph

★★★★★
Emma Kiely
Read More

Laddie: The Man Behind the Movies

★★★★★
Sean Gallen
Read More

House of Cardin

★★★★★
James Humphrey
Read More

The Race to Save the World

★★★★★
Oliver Johnston
Read More

The Mitchells vs the Machines

★★★★★
Emma-Jane Betts
Read More

Arlo the Alligator Boy

★★★★★
Mae Trumata
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Jake Cudsi

StarDog and TurboCat

★★★★★

Release date

6th December 2019

Certificate

UPG121518 title=

Links

FacebookWebsite

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Kaleo – Surface Sounds
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • London’s Michelin-starred restaurants open al fresco right now – and all those re-opening in May
    Food & Drinks
  • Weezer with the LA Philharmonic and YOLA at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Online
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • The Motherhood Project: An interview with creator and curator Katherine Kotz
    Theatre
  • Ride or Die
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Sheep Without a Shepherd
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Forget Everything and Run
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Turtle Opera: An interview with Turtle Key Arts artistic director Charlotte Cunningham
    Theatre
  • Laddie: The Man Behind the Movies
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Fear of Rain
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • 50 Next unveils the new generation of food industry pioneers
    Food & Drinks
  • Arlo the Alligator Boy
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • London’s Michelin-starred restaurants open al fresco right now – and all those re-opening in May
    Food & Drinks
  • Campfire in Kings Cross: Two Tribes deliver everything you’ve been missing with a night of beer, BBQ and live music
    Food & Drinks
  • Live from the Barbican: Moses Boyd
    ★★★★★
    Live music
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Frank Turner plays intimate and heartfelt gig at Alexandra Palace | Live review
Nek brings Italian pop rock to the Shepherd’s Bush Empire