Hotel For Dogs (2022 film)

Hotel For Dogs is a 2022 American live-action/animated family comedy film directed by Shawn Levy and produced by Paramount Pictures, Paramount Animation, Nickelodeon Movies, 21 Laps Entertainment and Buddy Studios and distributed digitally by Buddy+. It is produced by Cal Brunker and Bob Barlen based on a screenplay by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger. It is based on the 1971 novel of the same name by Lois Duncan and a remake of the 2009 film of the same name, and stars Olivia Rodrigo, Jacob Tremblay, Mark Ruffalo, and more.

Hotel For Dogs was released on September 1, 2022 for Buddy+ and was released into limited theatres on September 2, 2022 by Paramount Pictures. It was critically panned, criticizing its screenplay, cast, plot, and visual effects and animation, though its musical score by John Debney received praise. Due to it being limited in theatrical releases, it was a box office disappointment, grossing $29.1 million against a $90 million budget.

Plot
Orphans 16-year-old Andi and 12-year-old Bruce swindle a pawn shop owner in order to buy food to feed their dog, Friday. However, they are quickly caught and brought to the police station where they get picked up by their social worker Bernie Wilkins who takes them back to their foster parents, Lois and Carl Scudder, who do not appear to care for either Andi, Bruce, or their dog. Despite his sympathy for the siblings, Bernie warns them that they are playing a dangerous game by deliberately getting into trouble in order to escape their foster parents.

The next morning, Friday leaves to go looking for food, only to be caught by Animal Control. Desperate and worried, Andi and Bruce go into a local pet shop to ask if anybody has seen him. They meet Dave and Heather, who advise them to check the pound. They learn that Friday is indeed in the pound but cannot be claimed without their parents present, so they bribe the guard to get Friday back. While walking home, they discover a gang of youths committing a crime, causing them to flee before the police arrive. They look for Friday who has taken shelter in an abandoned hotel, where they find a tiny Boston Terrier and an English Mastiff. They name them Georgia and Lenny and leave Friday at the hotel for the night.

The next day, Bruce stays at the hotel to keep the dogs quiet, while Andi heads to the same pet shop to get some food for the dogs, where she runs into Dave and Heather again. Andi lies to them that their parents often rescue dogs, causing Dave to ask her to take in three more dogs that nobody seems to want to adopt, which she reluctantly agrees. With six dogs to look after, the friends set about trying to get the hotel in a decent state to accommodate the dogs' needs, with help from a local boy named Mark (Troy Gentile), as they rescue more stray dogs to occupy the hotel.

Eventually, Dave invites Andi to a party, which she accepts. Meanwhile, Bruce ends up interrogated by Carl and Lois, having been caught stealing a hairdryer. The party is ruined for Andi when she bumps into Jason, an old acquaintance who reveals to everyone that she and Bruce are orphans. Bruce manages to escape his house, only to find out that the hotel has fallen into chaos. Lois and Carl follow him and the police are called. The dogs (including Friday) are found and sent to the Pound, while Bruce and Andi are taken away by the police. When Lois and Carl refuse to take Andi and Bruce back, Bernie is forced to send them to separate foster homes.

The dogs are all scheduled to be put down the next day, but Friday manages to escape. He rushes over to find Dave, Heather and Mark, who in turn, find Andi and Bruce. Meanwhile, Bernie explores the hotel where he finds a dog named Harley, who had managed to avoid getting caught by animal control the previous night. Bernie then realizes why the kids loved doing what they did. Andi and Bruce manage to break into the Pound and release the dogs in an attempt to get them across the county line, where they will be safe. However, the dogs instead make their way back towards the hotel, believing it to be their real home. The strange event attracts the attention of citizens, reporters and the police, who follow the dogs to the hotel, causing a large crowd to gather. Before the animal control officers attempt to capture the dogs again, Bernie appears and tells everyone about how Bruce and Andi managed to create a family of dogs and reveals Jake and Max's plans to them. He introduces all the dogs who live at the hotel and tells the heartfelt stories of their past owners, which wins over the crowd and the police allow the children to keep the dogs together.

As people eagerly explore the hotel, Bernie reveals to an overjoyed Andi and Bruce that he and his wife have decided to adopt them. Sometime later, the hotel re-opens as a grand "Hotel For Dogs", where people can either adopt strays or board their dogs, while Andi, Bruce, and Friday happily settle into their new family.

Cast

 * Olivia Rodrigo as Andi
 * Jacob Tremblay as Bruce
 * TBA as Dave
 * TBA as Mark
 * TBA as Heather
 * TBA as Bernie Wilkins
 * TBA as Carol Wilkins
 * TBA as Lois Scudder
 * TBA as Carl Scudder
 * TBA as Ms. Camwell
 * TBA as ACO Herb Dooley
 * TBA as ACO Max
 * TBA as ACO Jake
 * TBA as Officer Mike
 * TBA as Officer Jeff
 * TBA as Evan
 * TBA as Jason
 * Cosmo the Dog as Friday
 * Ryan Reynolds as the voice of Friday
 * TBA as the voice of Romeo and Cooper Pug
 * TBA as the voice of Georgia and Shep
 * TBA as the voice of Lenny

Development
Plans for a reboot on Hotel For Dogs began in 2015. DreamWorks Pictures, owned by 20th Century Studios at the time, had began plans on the film, with a planned release date of March 19, 2016. However, on June 15, 2016, Lois Duncan died, and the project was put in development limbo, until Paramount Pictures acquired the rights in 2018, and production didn't begin until July 2019.

Shawn Levy of 21 Laps Entertainment was hired as director of the film, with Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger providing the screenplay. Cal Brunker and Bob Barlen produced the film.

In March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, theatres were closed, and Buddy+, Buddy Studios' new streaming service, was released in March 2018. The streaming service acquired the rights for the film distribution, after it was originally planned for a theatrical release by Paramount.

Casting
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Filming
Filming took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. TBA

Visual effects and animation
Sony Pictures Imageworks and Weta FX provided the animation and visual effects.

Release
Originally scheduled for a March 2020 release, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was pushed back to June 21, 2021. The film distribution rights were later given to Buddy+ instead of its worldwide theatrical release by Paramount Pictures. It was released on September 1, 2022 by Buddy+ for streaming and on September 2, 2022 by Paramount Pictures in limited theatres.

Marketing
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Box office
The film was released in limited theatres on September 2, 2022. It grossed $20.7 million in the United States and Canada and $8.4 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $29.1 million, making it a box office disappointment.

Critical response
Hotel For Dogs was critically panned upon release, with many considering it one of Paramount Pictures and Buddy Studios' worst films ever made. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 3% of 128 critic reviews are positive, with an approval rating of 3.05/10. The website's consensus reads, "Hardly funny, barely entertaining, with little action and terrible acting, Hotel For Dogs is a torture chamber for anyone who are fans of the book." It is Nickelodeon's worst film to date, with The Last Airbender in second place. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 19 out of 100 based on 10 reviews, indicating "overwhelming dislike". Audiences polled by CinemaScore assigned the film an average grade of "C-" on its A+ to F scale.

Trivia
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