by Doris E Rufli

Created on: October 19, 2008

Funny enough I expected this movie to simply be an entertaining and fun musical rather than a feature with a sublime message. Mind you, I really ought to have known better it being a Walt Disney production. The acting, animation and general choreography as well as the sometimes simply breathtaking scenery did just that take my breath away. A most definitely and surprisingly inspiring film indeed.

Beverly Hills Chihuahua opens with successful business woman Viv (Jamie Lee Curtis) carrying overindulged and spoilt rotten little lapdog Chloe (voice Drew Barrymore) from appointment to appointment. Indeed, the Chihuahua has her own extensive schedule and is very aware of it, too, as are her various equally spoilt doggie friends. In walks equally flakey Rachel (Piper Perabo), Viv's niece, who is reeled in as a dogsitter for Chloe at the last minute as Viv needs to fly to Europe and the scheduled dogsitter is unavailable at short to no notice. This does not sit well with either Chloe who sees Rachel as superficial and only interested in having fun rather than taking responsibility for anything or anyone while said niece is none too happy to have to adhere to a rather tight schedule for a spoilt little lapdog.

It comes as it must with Viv departing and Rachel taking residence in her aunt's Beverly Hills villa with a couple of equally giggly and irresponsible friends. Here she first encounters aunt Viv's Mexican landscaper Sam Cortez (Manolo Cardona) and his own rescue Chihuahua Pepi (voice George Lopez). Needless to say the encounter is less than friendly and/or constructive albeit both parties remain polite whenever somewhat exasperated.

The three girls then decide to drive across the Mexican border for some partying and pack up pampered Chloe heading due south. There, however, things are starting to go wrong real fast. Rachel tries to feed Chloe simple dog food for which the spoilt lapdog retaliates immediately. The girls then file out the door not realising that clever little Chloe finds a way to get out of the hotel room in search of the woman supposedly looking after her. Instead, she is picked up by a member of a local dog fight gang and ends up in a cage surrounded by other stolen pooches in order to become game' to the dreaded Doberman El Diablo (voice Edward James Olmos), owned by gang leader Vasquez (Jos Mara Yazpik). Latter has thus far managed to avoid capture by local law enforcement despite them being well aware of his criminal activities. There she also encounters expolice dog German Shepherd Delgado (voice Andy Garcia) who instigates a mass escape and the adventure really begins.

The story evolves around both the human and animal (including a clever rat and a not so clever iguana) world both learning their own lessons and to rely on one another. They all converse amongst one another without actually understanding the other species as such particularly where the humans are concerned. However, unlike other movies, this is not really the issue here it is essentially about the spoilt rich human and pooch to learn that those of lesser money' are not necessarily of lesser breed or importance.

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