Barnes & Noble

Inspired by Gary Paulson's award-winning book, Waterdance, Brian Levant's PG-rated Snow Dogs is a delightful surprise -- especially to anyone who expects little beyond a 90-minute exercise in animatronics. Part Northern Exposure, part Beethoven, and thoroughly heartwarming, Snow Dogs serves up Academy Award winner Cuba Gooding Jr. (Jerry Maguire) as Ted Brooks, a Miami dentist who gets a new leash on life when he learns that he was adopted and has inherited a champion sled-dog team from Tolketna, Alaska. The "dumb city slicker" gradually finds himself at home in this community of eccentrics and decides to enter his dog team in the Arctic Challenge, a grueling 400-mile race. Refreshingly, Snow Dogs is not concerned with who wins the big race. At heart, it is about Brooks's quest to learn the truth about his parentage, which leads him to local legend Thunder Jack. Portrayed by Oscar winner James Coburn at his flintiest, Jack earned his name, a resident memorably whispers to Brooks, because "he's been hit by thunder...twice." Gooding and Coburn make a great team, and kids will love the dogs, especially the aptly named Demon, in whom Levant has found another charismatic canine star. Snow Dogs figures to become a often-played staple among canine-inclined families. Donald Liebenson

All Movie Guide

Two Oscar-winning actors add a family-oriented comedy to their resumes with this Disney-produced arctic adventure. Snow Dogs stars Cuba Gooding Jr. as Ted Brooks, a Florida-dwelling dentist with a successful chain of offices and a comfy, poolside lifestyle. All this changes, however, when he finds out that he was actually adopted as a child, and that his birth mother has died and left him an inheritance in her home state of Alaska, of all places. After arriving in the snow-bound clime, Ted learns that he has been willed a pack of cutely named sled dogs: Demon, Diesel, Dutchess, Nana, Mack, Scooper, Sniff, and Yodel. Problem is, the town's premiere sled-dogger, Thunder Jack (James Coburn), wants the pack for himself, and encourages Ted to go back to his tropical environs. But with a major sled-dog race looming, Ted's inspired to learn the ropes, as it were, and prove himself worthy of his birth mother's inheritance -- any way he can. Snow Dogs was directed by Jingle All the Way's Brian Levant and features some animatronic dog effects by Jim Henson's Creature Shop; the script was very loosely adapted from popular author Gary Paulsen's nonfiction book Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod. Michael Hastings

Product Details

• UPC: 786936184914
• Source: WALT DISNEY VIDEO
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Pre-1954 Standard (1.33.1)
• Presentation: Pan & Scan
• Sound: DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English, Français
• Subtitles: English
• Time: 1:39:00
• Sales Rank: 1,479

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Disney Dogs Pack

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