On Nov. 9, we watched the new movie “Arctic Dogs,” a film filled with childish humor and minimal development. 

The plot of the story began with Swifty, voiced by Jeremy Renner, who is an Arctic fox that idolized the “Top Dogs” of the mail service in his town, Taigasville. The “Top Dogs” are a well known group of huskies that are heavily depended on to get the mail delivered throughout their remote town. 

Swifty has big dreams and hopes to become famous and well-known to his fellow residents. Though, he faced a bit of a problem, as he was “just a fox” (a statement constantly repeated throughout the movie) and not strong enough to pull the mail sleigh. Little does this fox know, there is an evil that lingers on the outskirts of his home-town that is waiting for him to prove he is worthy of being a “Top Dog.” 

Fed up with his supposed lies about an evil walrus creating a drill to penetrate the gas bubbles under the town and set global warming in motion, his best friend, Peabie, a shy and reserved Polar bear, Lemmy, a crazy albatross, and Jade, the crafty engineer who also plays  the love interest for Swifty, refuse to acknowledge that there might be any suspicious ongoings in the town. 

Determined to prove his worth, Swifty bands together with two otters, Bertha and Leopold, who were driven to find the origin of the suspicious global warming, and end it. 

Throughout the movie we see Swifty become less self involved and narcissistic and turn into a fox that truly cares for his neighbors, and wants to help save his home, even if what he has to do makes everyone, especially Jade, dislike him. 

Although the characters were cute and witty, they weren’t very developed. We feel that if the audience knew more of their personal history, they would truly understand who they are, and not just see them as a side character that helps show off the main character. There wasn’t a backstory for anyone except Swifty and even then it was only that he was in constant awe of the Arctic Justice League of the mail service. 

We didn’t get any information on why Swifty wanted to become a Top Dog, or his relationship with his family, and there was no relationship development with him and Jade. It was almost as if the author just threw them together with absolutely no context. 

One main aspect that we strongly disliked was the different accents for each animal. Some of the speech was really heavy and hard to understand and you had to strain to try to make out what they were saying. Most of the time in the movie one of the animals would say something with their thick accent, and it wouldn’t register through our brains until later, and then we could piece together what was happening. It would have been cute if the animals had a slight accent that was the same all around, but when they all have these varied, thick enunciations, it created a distraction that took away from the movie.

Although the movie had many details that were highly annoying, there were a few moments that highlighted the childish parts that were buried inside us. One such scene had to be when Swifty was launched from the top of the wicked walrus’s drill into the snow. His friends discover him with his face covered by snow. He says “I’m blind, I’m blind!” and then Jade wipes the snow off of his eyes and he proclaims, “I’m not blind!” It was a little silly but it added some humor into the tense plot. 

We feel that in general, the surprising elements in the plot could have been improved, possibly adding more details and complexity. It seemed a bit bland at times.

Overall, this movie was full of good laughter, and real life problems portrayed in anthropomorphic ways. The plot was a bit cliche, involving a “hero-villain” story and including an obsession of a love interest, but the smallest moments were the ones that we enjoyed most.