The family comedy Show Dogs introduces us to NYPD K9 Unit officer Max (an alpha male Rottweiler, voiced by Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges) who must team up with human FBI Agent Frank Mosley (Will Arnett) following a failed attempt to recover a stolen baby panda.
The odd couple go undercover at the site of the thieves’ next target: the renowned Canini Invitational Dog Show in Las Vegas – the pinnacle of dog shows. Needless to say, theirs is not initially a good relationship but, if they hope to rescue the baby panda and bring the thieves to justice, they must set aside their many differences and learn to work as partners.
“I tend to do a lot of different shows and projects, and it was one of those movies I told my kids about and I pitched them the idea and they loved it. It’s fun for me to be able to do something I feel they, their friends and people of that age will really respond to,” says Arnett, talking about what attracted him to the project.
The movie also co-stars Natasha Lyonne (currently known from her role in hit TV show Orange is the New Black) as Mattie Smith, dog enthusiast, who has won the Best in Show at the Canini international many times and who is tasked with assisting Frank and Max to blend into the dog show.
“Working with Natasha is great,” enthuses Arnett. She’s a lot of energy in a small package, because she’s physically quite small. But, she’s got this ferocious personality in the best way. She brings a ton of energy and she’s crazy funny. She’s one of the funniest, smartest people I know.”
These dogs come onto the set and they know they’re the stars of the movie
“It’s sort of my dream movie. I love dogs and really felt like my entire life has been leading up to this moment,” says Lyonne. “It’s clearly the role I was born for. I’m a huge fan of Will’s, Stanley Tucci and Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges, Alan Cumming and Shaquille O’Neal. These are really my favourite people, so I was just really excited.”
Show Dogs also stars Stanley Tucci, lending his voice to an aging Papillon, once known as ‘Philippe De Fabulous’ for being a three-time world champion Show Dog. Philippe agrees to come out of retirement to help Max on his mission to enter the Canini Invitational.
Director Raja Gosnell describes Philippe as a character who, despite being thrown out of the dog show world in disgrace, still has an immense love for it and understands the huge gravitas of the show dog world.” Gosnell says it was an “honour” to work with Tucci and describes how his French accent is “amazing” and he predicts that Phillipe is “going to be one of the most beloved characters” of the movie.
Gosnell describes the experience of working with dogs as joyful. “These dogs come onto the set and they know they’re the stars of the movie. They’re like athletes, they train for certain things that they have to do and come onto set with so much joy and enthusiasm. It gave me so much respect for these dogs and their innate personalities but also for the trainers and coaches that work with them. They have such a unique bond with the dogs and their ability to communicate with them is jaw-dropping.”
The other dogs featured in the story include Daisy (voiced by Jordin Sparks), a gorgeous, perfumed and puffed Australian Shepherd who falls for Max’s charms; Karma, a big dreadlocked Komondor with a chilled-out Buddhist attitude (Shaquille O’Neal); Sprinkles, an excitable pug voiced by Gabriel ‘Fluffy’ Iglesias; Dante, an award-winning Yorkshire Terrier voiced by Alan Cumming; Persephone, the world’s freakiest looking dog with bucket loads of attitude (RuPaul) and Pigeons 1, 2 and 3, voiced by Anders Holm, Kate Micucci and Blake Anderson who serve as Max’s eyes and ears in the sky.