Ava Weintraub
Disney’s “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” doesn’t throw a bone to either kids or adults.
The premise, pampered Beverly Hills pooch finds her inner Chihuahua while lost in Mexico is too silly, too implausible and too contrived.
Main character, Chloe the spoiled, rich Chihuahua, is voiced by Drew Barrymore sounding as if she phoned in her performance while text messaging on her cell phone.
In contrast, George Lopez as the voice of Papi, the transplanted Mexican Chihuahua attached to Chloe’s owner’s Mexican-American gardener, is one of the few highlights of the movie.
Jamie Lee Curtis, in what amounts to a cameo roll, plays Chloe’s owner, who treats the dog as her child. When Chloe’s owner must travel to Europe on business, she asks her niece Rachel to doggy-sit.
The adventure begins when Rachel takes Chloe on vacation to Mexico where the spoiled Chihuahua is kidnapped for dog-fighting use (a dark topic for a Disney movie).
Rachel returns home without Chloe and turns to Sam for help while Papi learns that his “corazon” is missing and must save her.
Though “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” boasts a cast of recognizable actors, namely Andy Garcia, Edward James Olmos, famed Opera star Placcido Domingo,
Paul Rodriguez and Cheech Marin, each gives a somewhat lackluster performance.
Perhaps they were less than thrilled to be cast as down-and-out Mexican characters.
This begs the question, why didn’t the producers cast a Latina (with or without an accent)as the voice of Chloe? Why can’t a Latina be Chloe’s wealthy owner?
Smells like stereotyping to me.
Disney missed the mark with this one.
Courtesy of Sony Pictures ()