Initially, my review for Disney’s Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 consisted of two words: “sigh” and “facepalm.” And, although those two words were extremely fitting for the latest in the House of Mouse’s never-ending line of crappy direct-to-video sequels to talking animal kiddie flicks that nobody asked for, I sensed that it was simply not enough — and that I should probably expand on my theory as to why I was in hell for the duration of this 84-minute journey into embarrassment. Sure, it’s a fitting film for the young audiences that it was created for — but most adults will be hard-pressed to sit through it without wanting to strangle go out and buy a Chihuahua just so they can strangle it.
The original film, 2008’s Beverly Hills Chihuahua, somehow managed to make some money at the box office — despite the fact that it was a really bad movie. Disney even managed to wrangle in some famous voices and a few familiar faces for the fiasco: George Lopez, Andy Garcia, Drew Barrymore, Edward James Olmos, Plácido Domingo, Cheech Marin, and Paul Rodriguez all contributed to the personalities of a plethora of talking canine critters, while Piper Perabo, Manuel Cardona and Jamie Lee Curtis were bribed into contributing to live-action roles.
True to the illustrious legacy of direct-to-video offerings, of course, none of the original castmembers were given another chance to humiliate themselves with Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2. Well, almost none: George Lopez — no stranger to dishonor (see his entire résumé for clarification) — returns here as the voice of Papi, one of the film’s Chihuahuas (which shall be known henceforth as “ugly plague-ridden rat-dogs”), while everyone else (to my knowledge, at least, has been replaced by the finest selection of television actors this side of the final season of the original Hawaii Five-O.
The story here starts out with the two lead ugly plague-ridden rat-dogs getting married. Seriously. From there, two of our (human) upscale Beverly Hills upstarts (Erin Cahill and Susan Blakely, filling in for Piper Perabo and Jamie Lee Curtis, respectively) go on some sort of expedition, leaving lead live actor Marcus Coloma (replacing Manuel Cardona) to baby-sit newly-married Papi (Lopez), Chloe (Odette Yustman) and their five new additions to the family of ugly plague-ridden rat-dogs: Stinky, Sleepy, Sneazy, Sleazy and L‘il Kim. (at least, I think those were their names — I could be wrong there, folks).
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Article comments
1 - Shawna
You know the next thing Disney will crap out is the Chihuahua puppies meet the Buddies!