''Rover Dangerfield'' is a 1991 American

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

musical Musical is the adjective of music Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact def ...

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...

starring the voice talent of comedian

Rodney Dangerfield Rodney Dangerfield (born Jacob Rodney Cohen; November 22, 1921 – October 5, 2004) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, screenwriter, and producer. He was known for his self-deprecating one-liner humor, his catchphrase "I don't get no re ...

, who also wrote and co-produced the film. It is about a street dog named Rover, who is owned by a Las Vegas showgirl. Rover gets dumped off Hoover Dam by the showgirl's boyfriend. However, rather than drowning, Rover ends up on a farm.

Plot

Rover is a

Basset Hound The Basset Hound is a short-legged breed of dog in the hound family. The Basset is a scent hound that was originally bred for the purpose of hunting hare. Their sense of smell and ability to ''ground-scent'' is second only to the Bloodhound.Har ...

that lives a life of luxury in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish language, Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the List of United States cities by population, 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the U.S. state, state of Neva ...

with his owner Connie, a showgirl. He gambles and flirts with girls with his best friend Eddie. One night, he sees Connie's criminal boyfriend Rocky in a transaction with a pair of gangsters and accidentally disrupts it by dropping a bone into the meeting. Thinking that Rocky is an undercover cop setting them up, the gangsters flee as the big boss tells Rocky that he has blown his last chance as Rocky quotes that it's just a stupid dog outside. He throws the bone towards a fleeing Rover and Eddie. The next day, Connie goes on tour for two weeks, leaving Rocky to look after Rover. In retaliation for ruining his deal, Rocky stuffs Rover in a bag, drives him to Hoover Dam and throws him into the water. The bag is later pulled out of the water by two passing fishermen, who take Rover back to shore and place him in the back of their pickup truck. Rover regains consciousness and jumps out of the truck when the fishermen stop for gas, and begins to wander down the road. He ends up in the countryside, and eventually runs into a farmer, Cal, and his son, Danny, who convinces his father to take the dog in. Cal agrees on one condition: at the first sign of trouble, he'll be sent to an animal shelter. If nobody claims him, the animal shelter can put him down. Rover has difficulty adjusting to life on the farm but with a help of Daisy, a beautiful

collie Collies form a distinctive type of herding dogs, including many related landraces and standardized breeds. The type originated in Scotland and Northern England. Collies are medium-sized, fairly lightly-built dogs, with pointed snouts. Man ...

next door, and the other dogs on the farm, he succeeds in earning their trust. Rover spends

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

with the family, and begins to fall in love with Daisy, who returns his affections. However, one night, a pack of

wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...

attempt to kill a turkey on the farm. As Rover attempts to save the turkey, the wolves run off, but the bird ends up dead and Cal mistakenly believes Rover to have been responsible. The next morning, Cal takes Rover into the woods to shoot him, but he hesitates and is attacked by the wolves. Rover manages to chase off the wolves, and rallies the other farm dogs to get the injured Cal home. Rover's heroics make the papers, allowing Eddie and Connie to find out where he is. Danny informs Rover of his trip back to Las Vegas and he departs the farm. Although initially happy to be reunited with Connie and his friends, Rover soon begins to miss his life on the farm. When Rocky comes into Connie's dressing room, and upon seeing him, Rover initiates revenge. After Rocky accidentally confesses to what he did, Connie angrily punches him in the face and breaks up with him. Infuriated, Rocky tries to retaliate against Connie, but Rover and his dog friends chase him out of the casino, where a gangster beckons him into their limo. At first, Rocky is happy they saved him, but then questions their presence in the first place. The big boss quotes "This is a setup. Wanna see Hoover Dam"? The limo drive off with a horrified Rocky as Rover says his goodbyes to him. Sometime later, Rover, missing Daisy, becomes depressed. Realizing he has met someone, Connie takes Rover back to the farm to stay and allows Cal and Danny to keep him this time. Rover is reunited with Daisy, who leads him to the barn and reveals to him that he is now a father, unveiling six puppies: Five of them resembles Rover and one resembles Daisy. The story ends with Rover teaching his kids how to play cards and playfully chasing Daisy around the farmyard.

Voice cast

as Rover, Rover's Son * Susan Boyd as Daisy *

Ronnie Schell Ronald Ralph Schell (born December 23, 1931) is an American actor and stand-up comedian. He appeared on the May 28, 1959, episode of the TV quiz ''You Bet Your Life'', hosted by Groucho Marx. Schell demonstrated a comic barrage of beatnik jive ...

as Eddie * Ned Luke as Raffles * Shawn Southwick as Connie * Sal Landi as Rocky *

Bert Kramer Bert Kramer (October 10, 1934 – June 20, 2001) was an American actor, who was born in San Diego. He appeared in many different television shows including ''Kojak'', ''The Bionic Woman'', ''The Rockford Files'', ''Dallas (1978 TV series), Da ...

as Max *

Robert Pine Robert Pine (born Granville Whitelaw Pine, July 10, 1941) is an American actor who is best known as Sgt. Joseph Getraer on the television series '' CHiPs'' (1977–1983). Including ''CHiPs'', Pine has appeared in over 400 episodes of television ...

as Duke *

Dana Hill Dana Hill (born Dana Lynne Goetz; May 6, 1964 – July 15, 1996) was an American actress. She was known for playing Audrey Griswold in '' National Lampoon's European Vacation'', and also known for her roles in '' Shoot the Moon'' and '' Cross Cr ...

as Danny *

Eddie Barth Eddie Barth (September 29, 1931 – May 28, 2010; born Edward Michael Bartholetti) was an American actor. Barth earned the nickname Mr. Gravel for his raspy vocals in his voiceover work. Biography Early life Barth was born Edward Michael Barthol ...

as Champ * Dennis Blair as Lem * Don Stewart as Clem *

Gregg Berger Gregory Alan Berger (born December 10, 1950) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Jecht from ''Final Fantasy X'' and the '' Dissidia Final Fantasy'' games, Grimlock from '' The Transformers'', Mysterio and Kraven the Hunter from ' ...

as Cal * Heidi Banks as Katie *

Paxton Whitehead Francis Edward Paxton Whitehead (born 17 October 1937) is an English actor, theatre director and playwright. He was nominated for a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for his performance as Pellinore in the 1980 revival of ''Camelot''. He has h ...

as Count * Ron Taylor as Mugsy, Bruno * Chris Collins as Big Boss, Sparky, Horse * Chris Collins and Tom Williams as Coyotes * Chris Collins, Bernard Erhard, and Danny Mann as Wolves * Robert Bergen as Gangster, Animal *

Tress MacNeille Teressa Claire MacNeille (née Payne; born June 20, 1951) is an American voice actress, whose credits include voicing Dot Warner on the animated television series '' Animaniacs'', Babs Bunny on '' Tiny Toon Adventures'', Chip and Gadget Hackwren ...

as Queenie, Chorus Girls, Hen, Chickens, Turkey *

Dee Bradley Baker Dee Bradley Baker (born August 31, 1962) is an American voice actor. Much of Baker's work features vocalizations of animals and monsters. Baker's roles include animated series such as '' Avatar: The Last Airbender'', '' Codename: Kids Next Door'' ...

as Rover and Daisy's Pups Additional voices by

Bob Bergen Robert Bergen (born March 8, 1964) is an American voice actor. He voices Warner Bros. cartoon characters Porky Pig and Tweety and has voiced characters in the English dubs of various anime. He formerly hosted the children's game show ''Jep!'', a ...

, Louise Chamis,

Bill Farmer Bill Farmer (born November 14, 1952) is an American voice actor, comedian and impressionist. He has performed the voice of the Disney character Goofy since 1987, and has also been the voice of Pluto and Horace Horsecollar since 1990. Early li ...

Barbara Goodson Barbara Goodson is an American voice actress who has done voice-over work in cartoons and shows. Her best-known role was providing the English dub voice of the main villain Empress Rita Repulsa in the ''Power Rangers'' franchise, starting with ' ...

Patricia Parris Patricia Parris (also professionally credited as Pat Parris, Patty Parris, Patti Parris and Patricia E. Parris) is an American actress who provided voice-overs for several animated television series for such studios as Hanna-Barbera, The Walt D ...

, Burton Sharp, and Ross Taylor

Production

Conceived in the late 1980s, the film was planned at the time for a December 1988 release. It was originally planned as an R-rated animated film, in the vein of

Ralph Bakshi Ralph Bakshi (born October 29, 1938) is an American animator and filmmaker. In the 1970s, he established an alternative to mainstream animation through independent and adult-oriented productions. Between 1972 and 1992, he directed nine theatri ...

's films, but

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

wanted the film's content to be toned down to a G-rating. Cartoonist Jeff Smith, best known as the creator of the

self-published Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to written media, such as books and magazines, either as an ebook or as a physical copy using POD (pr ...

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. ...

series ''

Bone A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, an ...

'', described working on key frames for the film's animation to editor Gary Groth in ''

The Comics Journal ''The Comics Journal'', often abbreviated ''TCJ'', is an American magazine of news and criticism pertaining to comic books, comic strips and graphic novels. Known for its lengthy interviews with comic creators, pointed editorials and scathing r ...

'' in 1994.

Reception

On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film has an approval rating of 40% based on reviews from 5 critics, with an average rating of 3.80/10.

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cult ...

graded the film a 'C', questioning Dangerfield's decision to make the film and said, 'Dangerfield should have known he had written a no-win scenario. His strongest suit — that gleeful lounge-act vulgarity — has always been a little too crass for kids. Yet when Rover offers gooey, sentimental life lessons, it feels unconvincing, like a rock star in a suit. This mongrel-movie badly wants to be a kidvid hit, and with that star and decent animation chops, it stands a chance. But don't bet the farm on it.'

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program TV listings, listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news. The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine, TV Guide Mag ...

awarded the film two stars, criticizing the tone and inconsistent animation, and said, 'The result is a confused hybrid creation, suspended in a twilight zone between Don Bluth's benign but dull children's fare and Ralph Bakshi's gratingly hip work.'

Home video

The film was released on VHS and LaserDisc on February 12, 1992. Warner Archive later released the film on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

on December 7, 2010.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rover Dangerfield 1991 films 1991 animated films 1990s adventure films 1991 fantasy films 1990s musical comedy films 1991 romantic comedy films 1990s American animated films American adventure comedy films American children's animated adventure films American children's animated comedy films American children's animated fantasy films American children's animated musical films American musical comedy films American romantic comedy films American romantic musical films Animation based on real people Animated romance films Animated films about dogs Films set in the Las Vegas Valley Films with screenplays by Harold Ramis Films with screenplays by Rodney Dangerfield Warner Bros. animated films Warner Bros. films Films scored by David Newman Hyperion Pictures films 1990s children's animated films 1990s children's comedy films The Kushner-Locke Company films 1990s English-language films