Rover Dangerfield (1991) User Reviews

Childhood Thing

[garethwatkin · 7/10 · 27 February 2009]

Maybe it's a childhood thing. In fact it probably is. Considering the fact that i was at least 5 when I first watched this film, a young boy growing up in Ireland during times where nothing particularly amazing was happening. To be honest, back then i had absolutely no idea what i was watching. I just liked Rodney Dangerfield's voice. It was amusing. The song's were amusing, and Rover's little gimmicks every now and then sent me and my siblings chuckling and laughing, pointing at the screen and reenacting the said moments that had made us laugh so much "He look's kind of fat' I'm 17, and i've re-watched this on YouTube due to my sister sending me the link with the caption 'Part 1 for you' and a little love-icon. And yes, i watched it all over again, and found myself laughing at all the little moments again, finding humour in what is essentially a weak film. It just brought back all the memories of living in my favourite place back to me, and although for others, this is a tedious film that hardly suffices for children's entertainment, let alone anything else. This film is my personal favourite family childhood film, which i will always love and defend to the bitter end.

This movie deserves no respect.

[ironhorse_iv · 5/10 · 14 March 2013]

Everything about this movie is from the mind of Rodney Dangerfield. No, really. Rodney Dangerfield was the Executive Producer, screenwriter, and voice actor for this movie. After watching a lot of Rodney Dangerfield's stand up specials, and funny movies such as Back to School, and Caddy Shack; you would think this movie would be awesome. No it wasn't. It didn't work because the movie was too much of Rodney Dangerfield and rarely focus on anything else. The movie starts out with Rover (Rodney Dangerfield) whom living the good life in Las Vegas with his show girl owner Connie. Connie shows too affection towards Rover. It's creepy and weird. I almost expected a dog and human make out session from how much she loves him. One night, he witness Connie's slim ball boyfriend Rocky in a transaction with a pair of gangsters that goes wrong due to Rover. Looking for blame, he tossed Rover over the Hoover Dam into the Colorado River in a bag. The bag is pulled out by two passing fishermen, and Rover runs away scare. He runs into the farm run by farmer Cal and his son Danny. The little farm boy's voice is the same actress that voice Max in Goofy movie, but she got to my last nerve with her scratchy delivery in this. She sounded like she's been smoking too much or something. The kid's dad has this monotonous voice that's hard to take seriously. The farm is the stereotypical farm that looks nothing like a farm in Nevada or Arizona near Hoover Dam. It's all desert! Its looks like the Midwest. The farm is always attack by wolves, which is also something implausible. Coyotes, maybe, but they don't attack people. It's like the animator didn't bother researching Southwest America. Danny convinces his father to keep him. The father will take him in one condition: Rover must not get in trouble on the farm or he'll be sent to an animal shelter. Rover has difficulty adjusting to life on the farm, but with the help of Daisy, the beautiful dog next door, he succeeds in earning his keep until his past comes looking for him. Rover must choose between the high life, or the farm life. Still, poor Rodney Dangerfield, apparently no one told him that being good at stand up doesn't translate to being good at kid's stories. There are points in the movie that makes you question if this is a kid's movie at all. There are scantily-clad animated Vegas showgirls and dark humor about death. The king of one liners deliver some of the worst puns about life being a dog in every scene to point that it get annoying. Honestly it's kind of difficult to pull off jokes for children. The jokes can't be risqué, refer to pop culture that kids haven't been exposed to yet, involve complex word puns that are beyond their vocabulary, and so on. So I will ease up on Rodney for that. There was too much unnecessary dialogue tends to make some scenes drag. In this case, action does speak louder than words. The movie is tell, little show. Lots of scenes that go nowhere, and music that wasn't too catchy or needed. Why is there a song about pissing on a Christmas tree? What booze was Rodney on at the time when he wrote it? Some people says this is a Christmas movie because there is a Christmas tree song. I say this is as Christmas as Die Hard is. It was only Christmas time in a few scenes by the way. Most of the songs in the film are as bad as his rapping album. No, I'm not making that up, he really had an album of him rapping. This movie has quality animation. Honorable mention goes to the excellent 3D intro. Still, Rover looks like he was drop in the head. The bulging eyes on that dog are just terrifying. It's kind of creepy seeing him, paired up with the cartoon version of Lassie. Plus, Rover doesn't know if he wants to walk on two legs or not. What a distracting character design that might scare little children. Most children only the vaguest notion that the main character was supposed to be a cartoon version of Rodney. I think most children had no clue who he was at the time. The movie focus way too much on him. I wish some of the other barnyard animals besides Daisy and Ruffles would have got more spotlight attention. The dogs at the farm - Duke and Max as well as the eternally-bickering twins Lem and Clem were I all very interesting characters that I wish could have contributed to the story more. Still this movie is harmless. Rodney wanted to try his hand at kid's movies so he did. It didn't work for me, but still a fan of his. RIP Rodney Dangerfield

A long-forgotten jewel of animation

[DogePelis2015 · 7/10 · 22 May 2021]

Rover Dangerfield is an entertaining movie to pass the time; the plot is fine, the animation is excellent, and the music is nice; the soundtrack is very remarkable and has a lot of style; I recommend it.

Slow but Sweet Natured

[Quikbeam · 7/10 · 8 July 2000]

Although the film suffers a bit from slow pacing and doesn't contain the technical magic of a Disney feature, it still retains a surprising sweetness. The story is centered entirely on the famous Dangerfield stage persona; and translating the comedian's raunchy material into an anthropomorphized lovable pooch must have been no small task. Visually, the artists make strong use of colors and shadings to reinforce mood, although many scenes lack zest and are just too static. Story-wise, I rate the film above-average for its warmth and low-key humor. Children these days are only interested in the hyperactive action of Pokemon, but the littlest ones will likely be charmed. "Rover Dangerfield" may look flat when held up to "Dinosaur" but it's certainly got more heart. 7 out of 10.

Did anybody really want to see Rodney Dangerfield play an animated, talking dog who sings showtunes?

[zetes · 4/10 · 22 August 2010]

I've always had kind of a perverse curiosity about this animated movie starring Roger Dangerfield as an animated dog who, having lived in Las Vegas his whole life, has to learn to exist on a farm. It just seemed like such a moronic idea. Well, it just popped up on Netflix Instant, having never been released on DVD, and I decided that, no matter how awful it was, it's only 73 minutes long. Well, yeah, self-fulfilling prophecy and all that. It's terrible. I mean, the idea of a G rated Rodney Dangerfield should have stopped me in my tracks (okay, Ladybugs wasn't too bad, I guess). What's really weird is that Dangerfield himself was the creative force behind this whole project (he co-wrote the script with Harold Ramis). You'd think he would figure that no child would really want to see a cartoon starring himself. And Dangerfield fans aren't likely to enjoy him in such a toothless incarnation. About as dirty as it gets is when he sings a song about not "doing it" on a Christmas tree. Yes, there's a whole song where he promises his new girlfriend that he would never take a leak on a Christmas tree. Even worse, that's the only song that's even close to memorable, and it is only memorable because of its subject matter. At least Dangerfield isn't nearly as bad a singer as you might imagine, which allows the songs to go by more or less unnoticed. What's really weird is that Dangerfield didn't attempt in the slightest to get some blue jokes past the censors (it was a more innocent time than a decade later, when Shrek tickled us all pink with dick jokes), but the plot often gets absurdly dark. At least two plot points of the film have Rover facing possible execution, once by his original owner's gangster boyfriend (who himself apparently gets whacked in the end) and once by his new farmer master, who catches him with a dead turkey (which wolves killed). Yes, the turkey was just talking in the previous scene (voiced by Simpsons/Futurama regular Tress MacNeille, who voices a few other characters along the way, too), and then it has its neck broken. Rover is slapping its dangling head about, trying to revive it, when the farmer discovers him. Then he holds its head up and tries to do an impression of a turkey. I'm sure no children were traumatized by that. As bad as it is, it's a curio that I can check off my "I can't believe they made this movie" list.

animation with a bite

[rebeljenn · 6/10 · 28 March 2006]

'Rover Dangerfield' is the animated story of dog who becomes lost from his master and from the city that he calls home, and on his journey back, he meets different characters and ends up working on a farm. The dog is unmistakenly voiced by Rodney Dangerfield, and it is an animation that both children and adults can enjoy. The humor is aimed more at adults than children in some cases, but it is perfectly acceptable for children. The story is not the best, but the sense of humor and the situations that Rover finds himself in make up for a pretty slow story in some cases. It's not the best animation, but overall, I rate it just about average.

It's the annoying little things that bring this movie down, and they add up fast.

[TOMNEL · 3/10 · 8 August 2008]

I started out this movie with a positive attitude towards it. Rodney Dangerfield brings character to a character that is essentially a milder, toned down canine version of himself. The animation isn't good, though the opening scene is really well animated. As the movie drags on, more characters are introduced. All of them are clichéd are very poorly voiced and none of them are interesting in the least. It's good to have Rodney Dangerfield as the star character and main attraction of his movie, but that doesn't mean every other character should be boring and underused. But in the end, it was the little things that made this a real stinker.

Rover Dangerfield (Voiced by Rodney Dangerfield) is a gambling dog in Vegas and is owned by a Vegas show girl, Connie. Rover accidentally ruins an illegal deal being done by Connie's mean boyfriend Rocky, so when Connie leaves for a couple weeks, Rocky disposes of the dog, and Rover ends up on a farm. Now Rover must learn to work for his meals and learn to live out of the city. Along the way he makes some boring friends and falls in love with the neighbor farm's dog, Daisy. By the end, Rover must choose between the high life and the farm life.

There were quite a few things in this movie that didn't make much sense. First off, Rocky wants to get rid of Rover, so he throws him over the Hoover Dam? It seems like taking him a mile out and leaving would suffice, but instead he gets thrown over a dam. Earlier, Connie got mad at Rocky for showing up late to her birthday. What didn't make sense is, she was about to go on stage, and it seemed the other showgirls surprised her with this, so how was Rocky supposed to know to come. And even if he did know, he only came like a minute after the girls sang happy birthday. One minute late to a party he wasn't in on doesn't seem like that big of deal.

Connie shows affection towards Rover. She really loves her dog...maybe a little too much. She's living on a showgirl salary, and she feeds him steak and whatever he wants every day. Everything he does she laughs at, something Rover couldn't pull off for the viewing audience. She is constantly kissing and hugging him, and several times before leaving says she'll miss him. At the end, she drives what must be hundreds of miles to private property just because she thinks he might miss a female dog on the farm...that makes no sense. This movie is supposed to have the realism that humans are the dominant species on the Earth and dogs are their pets, but to me, it seems she is his love slave or something. It's creepy and weird. I almost expected a dog-human make out session from how much she loves him. Also, the farm people love Rover a lot, and are always hugging and kissing him, but why are they neglecting all the other more useful farm dogs?

The voices here are just awful. The little farm boy got to my last nerve with his scratchy delivery. He sounded like he's been smoking too much or something. The kid's dad has this monotonous voice that's hard to take seriously. Raffles, the sheep dog also gives some horrid deliveries. Overall, it just should be chalked up to bad voice acting, except for Rodney, and Sal Landi who was quite good as Rocky.

Characters and character traits are introduced, but by the end they add up to nothing. Rover is supposedly a funny dog, so you think maybe by the end he'd become a comedian, but nope. Just ditch the idea that everyone thinks he's funny. Rover meets all these dogs on the farm that have unique character traits, but not one of the dogs must've got any more than 10 lines in the entire movie, except for his love interest, Daisy.

What's a good way to pick up a mediocre cartoon? How about making it a musical. That usually works right...usually it does, but the music here is so run of the mill. The songs are boring and add nothing to anything. Most of them are random, too and express nothing. One song, Rover sings about not peeing on Christmas trees, one about liking living the high life in Vegas. Might as well have a song about Rover sleeping, and one about him eating. They're about as important as the actual songs.

My biggest pet peeve in animated movies was featured here. The farmer's son asks to keep the dog and the dad and the son are discussing this. Meanwhile Rover is saying all kinds of stupid things that are supposed to be witty, during their conversation. For some reason, every time Rover talks, their conversation takes a long pause, then they continue. They aren't paying attention to Rover, they're just randomly taking 30 second pauses after each statement. I seriously hate that in cartoons! Overall, this is a really cruddy animated feature, with voice work that would've been more lively if each character was voiced by Ben Stine, and inconsistencies throughout. Avoid this one, even if you're a fan of Rodney Dangerfield.

My rating: * out of ****. 70 mins. Rated G.

A very funny, very well-done animated film!

[stvincal · 10/10 · 8 December 2001]

This movie did not get the recognition it deserved. I remember it played in the theatres for 2 or 3 weeks then went to video. That's a shame because it is actually really good. It's the story of Rover, a boozing, gambling Bassett hound (voiced by Rodney Dangerfield, of course) who has Las Vegas in the palm of his hand, er, paw. Cavorting with showgirl dogs by night and sleeping off hangovers by day makes him one contented pooch. However, trouble comes one night when a thug believes Rover is a witness to a crime. Rover is thrown into a bag and tossed over Hoover Dam to drown. But our hero escapes, floats down river and winds up on a farm!

This is where the humor and charm of the movie lies, and Rodney Dangerfield's classic schtick works perfectly as Rover tries in vain to assimilate himself into the dull farm life. Of course valuable life lessons will be learned amidst the humor.

This was a very good attempt at trying to make an animated film suited for adults, instead of the usual kiddie stuff that is released. That's not to say that kids couldn't enjoy this film too, but it's aimed at adults, with Rodney Dangerfield's brand of humor in some cases going over the heads of children. Unfortunately, the film didn't do well, and few attempts have been made since to target adults with animation. Rent this movie if you want to see an animated film that's a bit different from everything else out there, and especially if you are a Rodney Dangerfield fan. The jokes are funny, the animation topnotch and even the musical numbers are done well. This should have been a bigger hit than it was.

Proves that Dangerfield is versatile

[Andy-391 · 16 September 1999]

This quality children's animated flick shows how versatile Dangerfield can be. Ask most stand-up comedians known for being on the dirty side to write a G-rated screenplay and they wouldn't at all know how to go about it. But Dangerfield does, in this good (but not great) comic and somewhat chessy and predictable, but that's par for all kid flicks, film. Good songs include "It's a dog's life and I love it" and the amusing "I'll never do it on a Christmas tree". Great looking animation of Dangerfield as a dog, and the best K-9 one-liners

Not a great movie, but not a piece of crud either

[TheLittleSongbird · 6/10 · 22 June 2011]

I am a big fan of animated movies and of animated shows, so I was interested in seeing Rover Dangerfield despite hearing from most people it was bad or mediocre. And mostly, while it is nothing great, I liked it.

The film is too short I feel, I personally think the film could have done with an extra 5-8 minutes. The story does have its charms, and the idea really intrigued me, but some scenes are static and move along a little too slowly. Also there are some inconsistencies such as the business with Rocky and Connie about the birthday party that could have been perhaps avoided had the film been longer. The voice acting is mostly good, but I too did not like the farm boy who was annoying and Ned Luke's delivery ranged from just decent to horrid. And some of the characters could have done with more personality, Rover Dangerfield(who had plenty of it), Daisy, Connie and Rocky excepted.

Of the voice acting, Rodney Dangerfield definitely steals the show, his voice is very distinctive and the delivery is great, often classic. Of the support cast, Susan Boyd is really quite lovely, likewise with Shawn Southwick, but Sal Landi as Rocky shows the most consistency. The animation mostly is good, with colours that don't look too flat and some of the background art is more than decent. And most of the characters are not too bad to look at either. The music and songs are not timeless classics, nor are they painful. I for one found them memorable and quite nice, especially Never Do it on a Christmas Tree. A vast majority of the time, the script works as well, Dangerfield's asides are funny, witty and perhaps even raunchy at times, even if some of the support characters could have had more to say.

In conclusion, not great, not crud. 6/10 Bethany Cox

I love this movie

[dogsbumsaregood · 9/10 · 31 May 2003]

Alright, this movie doesn't get nearly the recognition it deserves. Everyone keeps saying it's adult oriented and kids won't like it but this was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid. I watched it at least once a day for months. Granted, it's not one of the best movies ever made, but give it a chance. To me it was a nice change from Disney.

Most wonderful time of the year

[alphahumphrey-54847 · 7/10 · 17 November 2019]

I remember renting this on VHS at a local gas station and had to copy it as much as I loved it. No Lion King just some fun old Americana cartoon.

A failed experiment by Dangerfield that squanders his talents in a by the numbers story that doesn't use them to its advantage

[IonicBreezeMachine · 4/10 · 10 January 2023]

Rover (Rodney Dangerfield) is a high rolling, care-free, one liner spewing Basset Hound who lives in Las Vegas embracing the highroller lifestyle as the pet of Vegas showgirl Connie (Shawn Southwick). When Rover inadvertently disrupts a mafia deal with Connie's sleazy boyfriend, Rocky (Sal Landi), costing him a large amount of money, Rocky swears revenge on Rover. With Connie set to go on the road she has Rocky petsit for Rover which he's all too happy to do. Rocky drives Rover to the Hoover Dam chucking him off in a tied up sack where he's saved from drowning by two fisherman and wanders around the countryside until he comes across a family farm. The farmer, Cal (Gregg Berger), doesn't want Rover believing him to be useless, but his son Danny (Dana Hill) takes a shine to the dog and reluctantly allows Rover to stary. Rover struggles adapting to life on a farm, but eventually manages to make a more determined effort after falling in love with Daisy (Susan Boyd), a Collie from next door.

Rover Dangerfield is a 1991 animated film produced, written by, and starring noted comedian Rodney Dangerfield. The movie had its origins in the mid 80s as a concept outlined by Harold Ramis and Dangerfield both of whom had collaborated on the hit films Caddyshack and Back to School. The film was initially written as an R-rated animated film in the style and tone of something like Ralph Bakshi's urban films, but the film was the subject of heavy interference by Warner Bros. Who gutted large portions of the script's raunchier and more risqué material in order to reverse engineer this R-rated film into a G-rated family film. The exact reasoning behind why has never been explained as Dangerfield only briefly touched on the film in his autobiography and the film has been mostly forgotten with no real trade articles or box office information to speak of (though it most likely didn't do well). The working theory posited by some was Dangerfield pulling out of the doomed Caddyshack II may have resulted in some bad blood between Dangerfield and Warner Bros. With the sabotage of Rover a "tit for tat" action, but that's just speculation. Regardless of its history, the end result may have Dangerfield's stamp, but it's a far cry from his best work.

To start off on a positive note, the movie is certainly a gorgeous looking movie (in part). The movie was the sophomore feature of studio Hyperion Animation, the same outfit who put together the independently produced animated feature The Brave Little Toaster which was regrettably denied a theatrical release as Disney opted to instead hype it as an original for their cable venture The Disney Channel. Given how good Brave Little Toaster looked for a movie that didn't have studio backing, it's no surprise the studio was able to give us some stronger and more dynamic visuals with an actual budget behind them. The film features some well done model work and environments with both the Vegas scenes and the farm scenes very fluid with good line work and strong sense of atmosphere and both the human and animal models look pretty good. The one major exception however is on Rover himself who is a massive miscalculation because in contrast to all the other animals of the movie, Rover has been quasi-anthropomorphized with a design that tries to capture Dangerfield's look and facial expressions on Rover and it does not work at all. Rover's face in particular often looks dead eyed because the animators were so focused on capturing the look of Dangerfield's real life eyes that they didn't pay attention to the fact his eyes often look in two different directions at once. Rover also is the only animal character who can stand up and has hands and the fact he keeps flip flopping between being a quadruped and having hands with opposable thumbs is really distracting.

On the writing level Dangerfield shows himself struggling with being the sole credited writer on this film and even if he had gotten an R-rating as intended I'm not convinced the film would've worked. Despite the film carrying relics from the raunchier version of the script such as the Vegas setting, rover being a vice ridden gambler, Rocky the mafia antagonist, or the plethora of scantily clad showgirls, the overall plot wouldn't have differed all that much from what we got and it would've just included more "blue" jokes. The plot of the movie is clearly intended to be thin by design because it's obvious Dangerfield wanted the primary focus to be on the jokes more than anything plot or character related. The problem however is that Dangerfield writes the movie like he's delivering jokes in front of an audience and not within the context of a film narrative so Dangerfield keeps cracking one-liners with no sense of pacing, setting, or context because his strength is and always has been his delivery but that's ALL the film has going for it. Rover isn't really a character in this film because unlike his roles in Caddyshack or Back to School there hasn't been any effort dedicated to creating a character and from Rover's design it's clear the directive was "Dangerfield is a dog" and that's where it starts and ends because aside from a few puns about bones or paper training there's nothing that makes this character stand out. On occasion some of Dangerfield's jokes do land but it's usually because A) there's a straightman involved rather than the joke by itself, and B) like the Vegas setting there's usually a meaner context behind them that's also possibly a relic of the R-rated version. That's really a major problem with this movie in that there is no straightman to work off against Dangerfield and if you saw Caddyshack and Back to School the straightmens' reactions and lines were almost as big a part of those films as Dangerfield himself was.

Rover Dangerfield is an oddity of a movie that features telltale signs of production tampering especially with how disjointed and sloppily told the narrative is. It's highly unlikely that the original R-rated version of this film would've improved much upon it and it's equally doubtful the script or original animatics survive. Even if you're a hardcore lover of Dangerfield's style of humor and got mileage from Easy Money or Ladybugs this is only worth maybe a one time curiosity if that.

Terrible.

[Snap Dad · 29 March 1999]

Extreme fan of Rodney Dangerfield will probably not even like this film. The story follows a wise-cracking animated Dog, and seems to have been written with Dangerfield in mind.

The jokes are poor, but children will probably like it. Adults who have enjoyed Dangerfield's work will think to themselves "Well, at least it's not Barney!".

Get it for your kids if they want it, don't force them because you probably won't like it.

An Oddball Comedian Vehicle With a Bite

[elicopperman · 7/10 · 7 June 2020]

Throughout the years, there have been countless animated movies based off of a comedian's schtick, such as Bee Movie with Jerry Seinfeld and Louie CK with The Secret Life of Pets. However, going as far back as the early 90s, the late standup king of quips Rodney Dangerfield had been heavily involved with a movie starring himself as a wise cracking canine named Rover. While it was neither a critical nor commercial hit upon its release, and it did fade into obscurity for many years, it has now resurfaced as somewhat of a curious peak for animation and Dangerfield enthusiasts. And let me tell ya, there's a lot to appreciate about it.

The movie centers on a Las Vegas street dog named Rover (played by you know who), who gets dumped off the Hoover Dam by his showgirl owner's boyfriend. However, instead of drowning, Rover ends up on a farm where he learns the values of being a loyal house dog. Now from a premise like that, the storyline seems pretty routine and formulaic, and it wouldn't be that hard to figure out what goes on in the plot. However, what does elevate the conceptually generic concept is the execution, mainly from Dangerfield's charming standup routine, the surprisingly strong tone, and some notable dark content. In addition to showing the hidden grittiness of Las Vegas thugs, the film is not afraid to go dark when it comes to the consequences of Rover's mistakes. What's interesting to note is that this movie was intended to be much more mature and disturbing before Warner Bros forced the movie to be toned down for a family audience. Yet even with its restraints, one can tell just how much Dangerfield was vying for more of a bite in this otherwise hysterical romp.

In terms of stuff that was a result of the subdued tone, the movie showcases some straightforward albeit well choreographed musical numbers, with humorous lyrics from Dangerfield himself. While these songs may feel forced, they do spice up the momentum to either establish Rover's character or the general action with brisk pace (although one particular song about a Christmas Tree is entertaining for other reasons). In terms of other characters, the most notable ones include Rover's farm love interest Daisy, who does show as much concern for the guy as she does affection. Cal and his son Danny, the owners of Rover on the farm, take kindly to Rover but also elicit punishment to the mutt whenever he screws up, making them more interesting owners than his flat og owner Connie and her tough guy boyfriend Rocky. Everyone else are either just plot devices to dictate what Rover ends up doing in the movie or are just accompaniments to his standup routine. While some characters serve their purpose well, the rest aren't meant to have as much focus as Dangerfield.

If anyone had the most fun behind this film, it would have to be the animation crew, as they probably knew they were in for a wild ride. The way the animators designed Rover to resemble the real life Dangerfield in dog form shows off clever touches that would make most cartoonists giggle. In addition to the character designs looking like interesting mixes of Disneified cutesiness and urban graphic comic stylization, the character animation is very lively and fluid and full of personality all over the screen, even with the more realistic humans compared to the cartoony animals. However, the true highlights would have to be the experimental filmmaking, from the bold cinematic layouts, to the colorful effects work, to the briskly tight editing, so on and so forth. It feels like the crew had wanted to flex their muscles in visual storytelling so much that they chose to go full force on this movie. It's not uncommon when animated movies go so far in terms of playful filmmaking past the realm of live-action, and this film is a prime example of doing so in the purest way.

Of all the movies in the world where little is known about its production history, Rover Dangerfield is one of the most curious tales of rediscovery I've ever known. While seemingly stupid at first glance, the film offers a surprising amount of humor, pathos, playful filmmaking, and uplifting music to enlighten audiences. Even if you're not familiar with Dangerfield as a comedian, this film is worth checking out in terms of how far filmmakers will go to elevate a crazy idea like this. Dangerfield says he never got any respect at all, so let's see if this movie shall elicit some respect after nearly 30 years.

Havent seen this in years

[lisafordeay · 5/10 · 20 April 2020]

Rover Dangerfield is loosely based on the late Rodney Dangerfield and tells the story of a dog named after the title of the film who ends up at a farm where he befriends a young boy and a collie named Daisy. But will Rover choose his lavish life in Las Vegas with his old owner or his life at the farm.

Overall this was one of those films that I grew up with as a kid and never seen it ever again. If you were a fan of Rodney Dangerfield than check it out.

Growing up I loved it.

[i_am_not_a_doll · 8/10 · 2 May 2007]

When this movie came out - I was it's target audience - a child.

And I loved this movie.

Rover Dangerfield, is a great movie for kids - better than half the crap, that parents are letting their kids watch, which is far too mature for them.

This movie is filled with enough seriousness, that kids don't feel like they're being talked down to - and enough adult appeal, that even my father used to always sit down with us to watch it.

The humour is great, the characters charming - particularly Rodney Dangerfield, as Rover - what I think people are forgetting it - it doesn't have to be perfect by your standards - unless you watched it as a kid at the time of it's release and were actually a child of that time - just let your kids watch it, and ask what they think...

You probably watch what they think is crap, so who are you to be a judge?

Fabulous Movie

[VikingGodThor · 9/10 · 30 April 2008]

This was, along with "An American Tail" the two favourite animated movies I had ever seen, until it all changed with Toy Story, Shreck, Monsters Inc, Nemo, and all those other new ones. I love the humour in it, and the story line is like out on one of those good ol'e Disney Movies.

I was not to sure in the start of the movie, as there is some singing in it to, and lets be honest here, Rodney Dangerfield does not have the bes voice in the world, The jokes used in the movie might be a little old, at least some of them, but all in all its good jokes.

The quality of the animations in more or less Disney I would say, and I would not say it can match "An American Tail" as that movie is excellent with regards to colours used in the sunset scenes.

The story line rings a bell, and do remind me of another movie, but I am not sure which one, its maybe even a couple of other movies it may remind you of, but it does have its part of sadness, and happiness, love and hate, as a good movie should

Great Kids Movie

[naonip · 8/10 · 11 October 2009]

This is a very delightful kids movie. It's cute, and the songs are fun and entertaining. This was always a favorite of my kids and if I could find it on DVD I would be buying it for my grandkids. If you can watch Spongebob Square Pants as a parent with your kids, this movie is 10x's more pleasurable. Not only that, it creates memories. The storyline is about the pet of a Las Vegas showgirl who is used to the "good life", must now make it on his own as a street dog. He has attitude at first, but as time goes on he changes his ways. It has many little life lessons to be learned along the way,if you pay attention to whats going on. The mannerisms and characteristics of Rodney Dangerfield are cleverly captured in the animated main character "Rover". Rodney Dangerfield himself provides the voice for this lovable mutt. The most favorite song and most memorable one was "I'll never do it on a Christmas Tree" - "it" being peeing on the tree. My kids thought it was very funny and played it over and over again until they learned it and sang it around the house. I've been searching for this wonderful movie on DVD for a long time and hope to see it become available sometime soon.

funny but some sences are unnessisary

[mathews-rr · 28 November 2003]

CONTAINS SPOILERS i watched the movie well most of it its pretty good.i liked the ending where the guy got what he deseved and roover was reunited with dasiy.But there were some unnesisary seces such as did we really have to see roovers clevagege and bellybutton sticking out like a sore thumb all the time?This a good movie but reccomended for older people.

A Rare Warners Bros Gem

[hdelbruk · 8/10 · 10 June 2019]

Rodney Dangerfield, Harold Ramis & Warner Bros animation that belies the classic Bugs Bunny years creates a rare cartoon that may be only for fans of this classic styled cartoons and Dangerfield but it delivers. The only drawback is that this was supposed to be an adult film (R-Rating) but was limited by WB studios to stay within the G-Rating and doesn't get the chance to go all-in for the type of adult-themed Dangerfield humor. But even with these limitations you get the song "I'll Never Do it (urinate) on a Christmas Tree" that highlights the musical numbers.

A rare gem that provides viewers with one of the last WB cartoons that is reminiscent of the golden age (pre-digital graphics) that also highlights Rodney's routines that fit perfectly in a stray dog who struggles to find...RESPECT for himself. Look for Aretha's song playing in the background in the first 20 minutes, while also playing classic Daffy Duck (Mel Blanc) in the background earlier on to provide a nod to the masters. Even Seth MacFarlane gave a nod to this film on Family Guy (S16, E15) where we see Rover Dangerfield in one of the dog cages. At least Seth was watching!

A wonderful effort from a lost age of cartoons.

Danger.

[tfrizzell · 4 July 2002]

A street-smart dog from Las Vegas (voiced by Rodney Dangerfield) is dropped off in the middle of nowhere and must adapt to his surroundings and try to get back to his show-girl owner in this smelly little film that is disguised in a thin candy layer. Very adult-oriented flick that tried to bring in the younger audiences fails to entertain and ends up just being a long, whacked cartoon. 2 stars out of 5.