It has been a busy week for me between my job at a grocery store and also working on eBay (a roof over the old noggin doesn’t pay for itself) so it has taken me a little time to catch up and finish the final Benji film that was included in the Benji blu-ray/DVD set provided by Mill Creek Entertainment. “Benji: Off the Leash!” which had the working and early promotional title of “Benji Returns: Rags to Riches” was released in 2004 but was mostly overlooked and forgotten about.
The film opens in semi meta fashion with the announcement that a film crew in looking for a new dog to play the iconic Benji for a new film. After this, we are introduced to Colby, a young boy who is taking care of a dog and her puppies. Colby’s abusive father finds him and we find out that the mother canine is one of his breeding dogs that he uses at his puppy mill so he takes her back and abandons one of the puppies because the puppy is obviously a mutt he can’t resell. Colby secretly takes care of the puppy behind his dad’s back. Once the young dog finds out his mother is at the puppy mill, he sets off on a journey to rescue his mother.
As far as the original Benji movies go, “Benji: Off the Leash!” feels most like a modern movie. Unfortunately, it also has a made for tv vibe to it. That isn’t the worst thing in the world and I have a feeling budgetary reasons may have played a factor in that as well. The movie’s plot is fairly simple and that plays to Benji’s strength. All the Benji movies are made to essentially serve as family movies.
Coming out a whooping thirty years after the original Benji film, director Joe Camp once again returns to him this latest installment. Camp manages to craft and structure this Benji film with a modern sensibility. While filmmakers like Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese have managed to reinvent themselves over and over again, it is refreshing to see a smaller filmmaker do so as well, even if it is to less acclaim or success. It should also be noted that both the main dogs used in the movie were adopted from shelters in real life by filmmaker Joe Camp and his family.
“Benji: Off the Leash!” is often met with extremely negative reviews and while the movie is far from perfect, I feel the reviews are also far to harsh. Yes, the human characters in the film come off as over the top and the music doesn’t help because it sounds cartoonish as well but perhaps that was Joe Camp’s intent. The main focus of the Benji movies has always been on the dog(s). The dog who would become Benji in this film was cute and also had the same expressive eyes as his predecessor. The movie isn’t a masterpiece but it is cute and entertaining which should be the main goal of a movie in my opinion.
While I will agree certain aspects of the movie could have been improved on, I also think the movie was still pretty fun. I also feel like this might serve as the best Benji movie to modern audiences.
Grade: B-
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