Does anyone else distinctly remember Marmaduke NOT talking?

I know Mazur does.

The new trailer for the big screen adaptation of "Marmaduke," starring Own Wilson as the main dog, was released with "How to Train Your Dragon" over the weekend. Take a look at the trailer:



"Marmaduke" is based on the long running newspaper comic strip about a Great Dane and the havoc he causes for his owners. The Marmaduke comic strip is mostly written as one panel jokes, with no real story ever being told.
http://comics.com/marmaduke/

Looks like the Marmaduke film will largely revolve around sight gags. In the trailer we see things like “Mamrmaduke rides a surf board,” “Marmaduke hurts the cat (Geroge Lopez),” and “Marmaduke knocks down the owner’s new boss (William H. Macy).” Pretty standard “big dog” type of jokes, like what you would see in the Scooby Doo movies.

Despite the fact the fact that Marmaduke never talks in the comics, this film uses the “Animals-Can-Talk-to-Each-Other” convention. The script is reported to revolve around the tension between the mutts and purebred dogs. It looks like the main villain will be a purebred dog played by "24" star Kiefer Sutherland. That being said, it is fairly clear that this film is a commentary on the constant turf war that goes on between the gangs in Southern California.

Or, not.

This movie is a way for Mom and Dad to keep the kids distracted for an hour an a half. As far as that standard is concerned (a particularly low bar), this movie should be fine.

Slapping a familiar name onto a project is an easy way to get butts into seats. Mom and dad take the brood out to the movies to keep them happy for a night, they are much more likely to go for a name they recognize than something where they won’t know what to expect. So the studios slaps together a family friendly project about a big dog, puts Marmaduke’s name on it and BAM! Moderate success is achieved. Things like this will remain money makers for studios as long as there are parents who need to something to keep the kids distracted for any length of time.

Also, since they are catering to such a young audience, who only understands the very basics of story structure, the studio can pass off old standard plot lines with out much need to try jazzing it up. In this case we are seeing the underdog type story in the fight with the purebreds, and I suspect a story line that will play out as “By virtue of being a big dumb dog I, Marmaduke, have made some situation very difficult for my owners. All seems lost, but at the last moment I will do something unexpected and it saves the day!”

This one looks pretty bad, and I for one am not going to go see this it. But as I am pretty far removed from the target audience I am not fit judge its quality. I think the best people to pass judgment on this piece of cinema will be the seven year olds who end up sitting through it. I bet they will love it, and I’m not going to ruin it be telling them what I really think. Not that they would care. Also, I don’t know any seven year olds.