忠狗巴比传奇

Based on a true story, this doggy adventure is shamelessly sweet and far too corny for its own good. It's an involving story with a strong cast, but the awww factor means it'll connect only with very young viewers.

Bobby is the loyal terrier who accompanies Constable John Grey (Lockyer) on his rounds in 1858 Edinburgh, rescuing people, challenging runaway bulls and so on. When John is killed in action, Bobby camps out on his grave in Greyfriars Cemetery, and is adopted by young Ewan (Golding), the graveyard caretaker (Cosmo), the local minister (Wise) and, well, the entire city. But a couple of Scrooge-like evil businessmen (Pertwee and Pickup) imprison Ewan in a workhouse and plot Bobby's demise.

Director-cowriter Henderson brings a sepia-toned warmth to the film--it looks like a fairy tale set amid Edinburgh's castles and turrets, and it plays out like one of those 1950s Disney adventures in which nothing is remotely believable, even though it's inspired by real events. Much of the plot and dialog is hackneyed--most notably the need for such relentless villains, who have no reason at all to be so determined to destroy Bobby. And a lot of the filmmaking is just silly, from cliched costumes to eye-rolling performances.

The screenplay never really establishes any of the relationships--they're simply written into existence without any purpose or meaning. Why does John bequeath the dog to Ewan? Why doesn't John's widow (the underused McKee) have a clue what's going on? Why do the powers that be all seem to be demon-possessed in their fierce efforts to kill all the sweet little doggies? Why does the Lord Provost (Lee) suddenly become so involved? And the screenwriters add several moments of magical realism to get them out of plot dead-ends.

There are moments of high adventure here and there, although Henderson never makes it very thrilling, preferring instead to add another cheesy cutaway and crank up the schmaltz. But there's the thread of a strong story here, so children will probably love it. Everyone else will groan.

【忠狗巴比传】改编自 Eleanor Atkinson 所写的同名故事，这故事乃是根据真人真事所写的。本片的主角是一隻名叫 Bobby 的灰毛的苏格兰猎犬，他原本的主人是一位老牧羊人，大家都称呼这位牧师为 Old Jock ，Bobby 跟着老人由苏格兰迁徙到爱丁堡，但是没想到老牧羊人却患了肺炎而过世，忠心耿耿的 Bobby 依然不愿意离开主人，即使主人已经下葬，他还是留在墓园不离开。墓园的看管者 Brown 太太也拿他没办法，而好心想收留狗儿的 Trail 先生也无法让 Bobby 跟他离去，最后他们也只好任由 Bobby 留在原地。但是墓园不让狗进入的禁令却是不可更改的，一个爱挑麻烦的警察於是来为难这几位好心人，甚至还提出要收罚款的强制要求，有灵性的忠狗 Bobby 今后到底该何去何从呢？

【NFO】

转自新视界