Pudsey the Dog: The Movie

Pudsey The Dog: The Movie
United Kingdom theatrical release poster
Directed by	Nick Moore
Written by	Paul Rose
Produced by	Michael Leviten Rupert Preston
Starring	David Walliams Jessica Hynes John Sessions Olivia Colman
Cinematography	Ali Asad
Edited by	Daniel Farrell
Music by	Simon Woodgate
Production companies	Syco Entertainment Infinite Wisdom Studios Vertigo Films Roar Films
Distributed by	Vertigo Films
Release date	18 July 2014 (2014-07-18)
Running time	97 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	£2.5 million[1]
Box office	£2.6 million[2]

Pudsey The Dog: The Movie, also known as Pudsey: The Movie, is a 2014 British live action family comedy film directed by Nick Moore, produced by Simon Cowell, written by Paul Rose with music by Simon Woodgate and starring Pudsey the Dog, one half of the dancing duo Ashleigh and Pudsey, voiced by David Walliams.^[3][4]

Other stars include Jessica Hynes, John Sessions, Jim Tavaré and Izzy Meikle-Small. The film was made by Vertigo Films and Syco Entertainment, and was released in the United Kingdom on 18 July 2014, after it was originally set to be released in December 2013.^[5][6] The film received negative reviews from critics, and it earned £2.6 million on a £2.5 million budget.

On 10 November 2014, Pudsey the Dog: The Movie was released on DVD in the United Kingdom.

Plot

Cast

• David Walliams as Pudsey (voice)
• John Sessions as Thorne
• Jessica Hynes as Gail
• Izzy Meikle-Small as Molly
• Malachy Knights as Tommy
• Luke Neal as Farmer Jack
• Luke Tittensor as Will
• Lorraine Kelly as Cat (voice)
• Dan Farrell as Ken and Finn
• Jim Tavare as The Dog Catcher
• Peter Serafinowicz as Edward the Horse (voice)
• Olivia Colman as Nelly the Horse (voice)
• Ashleigh Butler as Anabella The Cow (voice)

Production

In January 2013, it was announced that Simon Cowell would produce Pudsey The Dog: The Movie. The film, which was released on 18 July 2014, follows Pudsey and his siblings Molly, George, and Tommy as they move to the village of Chuffington-on-Sea with their mother Gail (Jessica Hynes) and set out to save the village, from their landlord Mr Thorne (John Sessions) and his cat Faustus. Pudsey is voiced by comedian David Walliams.

Soundtrack

• Pudsey: He's Got The Love – Performed by Echobass
• Things Are Getting Better – Performed by Echobass
• Breaking It Down – Performed by Echobass
• Tea Dance – Composed by Norman Warren
• All Music – Composed by Simon Woodgate

Home media

On 10 November 2014, Pudsey the Dog: The Movie was released on DVD in the United Kingdom.

Critical reception and box office

In its first week, the film grossed £446,000, finishing outside of a Top 5 led by Dawn of the Planet of the Apes with £8.7 million. This was described by the BBC as a "flop".^[7] Pudsey: The Movie was critically panned. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes it holds a rare 0% approval rating with an average score of 3.3/10 based on 14 reviews.^[8]

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian called the film "so depressingly bad that cinemas should play the adagietto from Mahler's Fifth over a loudspeaker as audiences file out grimly into the foyer afterwards, silently asking themselves if life has any value... Watching this movie, I was overwhelmed with three emotions: boredom, embarrassment and chiefly shame on behalf of everyone involved, shame that something so shoddily made and mediocre could ever have emerged from our film industry."^[9]

Writing in The Observer, Mark Kermode said "nothing can explain (or excuse) the sheer skull scraping ugliness of this relentlessly tacky Britain's Got Talent spin off... If you paid to see this, you would feel duty bound to demand your money back; I saw it for free and still wanted a refund."^[10] David Edwards of the Daily Mirror called the film a "cheap and cheerless embarrassment" with a "thin and familiar" plot and said it "deserves to be scraped from the lawn, and dropped in the bin."^[11]

In 2022, Paul Rose (the film’s writer) was featured in an episode of the comedy podcast “Cheapshow” in which Rose said, “The film received 0% on Rotten Tomatoes and was called one of the worst films ever made. I’m quite proud of that.”^{[citation needed]}

References

1. Steve Rose (12 July 2014). "Boyhood, How To Train Your Dragon 2, Begin Again: this week's new films". the Guardian. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
2. "Pudsey the Dog: The Movie - International Box Office Results - Box Office Mojo". Boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
3. "David Walliams to voice Britain's Got Talent dog in Pudsey: The Movie". Digital Spy. 5 September 2013. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
4. Mark Jefferies (4 September 2013). "David Walliams to be voice of Pudsey the dancing dog in movie - Mirror Online". mirror. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
5. "Pudsey - 2013 Vertigo Films production". Vertigofilms.com. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
6. "CBBC Newsround - Pudsey the dancing dog gets his own movie". CBBC Newsround. 8 September 2013. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
7. "Pudsey film flops at UK box office as Apes dominate". BBC News. 23 July 2014.
8. Pudsey the Dog: The Movie (2014) Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
9. Peter Bradshaw (17 July 2014). "Pudsey the Dog: The Movie review – a shame for everyone involved". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
10. Mark Kermode (17 July 2014). "Pudsey the Dog: the Movie review – relentlessly tacky BGT spin-off". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
11. David Edwards (17 July 2014). "Pudsey the Dog - The Movie review: Big screen venture is a bit of a dog's dinner". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 21 July 2014.

External links

• Pudsey the Dog: The Movie at IMDb
• Pudsey the Dog: The Movie at Rotten Tomatoes