Calling all dog lovers! Good Boy! is about to prove dogs really are man’s best friend.
Good Boy! follows 12-year-old Owen Baker Liam Aiken, the neighborhood dog walker who desperately wants his own pet. Happily, Owen gets his wish when he adopts a stray he calls Hubble (voiced by Matthew Broderick). But this sweet-faced mutt isn’t your ordinary dog; in fact, Hubble isn’t from Earth. He’s actually an interplanetary traveler sent from the Dog Star, Sirius, by its leader, the Greater Dane (voiced by Vanessa Redgrave), to find out if the dogs their ancestors sent out thousands of years ago to dominate and colonize Earth were successful.
To Hubble’s dismay, the original mission has gone awry–dogs and humans have learned to live side by side. After Hubble accidentally bestows intergalactic powers on his new master, Owen discovers he can mysteriously “speak” with dogs–which turns out to be a good thing, because Hubble now must enlist the help of Owen and his new pooch pals to convince the Greater Dane the mission was a true success and not to order a global recall of all the dogs on Earth back to Sirius.
We wanted to find out from first-time director and writer John Hoffman and star Aiken (Road to Perdition)–two self-proclaimed dog lovers–just exactly how deep the loyalty between man and dog goes.
“It’s really about finding best friends in the most unlikely places,” Hoffman explains.
In fact, Hoffman came up with the idea for Good Boy! after he found a stray terrier/shepherd mix he named Jody. “I found this stray and thought, ‘What kind of alien do I have in my house?'” Hoffman says. It all flowed from there.
Kids who talk to animals and interplanetary dog travelers? Sounds like what movie execs call “a hard sell.” Hoffman laughs. “You’re right. I remember sitting in a conference room with some studio suits who didn’t think I could use real dogs for some of the shots [instead of animatronics]. Especially when Hubble does his dramatic ‘playing dead’ scene. But I told them, ‘No, I’m going to use a real dog in that scene.’ The incredulous looks I got were hysterical.”
The director does admit to putting in some long days using real dogs but calls his amazing dog star Hubble, aka Flynn, a “godsend.” Flynn, a border terrier, took to his acting chores like a real champ–having only been adopted a few months before. “We couldn’t have done this without Flynn,” Hoffman says.
Was there any diva-like behavior from any of the other dogs, mostly movie set newcomers? Aiken chimes in. “Barbara-Ann, the poodle, definitely. Actually, Barbara-Ann is played by Banner, a boy dog. He kept trying to get the pink bow off his head.” Hoffman adds, “Banner would be very still most of the time, which was good, but it was like, ‘OK, that’s great but can we get Barbara-Ann to move now?’ The dog wouldn’t have anything to do with it.”
Had it actually been possible to speak with Banner like Owen can speak with Hubble, perhaps he poodle might have been more cooperative. What would the director and star want their own dogs to tell them?
As his little greyhound Kes jumps all over him, Aiken says, “Kes has this thing where he chases his right hind leg. Not his tail. His right hind leg. I would just like to know what he’s thinking when he catches it. ‘Yeah, gotcha this time!'”
“I would want Jody to explain to me the fascination with birds,” Hoffman adds. “What’s with all the birds?”
Of course, dogs really can’t speak with us, but Hoffman hopes somehow the movie will inspire people to look at their dogs a little differently. “I hope kids will understand the mutual respect dogs and humans have. I wanted to make a funny movie but also show mutual respect.”
“And loyalty,” Aiken confirms.
Good Boy! opens Oct. 10
