Oddball (2015)

The great thing is that it is based on a true story. I have never heard about this before since I live far away from Australia, but there was indeed a chicken farmer who trained his dog to protect penguins from foxes and let the colony flourish.The movie adds more fictional elements to make it an adventure story. It would be mainly interesting for kids but adults can watch it with them without a problem and enjoy it.The acting is good. No real overacting as often happens in the genre of family movies. Shane Jacobson is great as a farmer and there is definitely a rising talent there when it comes to the child actress Coco Jack Gillies.And in addition to humans we also get the pleasure to watch the adorable penguins and the dog in it that add a lot of fun to the movie. And of course it is filmed in the beautiful setting of Australia.If you have kids I would recommend it. Kids usually love animals and it also has a great message of conservation that may inspire them for the future.

Oddball is, if a bit formulaic, well done and rewarding.The intertwined elements of family-love, nature's treasures and a heartwarming dog combine for our pleasure.The location of the story is one of magical beauty.The characters are well-drawn and believable. The fact that it's based on a true story makes it even more special.

I was excited about this film ever since learning it was in production. Being a Shane Jacobson fan and already knowing about this incredible story, I was curious to see how it would translate onto the big screen.Shane Jacobson brings a few laughs while playing his most "Aussie" character since Kenny. It's his family dramas and associated story line which at times bog the story down. Perhaps the film chose to focus on that aspect in an effort to draw attention away from just how fake the Middle Island penguin scenes were. In what is such a beautifully natural setting, I felt like I was watching a cheap TV-movie set.Alan Tudyk's character of Bradley was incredibly irritating and unlikable - the casting of such an Americanised character in a quintessentially Australian tale may grate some viewers. Meanwhile, comedic legend, Frank Woodley, plays a character resembling a poor rendition of 101 Dalmations', Cruella De Vil - annoyingly "comical" for adults, kids might still get some laughs.While not remarkable, it is an easy-to-watch family movie whose story steadily plods along to a predictable conclusion. I can't help but feel this movie could've been something really special, but instead becomes another reflection of the inconsistency currently plaguing Australia's film industry.

It was W.C. Fields who said, 'Never work with animals or children.' He may have had a point because the actors in this film become almost irrelevant when Oddball, a beautiful Maremma sheepdog, shares the screen with the fairy penguins.The film is based on real events. Apparently, Middle Island off the Victorian coast at Warrnambool, used to be home to a thousand fairy penguins until foxes started to snack down on them, reducing the population to just ten of the little guys.Finally, a chicken farmer, Swampy (Shane Jacobson), and his dog, Oddball, come to their rescue and rid the island of foxes after hunting and trapping had failed.The film is described as family fare, and Oddball steals every scene he is in, but I think children would be a little restless with the amount of story taken up with the affairs of the adults. Maybe the filmmakers tried to cram in too much. Along with the case for conservation, every character in the film seems to have a back-story. But it's all at the expense of more time with Oddball and the real stars of the show - the fairy penguins.No doubt the scenes with the penguins would have been hard to do, but the film could have used a lot more of the confrontation between Oddball and the foxes - there are few long shots and much of the action seems either very close-up or off camera. Here and there the film gets to the heart of the matter - the human drama can't compete with the tension in the scene on the island when the fox sticks its head into the fairy penguin's burrow, or when Oddball saves the egg from going over the cliff.Although no rival to "Babe", "Oddball" is nicely made, and no one will hate it, but I feel that the filmmakers missed the opportunity to make it more memorable than it is.