Title: The Dog Who Saved Halloween
Studio: Anchor Bay
Release Date: Sept. 13th, 2011

We love Halloween here. It’s always been one of my favorite holidays, and having a kid to share it with makes it even more awesome. I mean, now I can go trick or treating again! Okay, technically he’s doing the knocking and the candy begging, but hey, I’m trying to teach him the value of sharing, and what better way to do so than by snagging….er, sharing…half of his candy? One of the fun parts about Halloween is getting new movies based on the holiday. Jake has a large collection of holiday-themed movies, and the Halloween section makes up nearly half of it (with Christmas making up almost another half). This year, the adorable somewhat talking Zeus (he mostly thinks out loud, you don’t actually see his mouth moving) of The Dog Who Saved Christmas fame is back to save another holiday from disaster in The Dog Who Saved Halloween.

When the movie begins, Zeus (voiced by Joey Lawrence of Blossom) ad his family, the Bannisters, have just moved into a brand new house in a new neighborhood. The dad, George, is taking Zeus for a walk when he stumbles across some mysterious happenings at his neighbor’s house. Rather than just ask the guy what is going on, he decides to investigate. He enlists the help of two rather bumbling burglars, which of course results in some crazy shenanigans. In the end, it’s up to Zeus to save both his family and the holiday. Mayim Bialik, also from Blossom and more currently, The Big Bang Theory lends her voice to Medusa, a rather nasty dog that may or may not have eaten Zeus cat pal. This is the first time Mayim Bialik and Joey Lawrence have been involved in a movie together since Blossom was canceled back in 1995.

I told Jake that he had to pay close attention and tell me exactly what he liked and didn’t like about the movie. He took this very seriously for about ten minutes, noting scenes with an “ooh, I like that, ” and “that’s a good one!” But as he became engrossed in the movie, he totally forgot his role as mini-Ebert. In the end, he told me “I liked everything about it! Except the part with the skeleton, that was creepy. ” Jake gets creeped out fairly easy in movies, so if he didn’t make me turn it off after ten minutes, chances are pretty much every other kid out there will be find with the overall level of creepiness. It’s a family movie, so the scary parts are more humorous and over-the-top than actually horrifying. I thought it was a really cute movie, and we’ll definitely be watching it again closer to Halloween.

The Dog Who Saved Halloween releases on September 13, 2011. Amazon has it available as a pre-order for $11.99.