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The Karate Dog
The Karate Dog Wiki Page

(simply Karate Dog on home video) is a 2004 American made-for-television crime comedy film directed by Bob Clark and produced by Frank Hübner. It stars Chevy Chase (as the voice of Cho Cho), Simon Rex, Jon Voight, and Jaime Pressly. Nicollette Sheridan and Pat Morita also make appearances.

Introduction
The movie, The Karate Dog is a typical example of how a dog is a man's best friend with an action packed twist. The Karate Dog, directed by Bob Clark, who also directed the movie, A Christmas Story, is well known for his films centered around family comedy. The Karate Dog is a 2004 American made-for-television crime comedy film and unfortunately for Bob Clark, was reviewed as one of his worst films. According to IMDB, it received a rating of 2.8/10 stars. *The Karate Dog - IMDB. Ironically, the film’s target audience just isn’t for those looking for a true action film even though the movie stars, Pat Morita, who is well known for playing the role of Mr. Miyagi in the Academy Award winning movie, The Karate Kid. The movie is centered around an investigation of an old-man being murdered in Chinatown, and an LAPD expert looks towards the man’s dog, Cho Cho, for help. The dog seems to be the only “eye-witness” of the murder, which the LAPD expert later discovers can also talk and fight. The film's overall concept is quite ridiculously absurd which makes it more appealing to children and perhaps is the reason why it got such low ratings.

Although the movie is rated PG, there are some instances where adult humor is used as well as some scenes that may be inappropriate for kids. For example, The LAPD expert has a computer that he turns on by using the password, ‘cougar’, that opens up by moaning using the voice of Tank Girl. Also, The Karate Dog, living up to its name, has some violent scenes where the dog performs karate on his master's assassins. As another possible contribution to the low rating of this movie, the visual aspects make the fighting scenes look more like a video game which takes away from the reality of violence going on. The idea of a talking dog and one that knows karate already lets the viewer know that the movie is fictional. The fictional aspect tied into the reality of murder allows for the children, Bob Clarke’s target audience for this film, to expand on their imagination. The movie also implements a good trait of honesty, as the dog’s master tells Cho Cho in the beginning scene, “speak only to one who seeks the truth.”

Plot
Chin Li is an old martial artist master who steals a vial of an unknown drug. Chin Li reminisces with his talking dog when a group of people break into Chin Li's home. Chin Li fights most of them off, but gets defeated, and Cho-Cho the Karate dog proceeds to beat the rest of them and bites one person. Chin Li dies, and tells Cho-Cho to "only talk to someone who seeks the truth".

Detective Peter Fowler shows up with a team of investigators to look into the murder of Chin Li. It is clear that Peter only has a good relationship with Ashley Wilkinson, a female detective. A cruel animal aontrol man shows up and tries to muzzle Cho-Cho, but Cho-Cho runs and flees into Peter Fowler's Car. Later that night Peter Fowler and Cho-Cho talk about the case, and decide to investigate further. The next day Peter Fowler shows Cho-Cho to his boss, but Cho-Cho doesn't talk. Cho-Cho later feels betrayed by Peter, as Cho-Cho had told Peter that he would "only speak to someone who seeks the truth". Later, Ashley Wilkinson and Peter Fowler talk, and are interested in one another. Then Cho-Cho and Peter Fowler go to a dog race competition to meet the owner of the organization of dog racers.

Cho-Cho proceeds to talk to a flirtatious female dog being held captive, and meets another female dog named Southern Beauty, who has lost her mind. Peter proceeds to meet Hamilton cage, the owner, and Edward Cage, Hamilton's son. After leaving, Cho Cho spots someone with a mark on their hand, and steals Peter's car to chase him down. The resulting scuffle between Peter and Cho Cho for control of the wheel results in a crash, where they then see Ashley Wilkinson. Cho-Cho asks Ashley on a date in Peter's stead.

Peter and Ashley go on a date, where Cho-Cho is whispering things to say in Peter's ear. It does not go well. Ashley gets upset and leaves, and then Peter follows her and talks to her with his own feelings. They then go to Peter's house to socialize, where Cho-Cho is having a party of dogs. Cho-Cho started a party to investigate rumors of Hamilton's dog-related happenings. They uncover that Hamilton cage had been overseeing feeding time, specifically for Southern Beauty. The two of them then sneak into "the bio lab" to steal "data". Hamilton cage has started human testing with the drug he used on Southern Beauty, specifically on himself. He begins to show signs of mental degradation. The next day Peter tries to put the data in his boss's computer, but the computer explodes. Peter and Ashley then talk to each other, and she encourages him to continue to get to the bottom of the murder of Chin Li.

Peter and Cho-Cho sneak into "the bio lab" again, and Cho-Cho finds Southern Beauty, who has now turned old due to the drug's effects. She explains that the drug has negative side effects of mental and physical degradation. Hamilton calls the cops on Peter and his boss fires Peter, and has Cho-Cho taken into the pound. Cho-Cho escapes from the pound with the help of Peter, and takes all of the dogs with him. At a press conference Hamilton is clearly losing his mind, and his son Edward Cage takes over and announces the drug will be for sale soon. The dogs invade the building, and Hamilton is escorted to the roof, where Cho-Cho and Hamilton fight. There is a matrix reference. Cho-Cho wins. Hamilton's son, Edward Cage, goes onto the roof and sees his father in a bad state. He shoots Cho-Cho, and Peter says his goodbyes.

At an award ceremony, Peter is on the stage giving credit to someone who helped him, and Cho-Cho walks onto the stage and accepts the honor. At the after party, Cho-Cho sings with a dog band, and everyone is surprised. Peter and Ashley Kiss.

Character Overview
Cho Cho, the movie's main character, is an intelligent talking dog. Cho Cho’s original owner, Chin Li, was a master of martial arts, and taught Cho Cho karate. Chin Li also taught Cho Cho how to talk. The ability to talk and do karate certainly makes Cho Cho an unusual dog as is recognized throughout the movie. Cho Cho is very loyal to his owner Chin Li, and goes as far as performing martial arts on humans significantly stronger and larger than him at the time of his owner’s murder.

During the murder scene the audience meets Peter Fowler, a self described “computer nerd”, who works as a detective for the LAPD. Throughout the movie, Fowler is determined to help Cho Cho get justice for his owner’s murderer. Although Fowler is excellent with computers, his coworkers and boss often doubt his ability as a detective. They think he is foolish for using a talking dog as a witness to a crime. Despite the lack of support Fowler receives, he does not give up.

The only person that does not doubt Peter's ability is Ashley Wilkinson, Peter Fowler’s love interest. She is also a street cop set on making detective. She primarily serves as a supportive character in the movie, and is the only person that takes Fowler seriously in his belief that Cho Cho is a witness to the murder of Chin Li. Another significant character in the movie is Hamilton Cage. He owns Cage Sports Enterprises, a business that specializes in dog racing. Cage developed a performance-enhancing formula called Lot 99 that he gives to the dogs that race under his company. Hamilton starts taking the drug as well, and he appears to be very corrupted by the substance. It is believed that his former employee, Chin Li, tried to steal Cage’s formula in order to stop the distribution of it, and Cage found out so he planned to kill him.

There are also a few additional characters that have very minimal roles. Hamilton's two grown children, Edward and Margaret, make appearances. Edward does not see anything wrong with his father’s actions, while Margaret is apprehensive.

Wolfgang is Hamilton’s bodyguard, and frequently has encounters with Cho Cho and Fowler, which often involve some type of martial arts fighting between the two parties. During the duration of the movie, Cho Cho thought that Wolfgang was the guy that killed Chin Li, because he had a bandage on his arm, indicating that he was recently injured. Cho Cho believed Wolfgang was the murderer because he bit someone with a mask on at the time of Chin Li's murder. It was actually revealed that Wolfgang's injury was just a burn. Cho Cho really bit Hamilton, revealing him as the murderer.

Critical Thinking


To the left we have a graph showing the interest rates of the movie The Karate Dog directed by Bob Clark and produced by Frank Hübner. The dates show from when the movie came out in January 2004 to present day. As we learning from the introduction The Karate Dog movie was not a big hit in among the people. In February 2006 we see a spike in interest up to 90% and another spike in August 2009 at 100%. After Karate Dog's peek in 2009 the movies interest ranges up and down and doesn't really stay at a steady rate. Reading over the reviews many people have strong feelings about this film. With promising actors and actress, such as Jon Voight and Jamie Pressly, people expected the movie to be much more comical than it was and were let down. Many also mentioned how bad the CGI was done and that is many ways it ruined the experience of the movie. One of the main actors Simon Rex got a lot of heat from reviewers due to bad acting and bad detective skills. Enough with the negatives, not everyone that watched The Karate Dog hated it. A good amount of people also mentioned it was the best dog movie they had ever watched. Others felt it was very action packed and they actually liked the CGI, that it was good for its time. Not only that, but it is a great film to watch with the family since it is clean and entertains the kids while throwing a few jokes for the adults. Overall, many people did like the idea of the movie and plot, but the biggest downfall was the acting.

Cast

 * Chevy Chase as Cho-Cho (voice). He teams up with Peter to solve the killing of Chin Li, his old owner.
 * Jon Voight as Hamilton Cage, the primary antagonist.
 * Simon Rex as Det. Peter Fowler. He goes with Cho Cho to find out who killed Chin Li.
 * Jaime Pressly as Ashley Wilkenson. She is a police officer who wants to be a detective, and she and Peter are attracted to each other.
 * Pat Morita as Chin Li
 * Thomas Kretschmann as Gerber
 * Nicollette Sheridan as White Cat (voice)
 * Lori Petty as COLAR (voice)
 * Ron Lester as Edward Cage
 * Garry Chalk as Brunelli
 * Dagmar Midcap as TV Reporter

Filming
The Karate Dog was filmed in Los Angeles, California (in the United States) and in Vancouver, British Columbia (in Canada).

Release
The Karate Dog originally aired on ABC Family on Monday, May 29, 2006 at 7:00 PM Eastern / 6:00 PM Central.

Referenced In
1. Shameful Sequels: Baby Geniuses 2: Part 1 (2011) (TV Episode) "I'm off to watch Karate Dog"

2. Best of the Worst: Ninja Movies (2014) (TV Episode) DVD is shown

citations: “The Karate Dog.” IMDb, IMDb.com,<