"Charlie the Wonderdog" (2025) Movie Review

Charlie the Wonderdog

- for action, some rude humor and language.
Director: Shea Wageman
Starring: voices of Owen Wilson, Ruairi MacDonald, Zac Bennett-McPhee, Dawson Littman, Tabitha St. Germain
Running Time: 1 hour, 35 minutes
Theatrical Release Date: January 16, 2026

READER RATING: CharlietheWonderdog

– / 5.0 (0 votes)

Plot Summary

A dog gains superpowers after he is abducted by aliens. Together, they battle an evil cat threatening humanity while the dog becomes a famous superhero. (from IMDb)

Film Review

Canada's ICON Creative Studio, founded in 2013, has made a career by animating TV projects for Disney, but they're taking to the big screen this time with 2026's feature film, Charlie the Wonderdog. It's a competitive market out there for animated features, and studios like Pixar, DreamWorks, Sony and Disney have all raised the bar pretty high. But that doesn't mean there isn't a place for the indie features. Angel Studios put out two solid animated movies last year, The King of Kings and David, so there's definitely room for new studios to throw their proverbial hats in the ring.

For me, hearing Owen Wilson's name attached to Charlie the Wonderdog is really the only thing that interested me about the project. And when I finally saw a trailer for it, I thought, "Eh - it looks kinda cute, maybe I'll check it out." So when a screener invite was sent my way, I thought it'd be worth viewing. I have to say, Charlie the Wonderdog does kind of get off to a decent start. The animation is quite decent for a mid-budget release, and there's an air of quality to the production. The movie opens by introducing a young boy named Danny who grows up his pet dog, Charlie, even until the dog has matured into his elder years. And just when it looks like Charlie doesn't have much more time left in him, he's abducted by aliens - along with the next door neighbor's nasty house cat, Puddy. It turns out these aliens are looking for a new pet for their bratty prince child. But after he mutates many of them, he rejects them all, and Puddy and Charlie return back to earth - no longer the same. As you can probably guess at this point, Charlie's newfound powers have pretty much turned him into Superman (or, more appropriately, his superdog Krypto), while Puddy is now a supervillain.

And it's at this point that Charlie the Wonderdog really just starts unraveling - and never stops. Puddy is not just nasty, he's evil, and we see him abuse his owner, Otis, mercilessly over and over. Then Charlie's heroics get the attention of the president - who is a bizarre mash-up of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump - and is absolutely creepy in the way they present her and animate her (like, disturbingly so). I get that it's meant to be funny, but it doesn't work quite the way that, say, Monsters Vs Aliens did. (In that one, Stephen Colbert voices a fun and dopey president.) They make some topical-ish political jokes, which is more annoying than funny, and then they even go so far as to have a gag where a dog wants to join Puddy's feline uprising and when he's initially rejected, he insists he "identifies as a cat" and "always has" (which then convinces Puddy to agree to let him join). C'mon, people. It's an absurd thing in today's culture, and this film feels like it's endorsing it more than poking fun at it. Then there's random gross-out humor that completely comes out of left field. From Charlie crying and having long strands of snot coming from his nose, to a cat slurping up a gooey strand of saliva from Puddy's mouth, to a close-up of a fly entering a cat's nostril and showing it moving under their skin - it's more gross than funny. Last year's The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie employed some similar kinds of gross-out humor, but it worked a lot better within the overall wacky tone of that movie.

Charlie the Wonderdog
The movie is also just... really weird. Charlie is great, and Owen Wilson does a solid job with the part, but the movie doesn't have enough charm to get by on. The plot heavily involves President Rose striking up a dog food deal with Charlie's face on it, making it a hugely successful venture for them both. Then Puddy devises a plan to frame Charlie for wrongdoing (with a so-so gag about deepfaking and AI), and is given the dog food endorsement as cat food instantly. (Seriously, it's all so weird.) The film's last act turns into a big showdown at an amusement park, which isn't bad, and finally makes good on a setup made during the film's opening scene that curiously lies dormant till the very end of the movie.

The content is definitely PG for this one. If Puddy abusing Otis relentlessly doesn't earn the rating, it's some mild language, like 3 possible uses of "Oh G-d" (or more), 1 "frickin," 1 "suck" and 1 "scr*w." I know - it's not exactly strong language, but it just sounded out of place for a kids movie like this one. Aside from Puddy's abuse of his owner (who doesn't seem evil enough to deserve it either, y'know?), there's plenty of action violence with Charlie saving some people from danger, but mostly the fights between Charlie and Puddy. I will say, a lot of scenes where it was just Charlie saving people - like the plane in free fall - were pretty decent. Maybe it's just because it wasn't quite as bad as the rest of the film, but those did seem like more appealing moments in the film. Also, many animated movies these days work just as well for adult audiences as they do for kids. Charlie the Wonderdog feels more tailored for the young ones, with some bad attempts at laughs for the adults.

Charlie the Wonderdog
Lastly, I just have to say, another strike against the film were the voice acting performances. While Wilson was great, and Dawson Littman was fine as the boy Danny, most of the other performances were grating. Ruairi MacDonald, especially, as Puddy, was just irritating. Maybe the character was just terrible to begin with, but MacDonald did nothing to help the role at all. And for a movie like this to work, you need a good villain; Puddy isn't a good villain. Although he's not supposed to be likeable, Sebastian Billingsley-Rodriguez's Alien Prince was unbearable, and Tabitha St. Germain didn't help President Rose at all either. The character is supposed to be obnoxious, but it wasn't as funny as I think they intended it to be. This movie is a good example of how important strong voice performances are.

While not a complete trainwreck, Charlie the Wonderdog feels like one of those straight-to-streaming animated films that inexplicably won a theatrical release instead. If you're a big fan of Wilson or just need something somewhat benign to take the kids to, I suppose Charlie the Wonderdog is fine. But if you're looking for a good animated movie? Maybe catch Zootopia 2 if there are still showings in your area, or rewatch a family favorite at home instead.

- John DiBiase (reviewed: 1/18/26)

Parental Guide: Content Summary

Sex/Nudity: A dog says he identifies as a cat "and always has." Puddy then refers to his rule as "equal opportunity."

Vulgarity/Language: 3 possible "Oh G-d," 1 frickin, 1 suck, 1 "don't scr*w this up"

Alcohol/Drugs: The president pops champagne and drinks some, then spits it out.

Blood/Gore: We see an x-ray of Charlie's bones all shattered, and then another x-ray of them all healed up; Otis suddenly acts kind of like his bones are twisting; We see a close-up of a fly going up a cat's nose, complete with a moving lump under its skin as it goes up the bridge of its nose; A kitten eats the gooey drool off Puddy's mouth; We see long strands of gooey snot coming from Charlie's nose.

Violence: A ship traps an animal inside and then crashlands on earth; A cat uses its paw to pop a balloon, causing a child to cry; Danny and Charlie play in his room, pretending the floor is lava, and we see it in his imagination as such, and they knock over his bookshelf in the process (it melts in the lava); The neighbor's cat, Puddy, slashes at Charlie's nose. They then both get beamed up to a spaceship; Puddy is thrown into a kind of alien cell and a large alien nose spits out snot at him which electrocutes Puddy briefly; A bratty alien kid makes his mom morph a raccoon into a giant mutated creature; The alien kid makes Charlie fly and he slams into the ceiling and then crashes to the floor; The alien makes a snail have larger spikes and it pokes the other creatures standing on either side of it, and they react to it; The alien then ejects all the animals into space; Puddy hits his owner, Otis, with a bowl and then smacks him in the face. He then throws a chair at Otis and the man runs right into the front of an oven. He then throws a spatula at him, and then hurls his bowl at Otis' head again; Puddy causes the fridge door to repeatedly smack Otis, and then he pushes his face to the floor; Puddy throws a photo frame and "ship in a bottle" on the floor; Kids watch a video of Charlie saving a woman from falling and an old lady from getting hit by a car; Charlie's cape snags on a tree branch and it chokes him. He then falls on a cactus and howls in pain. Danny is then seen pulling them out in of his backside in the next shot; A bus falls into a huge hole in the ground and Charlie flies in to pick it up and take it to safety; Charlie saves a plane from crashing; Puddy throws food back at Otis and then throws up in his litter box and has him clean it; Puddy freaks out when Otis brings him dog food. He scratches an X over Charlie's image on the label. He then throws the cans out the window and they embed in the side of Danny's house, and cause a tree to fall on the house; Charlie goes to fix a satellite in space and struggles to help it stop falling; Charlie then stops the satellite from crashing into a space station, but he blacks out from holding his breath too long; The president pushes away two of her aids and then strangles a third in panic. Then she pulls on the first two aids' neckties as she continues to freak out; Charlie falls to the earth and almost crashes but wakes up in time to control his crash but is still knocked out when he hits the ground. We then see him on a gurney being wheeled into a hospital; Puddy makes things hover with his mind and one hits him in the face. He then falls over and some objects that were hovering fall on his face (off screen); We see an x-ray of Charlie's bones all shattered, and then another x-ray of them all healed up; A kitten eats the Puddy's drool and his eyes go crazy and he starts talking; It then happens to Otis and he acts kind of like his bones are twisting and when it stops, he starts acting like a cat; We see a close-up of a fly going up a cat's nose, complete with a moving lump under its skin as it goes up the bridge of its nose; A cat is thrown through a roof; Charlie literally throws people out of a bank that supposedly has a bomb in it. He then pulls the door off a bank vault; People throw cans of dog food at Charlie; Puddy lifts a car in the air to keep it from hitting a woman but then just tosses the car and we hear a man yelling from inside it; Several cats pounce Charlie and he jumps up, throwing them off; Puddy throws cans at Charlie and he burps loudly, sending them back at Puddy; Charlie knocks Puddy, and his little ship he's hovering in, through a wall; Cats attack Danny and then chase him; Charlie chases Puddy in his flying pod. Puddy throws bumper cars at Charlie and cat food cans, which also fly at Danny and his mom; Puddy makes Danny fall from a rollercoaster and Charlie catches him; Puddy throws amusement park attraction booths, and a large metal display tower, at Danny's mom, but Charlie stops it; Charlie and Puddy fight in the air and crash to the ground; A little dog nips Danny; Otis stumbles and falls off a small step ladder.

Disclaimer: All reviews are based solely on the opinions of the reviewer. Most reviews are rated on how the reviewer enjoyed the film overall, not exclusively on content. However, if the content really affects the reviewer's opinion and experience of the film, it will definitely affect the reviewer's overall rating.

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