The title of this movie is very inviting for one to come up with a negative title for a review. I'll leave that for anyone else and just tackle the major flaws of "The 12 Dogs of Christmas". The idea for the plot comes from a 1998 32-page children's book of the same title by Emma Kragen. So, the screenplay would pretty much be an original story with characters not included or barely sketched in the book. And, this screenplay is very weak. But for a couple of very odd characters along with a couple more who are very hammy, this movie would be very dull. Yet, combined with very wooden or forced acting by most of the cast, it soon makes this video film boring.
It's not at all hard to get the conclusion, so one looks for and waits for some good performances in a good story to get to the end. But this film made for video release just falls flat all around. While there may be some sentimental heartstrings for people who love dogs, for this reviewer who likes and has had dogs, this picture just doesn't even present much by way of cuddly, warm, or fuzzy attachments to dogs.
With the characters in this film - notably Aunt Delores, Dogcatcher Doyle and Mayor Doyle, it struck me that the producers may have been trying to imitate the early Disney comedies with Fred MacMurray - "The Shaggy Dog" of 1959 or "The Absent-Minded Professor" of 1961. But most of the comedy turns out to be overly hammy acting rather than any real humor. The producers couldn't seem to make up their minds - did they want a comedy, or a drama, or a combination? With the comedy pretty much limited to some very hammy personas, what drama there may have been hoped for never gets developed. The goofy behavior of the dogcatcher and his accomplice never leads to any mistreatment or abuse of the dogs, and most of the time when one sees dogs, they are wagging their tales, trying to lick someone's hand or just lying down or standing and looking at people.
There is one instance of a serious matter that the film might have delved into a bit more for dramatic effect, but that was even glossed over quickly. That was the dogcatcher selling dogs from the pound for dog fights. The last aspect that shows this film to be below what in the days of the studios would have been a "B" film, is the acting. The lead character, Emma O'Conner could have been replaced by a real puppet on strings, her acting is so wooden. She is mostly expressionless and lifeless throughout the film, having most often a look with just a slight smile or upturn of her mouth.
Susan Wood as Cathy Stevens is just fair when she, too, doesn't seem wooden. Eric Lutes as Coach Cullimore has a little bit of a nutty professor persona, neither serious nor funny, but not quite believable as a coach and teacher. The four hammy characters aren't always that way. The rest of the time they, too seem wooden, or forced. The one character who passes in this regard is Richard Riehle aa Mayor Nobel Doyle, and that's because he's the only recognizable member of this cast who has played some other roles as similar characters, and had more than 400 acting credits before 2020. About the only role that showed some able acting was that of the boy, Mike Steven, played by Adam Hick.
Some reviewers have said this film is dreadful, and after waiting impatiently for it to end, I has some of the same sense. But I give it three stars for the production effort in the set, costumes and scenery that did give it a feel of the early 1930s during the Great Depression.
