Review of Fluke (1995) by David A — 24 Nov 2009

(from the Watermark 07/12/95).

Fluke is about a dog who realizes he?s a reincarnated person who must correct his wrongs from his past life. The film?s marketing has made it look like a must-to-avoid Beethoven clone, but the work actually has merit. Too bad the audio sounds like it was mixed by Helen Keller, and the narrative is sloppy. For me, human voices for animals is an overdone, condescending, and just plain tacky plot device. The sad part is that they could have scrapped the voices altogether, and relied on the beautifully poetic visuals to convey the well-structured story. Basically, it?s a grown-up movie trying too hard to be cutesy and have a ?family? appeal.