Benji: Off the Leash!

Benji: Off the Leash! is a 2004 American film that was shot in various parts of Utah.

Plot

The film starts with the understanding that the makers of the Benji films are going to various towns in the U.S. looking for the next dog to play Benji. In a small town, a freelance dog breeder named Hatchett keeps a backyard kennel under poor conditions behind his home. He lives with a young boy named Colby and his mother and is very verbally abusive to both of them but Colby has a love of dogs and is secretly nurturing a female black dog who is Hathcett's top breeder. He goes to an abandoned three story house in the neighborhood and takes food and water to the black dog so she can feed milk to her new pups. Hatchett learns of this and takes the black puppies but abandons a fluffy light colored "mongrel" in the house after scolding Colby. Over several months time, Colby secretly cares for the pup at a secret play shack built by him and it grows into the unnamed fluffy dog that will become Benji. Colby also has a pet cockatoo named Merlin who talks a lot and watches the fluffy puppy grow up.

Meanwhile, two Animal Control officers are looking for strays and come across a shaggy looking dog that seems to like to have fun while on his own and is impossible for them to catch. A local elderly man, Zachariah Finch offers food to the stray at his home in the woods and becomes attached to him. The dog is eventually dubbed the name "Lizard Tongue" by the officers looking for him {due to its long tongue always hanging out its mouth}. When the fluffy dog sees that her mother is sick in the kennel, he opens her cage and helps her escape. Then, he gets Lizard Tongue to help when she is too weak to eat and they both draw the Animal Control officers to the abandoned house and the ailing black mother dog. At the shelter, a veterinarian determines she is dying from over-breeding and poor care. so the Animal Shelter Director and the local Sheriff, Sgt. Lewis {always called Ozzie} make the decision to authorize the vet to spay the dog so she will no longer breed.

When Hatchett learns that the Benji film producer is in town and wants the fluffy dog to be the new Benji, he intimidates Colby into lying about being the owner to the producer. At the shelter, the fluffy dog is reunited with its mother and Colby does the right thing and tells everyone that fluffy is not his, which makes Hatchett show his brass temper after he grabs Colby and yells at him in front of everyone. When the Sheriff removes him from the room and everyone talks to Colby and his mother it is revealed that he has also been psychically abusive to her as well and he is arrested. The end credits show various scenes from the film as they were shot and make reference to the origins of the shelter dogs used in the film.

Production

Benji: Off the Leash! was filmed in various parts of Utah such as Kaysville, Ogden, Payson and Salt Lake City as were stated in the end credits. The credits also jokingly refer to the number of computer-generated imagery effects and animatronic dogs used in the film as "none".

Cast and crew

• Nick Whitaker - Colby
• Chis Kendrick - Terrance Muncy Hatchett
• Christy Summerhays - Colby's mother
• Neal Barth - Zachariah Finch
• Randall Newsome - Livingston
• Duane Stephens - Sheldon
• Nate Bynum - Sgt. Oswald Lewis
• Melinda Haynes - Animal Shelter Director
• Joey Miyashima - Veterinarian
• Scott Wilkenson - Film Producer
• Jeff Olson - Paul's Market owner
• Benji - fluffy dog
• Shaggy - Lizard Tongue
• Ginger - black dog
• Gypsy - Merlin the Cockatoo

External links

• Benji: Off the Leash! at the Internet Movie Database