I know what you’re thinking: Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3: Viva La Fiesta! is just for kids. Well, you’re right. While the third installment in the Beverly Hills Chihuahua series provides nothing inspiring for adults, but at least the kids will get kick out of it.
The Film ★★
Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3 continues the story of chihuahua family—Papi, Chloe and the puppies—as they move into a hotel. Their runt, Rosa, feels left out at her new school, so Papi decides to cheer her up by throwing her a quinceañera.
I’m not going to lie, one of the best parts of this film was the mariachi version of the Walt Disney Pictures theme song. Other than that, I struggled to stay focused on the film. It seemed everything else in my life was more important than watching the movie: tweeting, washing dishes and taking out the trash. Now I give the movie a hard time, but when I had the opportunity to turn the TV off, I actually opted to keep the movie on. Hey, I was intrigued to see how the quinceañera would turn out! By that point, I was invested!
The Features ★★
The bonus features on the Blu-Ray were pretty weak, even for direct-to-video standards. “Hangin’ with Popi” is actually a pretty hilarious mock behind-the-scenes featurette where the humans actors rave about how amazing of an opportunity it has been to work with Poppi. The facetious tone may go over little kids heads, at least they still get a look at what it’s like for a pup on the set of the film. The only other featurettes are the English and Spanish music videos of the song “Living Your Dreams”/”Vive Tus Sueños” sung by Disney Channel star Raini Rodgriguez. The music videos show Raini partying it up at her quinceañera, which continues the quinceañera theme from the film.
If you can get past the first 10 minutes (which painfully make it obvious that if you’re older than 12, this movie is not for you), then you’ll be fine. While it wasn’t the movie for me, it is clearly a movie for kids. I told my niece and nephew that they could borrow my copy and—according to their mom—they have been excitedly talking about it ever since. So point proven: it’s not for adults, but the pups will go crazy for it. It’s the best chihuahua movie of 2012!
Buy in on Amazon.com!
Rent/Skip/Buy It: Skip It.
Morgan Stradling
Follow @TheRotoscopers