Benji is fat. Perhaps it's because he hasn't had much to do in the 17 years since his last movie. Whatever the reason, he looks nothing like the scrawny, homeless mutt that likes to eat out of garbage cans.
Why has Joe Camp (creator and director of all the Benji movies) felt it necessary to inflict another one on us? Because he feels the "bar has been lowered" on what is acceptable children's entertainment.
The story varies little from the Benji formula. The 14-year old Colby (Nick Whitaker) is made to help his animal-hating stepfather (Chris Kendrick) run an ill-kept puppy mill. When Benji's mother becomes sick, Dad refuses to care for her and it's up to Benji and the boy to save her. Following everyone around is a couple of bumbling dogcatchers.
Camp's intentions may be good, and to be sure, the language, violence and scatological humor in much of today's children's films are missing. But he's replaced them with a motion picture that is painfully cloying and brainless.