Petra's Pet Perils III: Dog Gone

Now here was a film with a massive visual point of difference, seemingly inspired by 1990s FMV games such as NIGHT TRAP and THE 7TH GUEST in terms of presentation, with pixelated imagery that at times was indeed pillowboxed to about 240p much like those games of yesteryear, although a CARMEN SANDIEGO-like UI framework did allow a full 4:3 Academy 1080p frame to be presentated for most of the film.

Onto the film itself, where a naughty dog runs off with its owners keys in the rain after being let out of the car, leading to Petra investigating a mysterious house complete with knife throwing women and Margaret Scratcher, an invisible cat. Of course what would a video game be without a boss to defeat, with would-be pooch stealer Xanthe stealing the show and only true love being able to save the day.

The performances were strong, with each character in the film having a uniquely identifiable screen persona, and the music in particular replicated my nostalgic memories of what adlib soundblasters used to sound like playing DOS games back in the day.

I also liked the message of the film, that nothing can get between true love whether that is for a spouse, child, partner or dearly beloved pet. With its unique A/V approach this really stood out.

My main criticism of the film would also be rooted to its strength in terms of it being such an on point video game presentation. Were we as an audience allowed to be fully drawn into the storytelling? Or did the digitization to sprites potentially take away some of the depth of the human element of cinema? For me on first watch I think I fell into the latter category, but I sat up and paid attention on my repeat watch today and really loved the uniqueness of the film. The story is still a bit flat, for mine, but I love films that stand out in this comp, which this did.

Story: 2.5/5
Technical: 4.5/5
Elements: 3.5/5
Overall: 3.5/5