Steve Reviews: Underdog (A Dog's Courage) 

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"The good times don't last long, however; because of course they wouldn't." - Steve, spitting some harsh truth.

I thought that the "Paradise" the dogs were heading for had a reason to be fenced off. For all we know it could have been an impact zone for Artillery training purposes... but no it was just an obstacle for the sake of having an obstacle.

This hits home HARD. Every dog I’ve had was a rescue, and one dog of mine had some major abandonment issues to the point where he would cry if I was even out of sight for a second. He passed away a year ago from cancer, but I’m happy I made his life better, even for only a few years.

I love how the movie started rather dark and then became cheerful and goofy. Honestly, it feels so rewarding to smile and laugh at the end's silliness when the starting feelings were so sad.

When I seen the title Underdog I immediately thought of Sweet Polly Purebred. And I always liked the song in the intro of that cartoon.

The ending feels very shoe horned in, like they wanted something for the kids

I was salty they didn't bring Schnauzer bro back, he had the most personality out of all them and a nice design. It definitely wasn't as good as Leafie though, the way the shepherd's eyes looked and the way he fought bothered me a lot too. Totally broke the model when they could've just made him more badass than the other dogs.

Hi Steve! Movie review suggestion: Wolfwalkers. It's basically about the Ireland version of werewolves and has very beautiful animation.

Not gonna lie, I thought the German shepherd was wearing glasses at first. Also, gotta recommend Redwall. It's a good series and whilst toned down for kids it's still really good

Your timing is impressive... I just adopted a german shepherd that has been abandoned by his owners a year ago, and I wasn't able to stop holding him close to me during the entire watchtime. Please people, be nice to your dogs.

Again, I recommend 'The King Of Pigs'. It's a korean animation movie about two childhood friends who meet one night to revisit the school they went to as kids where they faced severe bullying and experienced a traumatic event that still haunts them in their adulthood. Fair Warning: Bullying, Abuse, Depression, Violence, Death and animal violence Edit: apologies if I come across like a spam bot. I just heavily recommend this movie as not much reviews of it out there.

I... don’t think that one dog went to a shelter. Considering that place looked a lot like a dog slaughterhouse, it isn’t out of the question to consider that the poor dog went to a puppy mill + slaughterhouse, where he was probably slaughtered and sold for meat. Also, I think a more bittersweet ending for the movie could have been Moongchi being adopted by one of the soldiers and having a new owner by the end of the film. It was clear he lived as a pet for a long time, up into adulthood, and wouldn’t have had the survival skills to do well as a stray dog in the wild. That being said, he would have been better off being adopted by a dog-loving soldier. It still probably wouldn’t have been the best life for a dog, living out on the frontier with a bunch of loud noises going off constantly, but he would have been fed and lived as comfortably as he could, just barely close to the wild where his friends left him, but just out of reach.

"That's the buddhist symbol, youtube please don't demonetize" *Proceeds to show the actual swastika. *video gets demonetized Surprised Steve Face

F in the chat for Steve Reviews for watching all these heart-wrenching dog films!

I just realized at the ending, the soldiers' uniforms had the South Korean flag on them. And they were guarding a fenced area with two fences... I think the dogs might have gotten into North Korea

So are we not gonna mention that the fence that the dogs cross at the end is more than likely the DMZ aka the border between North and South Korea? No? Ok then….

I'm not too surprised with how quickly the fire spread through the field, considering how fluffy the grass is. fluff catches INSANELY quickly. you can look up a video of a cotton factory catching on fire after some idiot was using a lighter to seal off seams or something.

Do Kyungsoo, the actor who voices the main character Moongchi, is also a singer and idol under t he stage name D.O., and is a member of the k-pop group EXO. He's a really strong vocalist, I recommend his solo tracks "It's Okay", "Rose" and "Si Fueras Mia" if anyone's interested in hearing. He was also in the 2018 film "Swing Kids" which is about a group of prisoners in a camp during the Korean war who put together a dance company, and he learned North Korean dialect and tap dancing for the role. He's a very talented person.

Man, got me crying. Just straight up abandoning your dogs is some messed up shit. It’s real cool they used the movie as a platform for the aid of animals. Love your reviews man, you bring forth so many films/movies/shows I’ve never heard of or were initially disinterested in. Thank you for sacrificing your sanity and joy to bring us these thoughtful and dark movies.

I just noticed that the deer the dogs hunted is a Tuft deer. You know. The endangered deer's with tusks? Anyone? No?

South Korea: *"Want a sad animated movie about animals?"* Everyone: *"Nah not rea-"* South Korea: *"TOO BAD PREPARE YOUR TISSUES BECAUSE YOU'RE GOING TO CRY."*

"This is a film about animals..." Me: "Oh that's ni-" "... from South Korea." Me: "Well, they're all dead."

Who else thinks Tao Tao: Story Of Panda would be perfect for Steve to review?

Our family adopted a dog that was left in a home for the previous owners to "take care of" when they moved out. They left a bag of food behind but the new owners were not told of the dog being left behind, and took their time to get there as they weren't pressed for time. They showed up to a malnourished dog on the cusp of death. Thank God they were skilled dog handlers and nursed him up. We adopted him and fed him and treated him like royalty

I really didn't want to deal with any emotional trauma today yet here I am.

Dogs looking for paradise? Reminds me of Wolf's Rain

I recommend an anime "Ginga Nagareboshi Gin" from 1986. It's about dogs killing bears and it has some brutal scenes.. oh, and heart-warming friendship between a puppy and a boy. 21 episodes so not very long.

Another thing I feel like you forgot to mention is that it kinda goes backwards in it's morals in that, it makes abandoning the dogs come across as bad for about the first half of the movie and then says oh no they wanna be wild which I personally think is teaching the wrong message. some may say I'm being over dramatic when I say what I'm about to but I see it happen time and time again with kids and even adults is that they think they can just abandon an animal and it will magically survive and that there are no repercussions for what they've done. I love your videos keep up the great work💜💙❤

Don't get me wrong, I love your deep dives into unknown and dark films, but I'd love to see you review a film YOU love. Something that fills you with happiness and good times.

I honestly never seen this movie and didn’t know the people behind Leafy did another movie. I might give it a shot! 🤔

I remember subbing to you when you had less than ten thousand subscriptions, and you've delivered nothing but the most entertaining content since then. I have no doubt you'll reach a million subs Steve.

This kind of reminds me of a book series I read called Survivors (by Erin Hunter). The basic gist of it is a former per turned stray helps a bunch of pets who were abandoned during an earthquake learn to survive as pack in the wild. They meet an actual wild pack and the story is about them learning to get along and survive in this “new world” they all find themselves in. It’s a good series (not as good as it’s sister series, Warriors, but still). The only real difference is the “fierce dog pups” plot and the canine version of the apocalypse.

It’s always the best thing when Steve uploads and ruins our childhood

Please review an anime movie titled Enchanted Journey. It's like Watership Down, but with chipmunks.

I'm going to keep recommending this (especially when you do canine based reviews) - it's not a movie, but an anime w/ 1 season : Wolf's Rain. I think it's right up your alley Steve & I hope someday you'll review it. Like GOT, no one is safe in Wolf's Rain.

To be fair about that fire, those plants look very similar to pampas grass, which is horrifically flammable in dry conditions and will absolutely spread into wildfires

Movies like these always makes me cry

If you want to watch a longer series, I recommend Silver Fang! It's an older anime about dogs going to war against bears who are terrorizing people.

Steve: "humans don't deserve dogs." Me, a rescue enthusiast who has seen what humans have done to all sorts of animals: "Humans don't deserve ANYTHING."

The scenes where the main character is fighting genuinely feel like references to Ginga Densetsu Weed to me…

Ahhh Saturday afternoon Steve’s Review! Love it! Been a fan for quite a while! Keep it up!

Holy....what? Saberspark and Steve uploading just within an hour of each other? Christmas is quite early this year. Time for beer and some chips.

I thought it was going to be something as heartbreaking as Plague Dogs. I don't know if I'm glad or disappointed...

The directors must've been real proud of Leafie to reference it multiple times into this film. I believe the final act should've been a fight with the dog catcher had the main character didn't Mary Sue the first time around. I think the character should've lost and barely escape with his life and realizing the dog catcher isn't going to be easy to take down. Only when he defeats him would the ending feel warranted. The movie is good, but it held back its potential. It had all the right materials to be an amazing movie just like Leafie, but didn't follow through and the result is above average decent film. It seems really disappointing that it's not Leafie levels of quality since they reference it a few times in this one.

for some reason when I heard dogs searching for paradise my brain just went "lmao they doing a wolf's rain?" but yeah this movie is fun and different from what I expected in many ways but it was enjoyable if a little confusing by the sudden end of they made it hurray. Now I recommend watching ginga nagareboshi gin aka silver fang the shooting star gin. It starts off as though it will be a dog and his boy series but flips the switch to focusing on just the dogs partway through as they attempt to kill a bear the size of a mountain. The series still has an active fanbase despite how old it is and the manga is crazy with how it just keeps going highly recommend if you don't mind crying streams of tears over dogs being brutally killed.

I'd like to imagine that the stray dog who got caught was just adopted/purchased instead of being used for breeding because he was neutered and a pretty popular breed.

When I was a kid, the scene of Tod being forcefully abandoned by the old lady broke my heart so bad. I watched it when I was 5 or 6 and then it took me my entire childhood to get over it. I could not accept the fact he never got to be reunited with her in the end and that he was "only a memory" to her from then on. I remember how I wrote in my diary how I was finally only able to get over it when I was 16. My young child heart could not go through the process of grief to acceptance. All for a cartoon character that didn't even exist in real life.

The backgrounds of this movie are so beautiful! And they know that too, they show off their backgrounds every second they get.

Your critiques of the animation makes me think of Beastars. Studio Orange did a fantastic job blending 2d and 3d, human and animal musculature, the 3d models are just as expressive as 2d, etc. Maybe you can do a review for it? The final season should be coming out in a year or two.

does anyone around here think steve should cover over the garden wall? :o

Here's some information regarding the 2D / 3D mix for you! I was very excited about this movie when it was announced, so I was checking for updates daily, which led me to a lot of news on it at the time! Originally Underdog was supposed to be entirely 2D with only minor 3D shots (Like Leafie had in crowded scenes, scenes from a distance, etc) It was also originally a collaboration between China and Korea. China had agreed to fund another movie from this studio due to the success of Leafie there. Both movies were made with the same process - 3D models with 2D art rotoscoped over it. In late 2017 however, China pulled their funding after seeing the movie's progress (Stated on a Korean news report). So at this point, the studio was not quite sure what to do with Underdog. A successful cr*wd fund was implemented in Korea so that the movie could at least be finished to a presentable state - Refining the 3D reference models into a finished looking movie rather than let it go to waste. This is why you see some random 2D shots here and there - The easiest shots to complete were done before the funding drop. Shots of humans, the puppy scene, things animators are used to drawing without the reference of 3D models. The "Easy bits"... It's a huge shame. I do think that this movie would have been so much more gorgeous with completely finalized 2D. The funding being pulled was another likely factor of why the ending may have felt rushed. If you glance at my page you can see the state of the movie in 2017 - At that point it was very uncertain if the movie would be released at all. I'm grateful we have this movie in the world, but it was such a missed opportunity to be something amazing. They were really aiming for Pixar standards with this one before the production difficulties. :(

10:02 That's actually very realistic, bushfires can spread very quickly if left unattended.

I recommend checking out Once Upon a Forest, it gets pretty dark at times

as a dog owner , god darn it - i cant cry because of a movie review

I am definitely conflicted as well, while it is very nice to have the happy ending the means of getting there turned very cartoonist and goofy really taking away from their previous struggles. I honestly thought it was going to end badly for everyone involved, another ending I thought up while typing this was after the gate shut the stray dogs would stay inside the fence but moongchi would be forced to retreat and take up the role of a guide of sorts, finding other strays and bringing them through the dangers he had survived to this paradise making the English title even more fitting, but that's just me :p

Remember that Leafie was based off a book, and you can get that book in English!

Ahh yes, The main protagonist suddenly knowing how to do a Tom Hawk summer-sault leading to a 360 spin finish axe kick.

Watching this made me instantly remember an old manga about a puppy I read called Deep Love Pao. I was crying before the second chapter

i haven't watched the movie yet, (but i have a feeling i will very soon), but my personal take on the goofy ending is that THAT is what it would take for dogs in their situation to find happiness in today's age. The scenes are very real for sure, dogs get dumped, overbred, kept in horrible, disgusting places and often may never see a good life. Those things happen daily, in all parts of the world. For dogs in those situations to survive on their own... miracles would have to happen. I don't know if that was the intention with the ending, but that's just how i see it nice review Steve! Will definitely give it a watch sometime

Steve: *confused how Moong-chi used a grenade to propel himself* TF2 players: "he knows the sacred technique!"

Been waiting for someone to make a review from this movie. And you did it justice and I can 100% agree with your criticisms! Great video once again Steve! 👍🏻

One thing that marked me about this movie is how it was heavily sold to kpop fans, as the voice of Moongchi is Do Kyungsoo, a kpop singer form the group EXO (and to kdrama fans too, as Bami voice actress is Park Sodam, btw she is in parasite, she is kijung/jessica!), I remember that as soon the movie came out a lot of Kyungsoo and EXO fans watched the movie, many of them watched more than 2 times too! They would share about how DO work in the movie was amazing and other fans would be interested on the movie too, so for this really short time Underdog was quite popular between kpop fans

I really want a plush of the two adorable chihuahuas. I can't get over how cute they are.

The Cgi looks like Db super superhero

Please review A Silent Voice. It's a heartbreaking anime

3:10 favorite movie of all time... would ask my Nana to put it on EVERY time we went over to her house...

This is one of my most favorite movies! I’m so glad you covered it!

Awesome review as always Steve! This seems like a more light version of Plague Dogs, since most of the cast actually survived here.

Having the goofy ending was probably because the director got in trouble for his sad ending in Leafie.

I could do Padak. I could do Leafie. I CANNOT DO THIS!! I’m in tears just from the review!

oh, just from the thumbnail i know this will DESTROY me emotionally thank you for putting yourself through these for us, steve. you cover a lot of heavy content but a lot of it definitely has artistic merit too-- i'm still in awe over padak tbh

"Is that a JOJO reference?" - I sleep "Is that a LEAFY reference?" - REAL SHIT

At first I thought the dog eating deer poop scene was poisoned dog food where I was kind of expecting another death.

When I first saw this film, I never expected it to be this dark. It reminded me of the past animal cartoon films I saw as a kid like Oliver and Company and Balto. Also, the ending when the main dog jumped over the fence reminded me of Spirit jumping from the cliff.

As a dog person myself, I really like Steve's dog related content.

So, I got a *LONG* list of movies you should definitely review (and most of them are *DARK AND WEIRD!:* * Cat Soup * James and the Giant Peach * Peter and the Wolf (2006 version) * Once Upon a Forest * Alice (Jan Svankmajer) * Pingu's Dream (Banned Pingu Episode) * Wolfwalkers * The Fantastic Adventures of Unico and Unico in the Island of Magic (From the creators of Ringing Bell) * Nausicca Valley of the Wind * Fire and Ice (Directed by Ralph Bakshi) * Fantastic Planet * Samson and Sally

hey have you ever seen the movie once upon a forest? it’s a movie i think you’d enjoy doing a video on as it has to do with man construction with forest animals, where they gas them, they have to cross roads, all sorts of scary danger. and yes there is death in it… i watched it as a kid and specifically remember how they would call the equipment “yellow dragons”

having watched this now i can tell you one thing... the German Shepard isn't wearing glasses... he's just got fabulous eyebrows

Canines finding Paradise reminds me of Wolf’s Rain.

"The dogs find a home and everything is good and happy." Only half way through the video

Just watched your review of Secret of NIMH and it made me remember another show about an animated mouse. Could you perhaps review Tales of Redwall?

I thought the clapping bear was a cut away from some other movie until I saw him still clapping 😂

I had recommended this DVD to our job as a person who does collection development for our art college. I had no ideal that this feature was connected to 'Daisy' aka 'Leafy', which was a DVD we got in as a request or it was a donation. I never knew they were done by the same director.

The deer is a tufted deer. A real species. My nephew thought it was a mystical creature because it had fangs

This movie kinda gave me whiplash. It felt like I was watching two very different narrative directions from the movie, from the first half being solemn and depressing to the second half being a bunch of cartoon slapstick (maybe that's the effect of two directors?). I actually wish the Schnauzer had been the main character. He left the best impression personality-wise for me, and his overall design was really clean. He was also one of the only ones that didn't look overly much? I guess I mean unnecessarily goofy (like the German Shepard) or unnecessarily 'cool' (which by cool I really just mean wolf-like breeds... you just see them so much despite the immense variety dog breeds have).

7:10 ,,SMOVE" my favorite line.

You should review Jack and the Beanstalk (1974), Fantasia (1940), Ralph Bakshi's animated LOTR, About Dressy Sally (aka "Clockman"), Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July, Raggedy Ann and Andy: a Musical Adventure, and A Christmas Carol (2009)

Hey Steve, ever heard of "Ginga Densetsu Weed" the japanese anime about dogs? Its quite similar to this...Might be another good one to review 👍

The piano piece in the beginning is “Pavane for a dead princess” bit of an odd musical choice because of the pieces meaning but I recommend you listen to SPQ’s performance of it on the Rousseau RU-vid channel

I start tearing up a lot when ever the parents death scene and there kid crying pops up. Like I go from 0 to 70 in 3 seconds. It takes a lot to make me cry that much that quickly.😂😢

I was wondering if you were gonna review this. Thank you so much! ❤

Perfect timing, I've been reading a book series about dogs trying to survive out in the wild. The Survivors series, pretty entertaining so far. I'm on the 3rd book now!

I’m still eagerly awaiting for you to watch and review 2 of the most iconic cult following movies from the 80’s. Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal!! Both were done by Jim Henson! The puppetry is breathtaking, not to mention wonderfully creepy!

Yes, one of two movies I was hoping for a review, now all that's left is "tito and the birds " which I really hope gets done at some point on this incredible channel

Whenever "Paradise" is mentioned in a movie involving dogs/wolves, my mind goes back to Wolf's Rain (which I highly recommend, btw).

That German Shepherd's crazy long eyebrows (eyelashes?) are the only thing I can focus on

This feels like the Asian version of Plague dogs (dogs out in the wilderness trying to get a better life)

"don't demotize me" shows an actual svastika but depressing as the beggining is, it is the every day reality for many abandoned dogs, at least the ending is happy, even though many dogs don't get that

You know it’s a good day when Steve uploads!