BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA 3: VIVA LA FIESTA! DVD (2012)

SYNOPSIS: Papi is back, and he's ready to party! From the studio that brought you Beverly Hills Chihuahua-you're invited to the ultimate celebration of friendship and family: Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3: Viva La Fiesta! Join Papi (voiced by George Lopez) and his two- and four-legged family as they move into a posh Beverly Hills hotel, complete with a luxurious doggy spa. But there's trouble in puppy paradise when Rosa, the littlest member of the pack, feels smaller and less special than ever. Now it's up to Papi to help Rosa find - and celebrate - her inner strength, which turns out to be bigger than she ever dreamed. Overflowing with laughter, love, and excitement, this is tail-wagging fun for the whole family!

MOVIE REVIEW:

Cats have nine lives but what about dogs? Chihuahuas probably have more than that consider they are back for the third time in “Beverly Hills Chihuahua: Viva La Fiesta!”. Is the third time a charm?

A limited budget is actually not a bad thing for this direct-to-video title. The story by Dana Starfield is confined to a luxurious hotel where Papi’s owners Rachel and Sam worked as a chef and landscape designer respectively. Like any other Disney titles, this third instalment offers a lot of harmless fun for the kiddos and Latin American cultural lessons. Surprisingly, most of the humour is not as stupid as you thought though there are a few obvious references to pop culture litter all around. “Bark Jacobs” anyone?

Papi (voiced by George Lopez of “The Smurfs” and “Marmaduke”), Chloe and their lovely brood of five Chihuahuas have followed their owners to stay at a luxury hotel where they managed to get a job there. Chloe have become the hotel’s dog model while the young pups are attending dog school at the hotel’s premise. Papi starts to worry about losing control over his family members and decide to organize a quinceanera celebration to win back his youngest daughter, Rosa’s heart. It’s not just the family Papi has to worry about, there’s also the over-enthusiastic dog trainer and her sinister plans to leak the hotel’s clientele list over to a rival that got Papi’s attention as well.   

There are no massive sequences of Chihuahuas dancing and singing but we do have a cute mariachi band to move things along (similar to “Rango”). An audition sequence to get a suitable band for Rosa’s quinceanera crank up the laughs as canine bands such as Lady Gaga & the Tramp and Black Labbeth (got it?) starts turning up. The human characters as usual serve as fillers to supplement the plot. Frances Fisher (“Titanic”) as a rich patron is utterly forgettable and Sebastian Roche as uptight French Chef Didier merely serves as a torturous tool to Rachel. Of course, there is the child-friendly villainous for Papi to save the day.

Comedian George Lopez finally has a franchise to call his own given the success of the “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” series. Talking animals and silly antics might not be the cup of tea for everyone. However, “Beverly Hills Chihuahua: Viva La Fiesta!” ought to be the perfect harmless title to play in your car to entertain the little ones during your Genting trip in the coming holidays.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

There are only two Music Videos included for the bonus features

AUDIO/VISUAL:

“Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3” looks fabulous on DVD with fine details and wonderful imaging. Dialogue is clear, music is a blast on the other hand ambient sound effects are limited for this title.

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee