UNDERDOG GOES TO THE REAL DOGS

A real beagle starred as Underdog with special flying powers voiced by Jason Lee.

Look up in the sky. Is it a bird, is it a plane, no it’s a dog, Underdog that is, the beloved super hero pooch out to save the citizens of Capitol City from evil.

The Saturday morning cartoon from 1964 voiced by Wally Cox has been made into a live action film featuring My Name Is Earl star Jason Lee speaking in rhymes as the voice of Underdog.

“He’s a very likable beagle, very cute and at the beginning of the movie we find out that he’s been made to be this hero of a dog not a super hero with the job he’s given and he kind of fails at that. And throughout the movie we discover he takes on these super powers. Well aside from the action, and aside from watching a flying talking dog which is very fun, it is an adventure comedy.”

Animal coordinator Boone Narr talks about the challenges of making an ordinary household dog named Leo fly through the air in red tights and a blue cape like a super hero.

“So we came up with a unique idea of well they fly Superman, they fly Spider Man; how do they fly those guys. We took some of their knowledge and we placed it into the dog. We built a body armor suit that the dog was comfortable laying in and that we could lift off the ground and roll it and tilt it and lean it and make it look like it’s flying. We could put it on the wind machine. We could put it on the green screen. And he had to be comfortable, he had to like it. It was another thing that we would be lucky to have a dog like Leo who plays our lead. He loves it. He thinks it’s like well gee I get to lay down and work.”

Underdog which also features Jim Belushi, and Patrick Warburton as Cad, the mad scientist assistant opens Friday in theaters.