Hotel for Dogs gets paws up!

Jan 16, 2009 8:56 AM by Vicki Salemi

Posted in Entertainment / Movies & Reviews

Emma Roberts Exclusive

Hotel for Dogs is an adorable family-friendly movie. Premiering today, Dogs follows two siblings who secretly take in nine stray canines at a vacant house.

Emma Roberts follows aunt Julia's path to superstardom

Hotel for Dogs: one cute tail

Based on the Lois Duncan book bearing the same name, this comedy-adventure stars Emma Roberts and Jake T. Austin as siblings in a strict no-pets household courtesy of their foster parents, played by Lisa Kudrow and Kevin Dillon.

Hotel for Dogs doesn't start with all of the dogs on set, however. It starts with one very meticulously obedient pooch named Friday. One by one as the kids' quiet operation gets bigger and bigger, well you can guess what happened next: more dogs on set!

"It was crazy, it was really hectic, coming to set every day and there'd be 20 dogs around," says Emma who already has an impressive acting record including starring in television's Unfabulous and Nancy Drew on the silver screen.

So we can only wonder what happened next. With all of those obedient canines on camera, had anything funny happened off set?

Hotel for Dogs: canine crazy

Were there any antics, we asked Emma in an exclusive one-on-one? "Not really," says Roberts -- a very vocal fan of Taylor Swift, "but there was one scene where I actually fell and skinned my knees open and the dogs trampled over me and it was so embarrassing. We were watching the playback and I'm literally running and I just fall out of frame and hit the ground. It was so embarrassing."

Besides Kudrow and Dillon, Dogs includes Don Cheadale

Hotel for Dogs: not too be missed

Clever and cute, parents and yes, even singletons will enjoy the humor and kids in particular will love the dogs.

Let's not forget the premise: an empowering story of siblings who build an entire operation and do something amazing for these dogs. What's not to love about Hotel for Dogs?

The real stars of Hotel for Dogs

The story is interwoven with high tech inventions courtesy of the younger brother Bruce (Austin) as Andi (Roberts) and him portray a brother-sister foster pair that's seriously believable. As the plot thickens and more dogs and characters are added to the premise of caring for the dogs, one thing is for certain this January: between the Obamas bringing a dog to the White House and this film opening, you will want to run, not walk to your nearest pound or shelter.

Net result: SheKnows gives it two paws up!