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Brooke Shields and Brendan Fraser Star in the comedy Furry Vengence

Furry Vengeance Uses Too Much Slapstick To be Great Comedy

by Sandra Olmsted

Furry Vengeance, much like Mousehunt (Dreamworks 1997), sets out to convince the audience that small animals have a maniacal side when provoked; unfortunately, Furry Vengeance lacks the dark humor of Mousehunt and relies instead on scatological humor and poorly done slapstick.

Written by Michael Carnes and Josh Gilbert (both credited for Mr. Woodcock), the script is merely a string of barely-related gags populated by disconnected characters for whom nothing of real value is at stake.  About the only things Furry Vengeance has going for it are a strong message about not developing every acre of potentially “prime real estate” and that at least young children will be mesmerized by the animated animals, potty humor, and prat falls.

The basic premise is that the forest animals go on the offensive, rather than just using defensive weapons and traps, when their forest home is going to be leveled and repaved as yet another sprawling suburb.  After killing one developer in the first few minutes of the film, a fact hardly noted thereafter, the animals start their offensive against Dan Sanders (Brendan Fraser, Extraordinary Measures), the schlub promoted to fill the vacancy.  Since the film makes so little of the one developer’s disappearance and, as the audience knows, murder, there seems to be nothing at stake for Dan, trivializing the slapstick machinations he suffers at the hands of furry nemeses.

Although Dan orders the blowing up of a beaver dam, there are no consequences directly related to this for Dan or his construction crew who blew it up.  Also, if the animals understand that Dan is the boss behind the development, then why don’t they go after Dan’s boss, Neal Lyman (Ken Jeong, All About Steve), and his supersonic jet?  The raccoon in charge of the animal army knows about Dan’s boss and his jet because the raccoon tags along for a ride in Dan’s SUV, gets on Lyman’s jet, and overhears the whole plan to level the forest.  Kumble also sets up jokes that don’t pay off:

The raccoon hitches that ride  via a picnic basket full of sandwiches, which should have lead to an amusing discovery regarding the sandwiches.  In fact, aside from physical and mental pain, embarrassment seems to be the only comeuppance Dan can expect for being the company pawn in charge of destroying the planet in the name of corporate greed.  Of course, he’s also providing consumer goods for his wife Tammy (Brooke Shields, who lately guest stars on TV shows) and disgruntled teenage son Tyler (Matt Prokop, High School Musical 3: Senior Year).  When beleaguered Dan finally realizes that he, the raccoon, and the other animals share a desire to provide for and to protect their families, he becomes the ally of the animals.

Unfortunately, the anemic direction by Kumble and the lackluster story by Carnes and Gilbert leave much undeveloped in a premise that had potential and much talent unused in a cast perfectly able to handle these types of roles.  Fraser can make a character sympathetic while doing the mugging and emoting required by broad comedy, but Kumble doesn’t use Fraser’s natural likability because Dan is scripted as a heavy who is willing to forget about being eco-green for that other kind of green

While audiences may be curious to see whether Shields and her jeans still have it, the actress is best as a straight woman.  Her character only sees her husband after conflicts with the animals and is never a partner in his struggles.  Her character needs to be helping Dan fight the animals or the developers, but the script only has her repeatedly questioning Dan’s sanity like a ghost making “wooing” noises in the attic.  Furry Vengeance would have been funnier if Lyman was at the construction site longer, and Dan and Tammy Sanders were interposing themselves between Lyman  and the animals to save Dan’s job.  Then the Sanders could have worked to prevent the forest’s destruction for the purely ecological reasons which they supposedly believe in since Dan repeats frequently that he works for a “green company

Rated PG for rude humor, comic violence, mild language, and smoking, Furry Vengeance is a Participant Media production and a Summit Entertainment release and runs 92 long minutes.

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