Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Dogs
Likes: Dave Matthews
Dislikes: Winn Dixie
Hates: southern "culture"

The Movie
As I'm writing this review, I'm sitting on the couch next to my Schnoodle, and she's curled up in a little ball, asleep. As anyone who has a dog who does such things can tell you, it's simply adorable. Life is simply better when you have a cute dog. It may be magic, it might be some sort of drug, but dogs just make everything more enjoyable. That's certainly the case for Because of Winn-Dixie, an adaptation of a popular kid's book that I had never heard of before.

The rare-breed Picardy Shepherd named in the title is a mammoth dog with an incredibly expressive face who meets the film's heroine, Opal (AnnaSophia Robb, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), in the local supermarket, after causing a massive scene. The homeless dog adopts Opal and follows her home, where he continues to cause trouble with Opal's dad, The Preacher (Jeff Daniels, Pleasantville), and their landlord.

From there, most readers could write the rest of the story, especially with the title of the movie. Thanks to her new pet, Opal meets new people all over town, and begins to feel comfortable in Naomi, Florida, her new home. There's some problems in her family history that will be revealed, and she needs the new friends she makes. It's a somewhat formulaic kids tale, but it's got enough heart and the performances are good enough to carry it through its somewhat overlong 106 minutes. The ending is a tad too pat, to the point where it even made my sentimental mother-in-law say "That's the ending?"

As Opal, Robb shows the same pluck and talent that made her so memorable in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, making her friendship quest more believable and enjoyable than it might have otherwise been. Her father is a complicated man without much in terms of plot participation, but Daniels, who did well in a somewhat similar role in Pleasantville, does what he can to make it work.

The support cast, headed up by Cicely Tyson and Dave Matthews (yes, that Dave Matthews), help round out the film with quality performances as local oddballs. Matthews was a bit of a surprise, as he acquits himself well in the role of a drifter. Of course, he gets to play guitar and sing a bit, which is only natural, but he's not bad when it comes to acting. He gets to try his hand at some comedy here, and his timing isn't horrible, though his part is a quiet one, so it can be hard to tell. His pickle run is worth a few laughs.

Though the movie is named for him, Winn-Dixie isn't the central character one might expect. Instead, as the title says, he serves as a stimulus to bring Opal together with people. The filmmakers weren't crazy enough to waste his presence though, and gave him plenty of business and numerous chances to just look cute. It's the slapstick moments brought on by this horse of a canine that will entertain the children most, keeping them in the film between the more serious segments.

In approaching this movie, I had no idea that it was directed by Wayne Wang (The Joy Luck Club), in his first work since the brutal John Hughes-scripted Maid in Manhattan. Winn-Dixie seems like a bit of a departure for the man behind the erotic drama The Center of the World, but it does serve nicely as a companion piece to his 1999 film Anywhere But Here, which features an uprooted daughter's problems with her mother. Wang gives the film a beautiful look, lending an artistic, yet understated feel to a movie that could have been another studio manufacturing job in another's hands.

The DVD
The DVD for Because of Winn-Dixie is unfortunately a flipper disc, with the widescreen transfer on one side and a full-frame version on the other, that arrives is a standard keepcase with an an embossed slipcase. The main menu is animated and anamorphic widescreen (on both sides), with options to play the film, adjust the languages, select scenes and view special features. The scene selection menus feature still previews and titles for each chapter, while the languages include English 5.1, and Spanish and French 2.1. Subtitles are available in English and Spanish, along with closed captioning.

The Quality
You can choose your preferred aspect ratio, but if you're reading this, you'll probably be viewing the widescreen side. The transfer is the usual Fox quality, with nice detail and color, though the darker scenes can get a bit soft or muddy. There's nothing in terms of dirt or damage, though there are a few moments of pixilation.

The 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack doesn't challenge a receiver or take much advantage of the surround speakers, but it's clean and well reproduced in terms of the dialogue, sound effects and score. During a few scenes, including a pet store stampede and the thunder storms, the rear and side speakers kick in to create a fuller sound field, but for the most part it's a straightforward mix that sounds solid.

The Extras
On the full-frame side of the disc are three extras. The first is a selection of scenes with audio commentary by Robb. Her tracks alternate between "That was great" observations while watching the movie and actual information about the filming of the movie. For such a young girl, its pretty impressive and no worse than half the commentary tracks out there. There are five scenes in all, and they can be played together.

"Behind the Scenes with Winn-Dixie" is a standard studio promo piece, running four and a half minutes in full-frame. There's a lot of on-the-set footage, mixed with clips from the film and interviews with some of the cast and crew. It's more of an intro to the film than a true featurette. That's followed by a minute-long commercial for the movie soundtrack.

The widescreen side of the DVD has four more extras. The biggest is a screen-specific audio commentary by Daniels and producer Trevor Albert. While it would have been nice to have Wang involved, between Daniels and Albert, most aspects of the production are covered, along with the relationship between the book at the film, and they provide plenty of information and stories from the set. There are some pauses here and there, but for the most part they are conversational and an easy listen.

Two and a half minutes of gag-reel footage is up next, most of which is cute rather than funny. But when Harland Williams is on-screen, it's pretty hilarious. The other featurette, the four-minute "Diamond in the Ruff," focuses on the two dogs portraying Winn-Dixie in the film. It's more cute fluff, but who can't do without more cute fluff about dogs?

Wrapping things up is an inside look at "Ice Age 2," in the form of a short film starring Scrat the Squirrel from the original. It's cute, but more promotional than entertaining.

The Bottom Line
For a movie that seems to be, on the surface, a fun kids flick, Because of Winn-Dixie is a pretty heavy story, touching on hate, broken families, alcoholism and abandonment. But when you've got a dog like Winn-Dixie aboard, the film is never too far from a smile. There are quite a few better family films out there, but at the same time, there are thousands of worse ones, and plenty of family film nights to fill. Plus, the DVD presentation is very good with a couple of decent extras to check out when the kids fall asleep. So, if you're looking for a family film that won't bore the adults in the room, this isn't a bad pick-up.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.