Beverly Hills Chihuahua is a 2008 comedy film by Walt Disney Pictures directed by Raja Gosnell and released October 3. A trailer of the upcoming Disney film Bolt was seen at the beginning. The plot centers around a Chihuahua who gets dognapped in Mexico and has to escape from an evil Doberman with help from a lonely German Shepherd and a hyperactive male Chihuahua who has a desperate crush on her.
Plot
Vivian (Jamie Lee Curtis), chihuahua Chloe’s (voice of Drew Barrymore) owner, leaves the pooch with her irresponsible niece Rachel (Piper Perabo) to dog-sit. Rachel decides to go to Mexico with her pals, leaving Chloe in the room; the dog sneaks out and gets stolen. Chloe ends up tossed into a dog fight ring, left to defend herself from dog El Diablo (voice of Edward James Olmos). Delgado (voice of Andy Garcia) rescues her from the fight, unleashing the other dogs from their cages and unlocking the ring to allow the two dogs to escape. Delgado was planning to just walk away, but he feels bad and decides to help Chloe get back home. The leader of the dog fights realizes that Chloe is worth something and sends Delgado to find Chloe. Rachel stays in Mexico to find Chloe, Rachel’s friend sneaks into Vivians’ house to get a picture of Chloe when she is caught by the landscaper, Sam (Manolo Cardona). He and his dog Papi (voice of George Lopez) from Beverly Hills, who is in love with Chloe go to Mexico to find her. Rachel and the landscaper team and set off to find Chloe. On their journey to Beverly Hills, Chloe and Delgado find themselves in many situations that they manage to escape; they make it to a national park in Mexico, where Chloe is regonized by an employee. Rachel and landscaper go to get Chloe but Delgago beats them to her. They end up in an old ruin where Chloe gets locked in a cage; Papi helps Chloe to escape. Chloe finds her bark and with the help of Papi and Delgado, and they get Diablo surender. Delgado becomes a K9 Unit and Rachel and Sam takes the dogs home. Back in Beverly Hills, Vivian likes Chloe’s new smell (an earthy smell). Papi and Chloe relax on the patio. Chloe thanks Papi for his help and she tells him that she loves him in Spanish and she licks him down to the ground as her way of showing her love. Before the end credits, Papi explains what happens to the dogs (Chloe’s friends that she met in Mexico), he and Chloe have puppies and Sam begins dating Rachel.
Visual effects
Cinesite in London, using their specially developed pipeline for creating digital muzzle replacements, animated the many talking dogs. The in-house visual effects supervisor is Matt Johnson, and the animation supervisor was Alexander Williams.
Box office
Despite mixed reviews from critics, Beverly Hills Chihuahua was a commercial success. The film grossed $29,300,465 on its opening weekend from 3,215 theaters, averaging about $9,114 per theater, and ranking #1 at the box office for that weekend. On its second weekend, the film arrived #1 again with $17,502,077. As of December 7, 2008, Beverly Hills Chihuahua has grossed $92.2 million in domestic and $21.5 million in other territories leading up to a total of $113.8 million worldwide.
