Blu-ray Review – The Dogfather

Hunting for material to keep their empire of animation rumbling along, DePatie-Freleng elected to take inspiration from the movies during the 1970s, adding to their cinema-inspired arsenal that began with work on the "The Pink Panther" films. While Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather" seems like an unlikely influence for any family-friendly cartoon endeavor, the creative forces at DePatie-Freleng weren't intimidated by the feature's R-rated interests, creating 1974's "The Dogfather," a canine-led spoof that largely did away with sex and violence, replacing the raw stuff with silliness. Exploring the daily life of the titular don and his league of nitwit enforcers, "The Dogfather" is largely traditional mischief from the company, who enjoy the challenge of creating wild antics for as cheaply as possible, giving the material some appealing speed and absurdity as it tries to make something as heavy as "The Godfather" into 17 shorts of extreme goofiness.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com