Do not try to tell me that dogs do not think like humans, when given the opportunity! While I fully comprehend that US TV’s ‘The Dog Whisperer’ (Cesar Millan), would have kittens at that suggestion and I realise that it is all to do with ‘imprinting’ (although intense dog-training is also inherent), Hotel For Dogs is a funtastic, family film that manages to avoid all the cuss words, the gory detailing and the grim story-lines of 99% of the movies emerging from Tinsel-town at the moment.

Okay, it is packed with every tear-jerking element known to man, or woman. There are the dogs, of course, which are the real stars of this extravaganza. However, there is also a pretty good cast of supporting humans, such as Kevin Dillon and Lisa Kudrow (yes, Phoebe from ‘Friends’) playing the roles of Carl and Lois Scudder, a sometime rocker and his chick, who also appear to be on the child fostering register (although, in truth, they should not be so). Then there is Don Cheadle and Robinne Lee, the social worker, Bernie, and his wife, Carol, while Emma Roberts and Jake T Austin play the leading roles of the teenage brother and sister, Andi and Bruce, whose parents were sadly killed, leading to their need to be adopted.

Directed by Thor Freudenthal and written by Jeff Lowell and Robert Schooley, this is a 100 minutes long feel-good production, armed with a customary dose of pathos and the usual unlikely end scenario but who gives a darn? Bruce is a bit of a whiz at making mechanical gubbins out of household items and, coming across a derelict but formerly grand hotel, into which the real star of the film ‘Friday’, a wonderfully talented Yorkshire terrier, scurries to avoid the long arm of the law, it is turned gradually into the ultimate abode for canines of all sorts. If you are not a dog lover, then forget this movie, because it is virtually a Technicolor advertisement for the Canine Defence League. Yet, there is a happy story-line running through it and the young people, including Johnny Simmons and Lyla Pratt (Dave and Heather, from the local pet store), manage not to be upstaged by the animals that would otherwise control every emotion running through this film. Great fun for all the family