Hounded (film)

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Hounded
Hounded promo poster.jpg
VHS cover
GenreAdventure
Comedy
Written byDon Calame
Chris Conroy
Directed byNeal Israel
StarringTahj Mowry
Craig Kirkwood
Shia LaBeouf
Ed Begley, Jr.
Music byDavid Kitay
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
ProducerDon Schain
Running time92 minutes
Production companyGaylord Films
DistributorBuena Vista Television
Release
Original networkDisney Channel
Original releaseApril 13, 2001 (2001-04-13)

Hounded is a 2001 Disney Channel Original Movie starring Tahj Mowry, Craig Kirkwood, Shia LaBeouf and Ed Begley, Jr. It was filmed in Salt Lake City, Utah at the Madeleine Choir School campus.[citation needed]

Plot[]

Jay Martin is a 13-year-old who is competing for a scholarship to a prestigious school with rival classmate and bully Ronny Van Dusen. The scholarship is the only one of its kind available, and if Jay doesn't obtain it, he will be sent to the military academy his older brother, Mike, attends upstate. The headmaster of Jay's current school and Ronny's father, Ward Van Dusen, confiscates Jay's presentation because it contained drawings depicting him as a wolf in disguise. After Ward leaves the speech lying around his office, Ronny copies the presentation and wins the scholarship by using it in the contest. When Jay brings this up with Ward, he expresses intentions to look into it, only for Jay to later overhear Ward instructing his son to get rid of any evidence he plagiarized the speech.

Jay breaks into Ronny's pool house while the Van Dusen family is at the award ceremony in order to take his presentation back and prove to the judges it was stolen. However, Ward's wife, Eliza's show dog, Camille, discovers Jay and follows him home after she nearly gets him caught by a servant. Camille goes crazy and wrecks the Martin's home when she goes too long without her medication. After Jay spends hours trying to comfort the dog, Camille withstands no more and explodes.

Mike comes home from school at his Military Academy while their mother is away taking care of their injured aunt and finds the house a mess and Camille with a nervous breakdown. After Jay confesses what happened with the speech and the dog, the two try to buy time to get her back home. During a phone call, Ward disavows any knowledge of Ronny's theft and plagiarism to Mike. Ward is then visited by his father-in-law, the former headmaster of the school, Armand Columbus, who orders him to get his daughter's dog back or Ward will lose his job. Ward is hesitant, at first, having hated Camille to begin with due to his allergies, but agrees to numerous bizarre acts requested by Jay and Mike just to get Camille home and Armand off his back. Over time, Camille calms down and accepts Jay as a friend.

Reaching his limit, Ward finally calls the police to tap into the calls he usually received from the two boys (who used a voice disguiser). Jay and Mike come up with a plan and frame Ronny for the dog's absence. The plan works thanks to a strategy where the Van Dusens and the police find Camille in Ronny's pool house, as well as the voice changer they used for further incrimination. This prompts Armand to say "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" in realization that Ward has passed his corrupt behavior on to his son.

In the end, after investigating further and uncovering the full truth about Ronny and Ward's misdeeds, Armand retakes his old position as headmaster of the school while demoting Ward to secretary. The scholarship competition is reopened and Jay is rightfully awarded the scholarship, and Camille is revealed to be expecting puppies, with Eliza offering Jay one of them. Ronny is sent to the military Academy as punishment for plagiarizing Jay's speech; he is surprised to find his instructor is Mike, who plans to discipline him harder than the other cadets.

Cast[]

  • Tahj Mowry as Jay Martin, a 13-year-old student attending Columbus Hall, a private middle school
  • Craig Kirkwood as Michael "Mike" Martin, Jay's older brother and a drill sergeant at Starkwell Military Academy
  • Shia LaBeouf as Ronald "Ronny" Van Dusen, Jay's rival classmate and a bully [1]
  • Sara Paxton as Tracy Richburg, Jay's wheelchair-bound best friend
  • Steven Bendik as Bill Lipka, Jay's best friend
  • Rachelle Carson as Eliza Van Dusen (née Columbus), Ronny Van Dusen's mother
  • Ed Begley, Jr. as Ward Van Dusen, Ronny Van Dusen's father
  • Tony Larimer as Armand Columbus, Eliza Van Dusen's father
  • Melinda Haynes as Mrs. Martin, Jay and Mike's widowed mother.
  • Irene Santiago as Adele, the Van Dusens' maid.

Release[]

Critical reception[]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 47% based on 538 reviews. It has only 2 comments and Conner R calls the film "Just an incredibly weird and campy movie about dog stealing. About the only noteworthy aspect is the fact that Shia Labeouf plays a hilariously evil rich kid."[2]

Home media[]

A VHS was released on 5 March 2002 by Walt Disney Video.[3]

References[]

  1. ^ Grant, Stacey (13 April 2016). "Shia LaBeouf Was The World's Worst Flirter In Disney's Hounded". MTV News. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  2. ^ "Hounded". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  3. ^ "Hounded [VHS]". www.amazon.com. Retrieved 5 April 2020.

External links[]

Retrieved from ""