Roadside Romeo
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 Before there was Foodfight! (2012), there was this.
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Roadside Romeo is a 2008 Indian-American computer animated romantic comedy film directed and written by Jugal Hansraj and produced by Aditya Chopra, the film is the first and only animated film to be produced by Yash Raj Films, in partnership with Walt Disney Pictures, the film was animated by Tata Elxsi Visual Computing Labs, who also did the special effects for Taare Zameen Par and Spider-Man 3 before, the film follows the life of a once luxurious golden retriever as he falls in love with an afghan hound, whereas a fat English bulldog tries to woo her.
Plot
This is the story of Romeo. He had the works – the mansion to live in, the chicks to party with and the cars to be driven around in. Until one day, his family decided to move and left him behind in the mean streets of Mumbai. Now faced with situations he has never been in before, Romeo encounters 4 new friends. Then, Romeo meets the beautiful, ravishing Laila, the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. He tries to win her heart, but the dreaded Charlie Anna, the resident Don, gets in his way.
Why It Deserves to Be Left in the Streets
- The animation, while not as bad as most Indian animated films at the time, looks ugly even for 2008 standards, as it ends up making the characters look very uncanny with their humanized design, and due to film's overbudgeted development, the lighting will start turning dark for no reason at all, likely an attempt to look more natural but fails.
- Awful voice acting, even from celebrities such as Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan, who at the time, were heavily experienced in acting, the former gives off a really unnatural performance, which causes his character to come across as weird.
- In fact, the only cast member who had any experience in voice acting is Jaaved Jaffery, but his character is a villain that only appears for a limited amount of time, which is really disrespectful for an actor like Jaaved.
- Atrocious humor that feels out of place in a film produced by Yash Raj Films, examples include Charlie Anna farting as a running gag, or even a bird pooping on Mini after the Intermission sequence.
- Many characters are seens speaking in English, which is just confusing, and unlike other Indian films 3 Idiots, which used both English and Hindi since it was made specifically for Indians and foreigners alike, this film uses English randomly while using it's home language.
- The film's premise completely rips-off the plot of Lady and the Tramp, as both films involve a dog falling in love with another dog, which is weird, since both films are are distributed and produced by Walt Disney Pictures themselves.
- Speaking of which, the premise is extremely unoriginal, since the plot uses many cliches that are typically seen in most Bollywood films, such as the main villain trying to get the girl, the main protagonist being the leader of a gang, and a character that was thought to be male is actually a female.
Redeeming Qualities
- As mentioned, although the animation looks ugly and uncanny, it's surprisingly well made for an Indian film, the characters are well-designed and the backgrounds look really good with a hint of attention to detail added, what's more is that the animation was done by Tata Elxsi VCL, the company that did additional CGI for Spider-Man 3, Taare Zameen Par & Iron Man.
- The songs written by Salim-Sulaiman are surprisingly decent.
- As previously said, Jaaved Jaffery is the only talented out of all the cast members in the film, and does a surprisingly good job as Charlie Anna.
Reception
Roadside Romeo was panned by critics and audiences with criticism aimed at the animation, acting, plot, characters and humor but praise for it's soundtrack. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a certified "rotten" score of 50% with an average rating of 4.00/10.
Writing for The New York Times, Rachel Saltz criticised the movie saying, "The animated dogs in Romeo aren’t particularly appealing. They mostly walk on two legs and, unlike Disney characters, don’t wear anything beyond neck gear. They look oddly naked and move awkwardly, which flattens the dance sequences and keeps the film earthbound."
Videos
Trivia
- Like Tinker Bell (which came out the same year as this film), this is one of Disney's only few CGI-animated films without Walt Disney Animation Studios or Pixar.