Thank God, Ted came around.OK, fine, Gooby wasn't entirely bad for the first 20 or so minutes. Then it became Goofy and when they got to the "American" supermarket, it turned to God-awful and eventually Godless. From the Jim's "Wolverine" Dad, to Purple People Eaters on a Diet, to the countless creepy child-endangerment scenes, to the terrible tunes, to the numerous, aimless and never-revisited story lines, Gooby delivers every parent's worst nightmare: leaving your kid alone with an adult furry male.This movie may have had heart in the concept stage, but nothing went right in the final product to make me even slightly recommend this. It would and should give any kid – its target audience, I suspect – nightmare for years and therapy for life. Gooby follows the "story" of a boy who's forced to move homes because his family's bettering themselves. Naturally, this is a problem for the kid because he's only "safe" in the terrible neighborhood he "grew up" in. So, in order to ward off the terrible CGI'd purple aliens from the boy's imagination, the teddy the boy somehow remembers from when he was a baby, comes to life. Initially, the snot bear (their words, not mine) was supposed to protect the boy from all the dangers from within his own mind, but like most arcs here, that's quickly forgotten and replaced with a long series of boy-hiding-bear and failed hilarity.Sadly, they attempted to amp up the "humor" by adding in terrible graphics and green screens when their budget couldn't have been more than ten bucks, including salaries. Granted, I do not believe the boy actor, Matthew Knight, phoned any of this in. But, maybe he was trying to simultaneously audition for a real (boy) role in a real movie.There were so many bad aspects of this movie, but one of the worst was trying to play the setting off as they were in the United States when every single shot and set proved otherwise. Hell, the bear and the bitch (the TV-addicted nanny) were British.Even great family movies can be reduced to the $5 DVD bin at Wal-Mart. This one should never be sold for more than 5 (Canadian) cents. * * *Final thoughts: "This is your secret room, isn't it? Where you came as a little boy," says Gooby.Forever I should be ashamed of my dirty mind during a kids movie.

Let's imagine you're a Canadian filmmaker with a sound 6.5 million dollar budget. Not enough for a big genre piece but enough for a solid 90 minute comedy or drama, provided you don't blow your budget on star power. What do you do? If you answered "hire Eugene Levy for a secondary role and Hagrid from Harry Potter to voice the giant dead-eyed teddy bear," you are Wilson Coneybeare, the Writer/Producer/Director of this straight-to-DVD abomination. While hailed as "heart-warming" and scoring "five doves" on ChristianCinema.com, there is nothing heartwarming about this film. Featuring a bear costume that makes the Country Bears look realistic and a plot we've seen done better several times already, it's unclear what the filmmakers thought Gooby would bring to the table. Aside from, you know, a host of double entendre that was either the world's biggest oversight or a deliberate attempt to sneak incredibly creepy subtext by the dove guys we mentioned earlier.The film opens by introducing us to Willy, who monologues for a bit to establish his role as the main character and introduce his negligent power-career parents. We're treated to about a second of a CGI character that probably cost thousands of dollars just to model that we'll never see again before learning that Willy's parents are moving and introduced to Gooby, a teddy bear. After a few days being miserable in his new environment, Willy starts to notice something is about. He tracks it to the Friendship Shed, where he discovers that Gooby has come to life mutated into a dead-eyed all-devouring abomination which, apparently, is wearing a scarf suspiciously similar to Tom Baker's. From here, we're just going through the motions as we simultaneously follow the list of "things to do when ripping off Calvin and Hobbes" and "my imaginary friend is real and an adult is trying to expose it." Though that's not to say it doesn't do anything original, they just tend to be horrible things with no rational reason to be in the movie. The film ends with Gooby luring Willy to a derelict house and leaving him dangling over a pit, ostensibly so his father can save him and rekindle their relationship.This movie is bizarre. It doesn't come off as heartwarming, it's creepy. The bear suit is horrifying, the plot is from a handbook on child endangerment, and the message is "if your parents ignore you, don't make friends, just retreat into your imagination and put yourself in peril to get attention." And let's not forget that only black character in the film is swiftly replaced by Eugene Levy.

I've registered just to post this, since I really can't believe this movie is only rated as a 3.3. It was on TV a few months back and we ended up seeing the last half of it. Then my son woke me up last weekend asking about that movie with the big bear, he'd been dreaming about it. Sought the whole internet based on some keywords and finally found the DVD. We saw it yesterday and it was better than I even remembered it. It really is a simple but great movie on a kid that suffers "huge" ordinary problems, a bit of isolation, (loving) parents that move because they think more expensive housing is better and a father that's always working supposedly to pay for all these improvements. But then suddenly a forgotten toy turns out to come alive into a huge bear with strange beady eyes, just a tad scary in the beginning, but then turns out to be his best friend. He needs to hide from the world (kids love it). Gooby eats all the chocolates, candy, ice-cream you can find (again, my son found it hilarious), helps him be cool with his friends and eventually ends up setting everything right again and help his parents learn a valuable lesson. Call it corny, but I think even the message is valid for a lot of kids and parents these days. Loved this films, hope the cynics who forgot to look through a kid's eyes don't put you off seeing it!

My 5 year old (and let's face it, this film is for kids!) loved Gooby. For all you critics out there, remember that children love imaginative creatures and don't need all of the CGI that us adults have become used to. This film reminded me of Harry and the Hendersons with it's goofy big creature and heartwarming story line. The supporting cast is terrific and I am happy that Robbie Coltrane decided to do this project. My son has watched it four times and I know he will wear out his copy. It has the highest rating Dove can give and for good reason. It's just good clean fun. I would like to commend smaller studios for making family films that are not violent and don't use crude humor for cheap laughs.