Man’s Best Friend, the Underdog : Rescued by Ruby Review

Rescued by Ruby comes off as a cliche dog movie, but it wasn’t what I had expected. It is much more of an underdog story, ironic I know, instead of the sad, sappy movie I was anticipating.

At 1:30, this is a great movie you can sneak in, and Rescued by Ruby definitely worth watching. Rescued by Ruby combines an adorable dog with a great handful of characters to keep your eyes glued to the screen. Our characters face the perfect amount of adversary, and the plot moves quickly.

Ruby comes off as your typical stray, but there is so much more to this dog. She has a spirit that refuses to break, and she knows exactly what she wants from the people around her. These qualities also make her nearly impossible to get adopted. Dan swoops in and saves her from potential euthanasia. The entire movie works really hard to display the ways Ruby and Dan are the same.

Dan is a hard-working police recruit that has been doubted his whole life. He has had to scratch and claw for every inch, and it has gotten him pretty far. I thought his character arc was really well developed, even though it was short for a 1.5 hour movie. What made his character more relatable was the way he treated Ruby.

Even though he had worked so hard, and understood he had been judged superficially, he did the same to Ruby. Watching Dan start to understand he was no different was a little bit of a shock, as many of us are the same way. We pride ourselves on overcoming things, and then we don’t give our neighbour the opportunity to do the same. Our underdogs take a long time to figure out how to function together, but the journey makes the ending that much more meaningful.

I gotta be honest, there isn’t very many G movies out there that hold surprising endings. Rescued by Ruby is the same way. The plot is clear as day from the get-go, and it does feel cliche. It does feel squeezed during the training and development phase, and the ending wraps things up cleanly. I would have loved some more time watching Ruby train, and their day-to-day reactions, as our movie lives on our characters shoulders.

With this being based on a true story there isn’t a ton of wiggle room, but I would have really enjoyed 10 to 15 minutes of “This is some of the things that Ruby and Dan accomplished” with our movie cast. Once our climax is resolved, the movie comes to a close and the credits role, but it left me with a pile of questions. Sure I could go to google, but getting to see them built into the movie would have scratched that itch.

Overall, this is one of Netflix’s better projects in recent memory. It may be beyond cheesy and cliche, but it is really enjoyable and easy to watch. Your brain can turn off and let the cute puppy control your eyeballs for a while.