Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero Blu-ray Movie Review

Dog Soldier.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III March 30, 2021

Don't let the cute cover and oddball premise fool you: Richard Lanni's Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero (2018) is an enjoyable family movie that you probably didn't know even existed until now. It's a CGI production about a cute li'l doggy (stay with me) who inadvertently ends up fighting alongside "our boys" in World War I and even earns a medal or two in the process, thanks to his street smarts and unique ability to salute commanding officers -- a story that would seem ridiculous if it weren't actually true. Yet even ignoring those deep historical roots, the idea of "war-dog-movie-as-family-flick" conjures up all sorts of eye-rolling possibilities, like sarcastic talking animals and obligatory poop jokes. Sgt. Stubby avoids these pitfalls entirely, treating its subject matter and young viewers with respect.

The story, which doesn't deviate far from various (and mostly agreed-upon) accounts of the real pup's military career, goes like this: wandering the streets of New Haven, Connecticut, a stray Bull Terrier wanders into an Army parade and is noticed by doughboy Robert Conroy (Logan Lerman). He later finds their camp on Yale University grounds, quickly befriending Conroy and his fellow 102nd Infantry soldiers; "Stubby" is even accepted by their commanding officer, but doesn't impress the higher-ups until Conroy teaches him to sit up and salute on command. Stubby's positive effect on morale earns him a place at camp... but when the boys are called to action in the trenches of France, Stubby's canine skills end up making him a valuable member of the team. Sniffing out poison gas and hearing incoming bombs faster than his fellow soldiers, Stubby even pulls a few wounded men to safety and catches a German spy.

It's a curiously moving and effective story, paired with beautiful CG animation and a great score by veteran composer Patrick Doyle. What's more is that Sgt. Stubby maintains a thoughtful tone from start to finish, rarely letting the canine outshine his fellow soldiers while playing into his legend with a knowing wink. It treats young audiences with respect by toning down the horrors of war without dismissing them entirely... and perhaps most importantly, not devolving into a propaganda piece. Plus, the dog *gasp* actually acts like a real dog. This film could've made plenty of wrong turns but doesn't -- a minor miracle for any American CGI movie not produced at Pixar. As it stands, only two nitpicks keep it from reaching even greater heights: Robert himself makes for a fairly unremarkable (human) lead, while the narration by Robert's sister Margaret (Helena Bonham Carter) can get a little excessive. Still, there's a lot more right than wrong here, which makes Sgt. Stubby a pretty great "under the radar" pick for your next family movie night.

Sgt. Stubby first appeared on home video more than six months after its lackluster theatrical run in March 2018; I picked up the much more common DVD edition on a whim and have enjoyed it several times since then. This Blu-ray package, also distributed by Paramount, offers a decent visual upgrade but doesn't sweeten the pot much in the audio and extras department. Regardless, the film's an enjoyably one and makes this a decent blind buy.

Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Since I'm more than familiar Sgt. Stubby's appearance on DVD, it was nice to finally see a clean 1080p transfer that offers mild to strong improvements across the board. Although its simple, almost painterly visual style doesn't rely on razor-sharp details or ultra-punchy colors, the increased density and color saturation go a long way towards showcasing the film's effective (and occasionally somber) atmosphere. So does the format's much better compression, which yields far fewer artifacts -- only a few splotches of patchy banding during the darkest moments, which look worse on these screenshots than they do in motion. These black levels rarely run deep by design, but shadow detail never falters and there are no traces of crush. Overall, this is a fine-looking film that impresses in all the right areas.

Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Unfortunately, this Blu-ray does not include lossless audio... only Dolby Digital 5.1, which is at least compressed at a slightly beefier 448kbps than the DVD's 192kbps. (A Spanish dub and English Descriptive Audio track are also offered.) Regardless of compression, this track still serves its purpose well with cleanly-recorded dialogue, good use of surrounds and channel separation, and plenty of room left over for composer Patrick Doyle's excellent score. Although the combat scenes are purposely less intense as those in most war-related films (probably a good thing, under the circumstances), there's still a good amount of dynamic range and LFE heft during most of these moments.

Optional subtitles are included in both English (SDH) and Spanish, but only during the main feature.

Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in an eco-friendly keepcase with colorful cover art, a matching slipcover, and a Digital Copy slip. On-board extras are limited in number and length but are still worth a once-over.

• The Making of a Hero: Behind the Scenes (14:20) - A mid-length featurette that touches upon the usual subjects: history, development, voice casting, animation, and more, including a few words from key voice actors Logan Lerman, Helena Bonham Carter, and Gérard Depardieu (French soldier Jean Baptiste).

• Animating History: The Art of Sgt. Stubby (2:20) - Rather than a good look at the film's visual design, this is more of a storyboard and concept art slideshow with very little context.

• Real to Reel: The True Story of Sgt. Stubby (5:14) - This short but enjoyable overview of the heroic real-life pup is decorated with vintage black-and-white photos and selected scenes from the film.

• Memoriae Tuae: Historical Image Gallery (2:10) - A narrated slideshow of like-minded historical pictures.

Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Richard Lanni's Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero is a great little "under the radar" family movie whose historical roots give its otherwise unbelievable story a respectable amount of depth -- and hey, there's no fart jokes! This one's capable of pleasing just about anyone from kids to great-grandparents, so hopefully its life on home video will eventually grow far beyond the film's disappointing theatrical run. Paramount's Blu-ray presentation adds a decent amount of support, including a solid 1080p transfer and a few interesting little extras -- the only real missed opportunity here is lossless audio. Still, a very nice package that comes firmly Recommended to fans and first-timers alike.