Highly influential in its own way - a low-ish budget comedy shot in black and white it turned out to be a box office phenomenon, starting a long relationship between Disney and Fred MacMurray, and kicking off a whole bunch of comedes with a slight fantasy element that powered Disney for the next two decades. Many were like this written by Bill Walsh, an unsung figure in the history of the studio.
He co wrote this script which is a bit uneven - for instance it introduces Tommy Kirk as performing experiments in the basement but then they don't do anything with it, and they bring in a Cold War spying subplot at the end which is actually fine but would have been less of a jolt if they'd brought it in earlier (says I, anyway). Also the rules as to how Tommy Kirk transforms into a dog feel haphazard - he rubs a ring and it just comes and goes. Walsh would do a tighter job on The Absent Minded Professor.
But there's plenty of funny stuff. Having spies give the ending real stakes.It's funny to have dad Fred MacMurray be an ex postman who hates dogs. Kevin Corcoran is sweet and gives the film warmth as the dog loving younger brother. There's an effective love triangle between Kirk and Tom Considine over Annette Funicello and, later Roberta Shaw and some fun satire.
I'm surprised how short Fred MacMurray's role is - it's very much a supporting part. Knowing how he jigged the schedule on My Three Sons to work as little as possible, I assume that Disney fixed things so shooting this took hardly any time - he's mostly in one or two sets, sitting down. (His character never seems to work, just sits around all day). MacMurray's befuddled small town nature suited the Disney world very well.
His presence does add gravitas to the film - at one stage he was a major name, and he would have raised this film to another level in the eyes of the audience. Jean Hagen plays his wife - it's a thankless role, serving dinner and occasionally sighing.
Annette Funicello's role is surprisingly small too - she's the girl next door, wanted by Kirk and Considine, but a bigger part goes to Roberta Shore. Funicello looked different to how she would in the Beach Party films - her nose seems stubbier, her hair is shorter (I know her from those movies more than The Mickey Mouse Club).
Kirk is a solid lead for this sort of thing - and he is the lead, as he was in Old Yeller. He was a sort of 50s Tom Hanks.... well, if Tom Hanks had been working as a teen.
Disney made sharper films later but this has a strong central concept, skilled cast, and plenty of cham. These sorts of films are harder to do than they appear which is presumably why so few other studios tried.
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