Trooper and the Legend of the Golden Key

Gr all levels—Narrated by Trooper, a police bloodhound made homeless by the crooked mayor's budget cuts, this a sweet story with a thin, predictable plot. As the kind-hearted sheriff tries to find a home for Trooper, Tommy, a boy who just moved to town with his parents, sets out to find new friends. He boy returns home with Trooper as well as a scrappy stray that unexpectedly joins the pair. Meanwhile, the mayor and city planner, the story's villains, plan to take over the bookstore that is the heart f the town, claiming underpayment of taxes, and bulldoze it in order to construct an oil well, making fortunes for themselves. Tommy discovers a comic book worth a million dollars in a deserted house in town, and donates part of the money to save the bookstore. The production quality and most of the acting is amateurish. At times the background music drowns out dialogue. The dogs speak to each other without the benefit of special effects. Oddly the cover art doesn't relate to the story and features a dog that doesn't appear in the movie. The young actor who plays Tommy is talented and charming, and most young children won't mind the film's lack of sophistication.—Constance Dickerson, Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library, OH