RUNT ★1⁄2 Rated PG, 92 minutes Review by Jake Wilson When all else fails in Australian cinema, send in the dogs. In the tradition of Red Dog and Oddball comes John Sheedy’s Runt , a live-action adaptation of a children’s novel by Craig Silvey, about a humble mongrel who shares his homeland’s plucky spirit. Runt (played by Squid) may belong to no special breed, but he has a special knack for jumping through hoops, running through tunnels and so on.
After he triumphs in an agility competition at the local fair, his nine-year-old owner Annie Shearer (Lily LaTorre) puts her faith in him as a champion who can help save her family’s farm and rescue her town of Upson Downs from the clutches of greedy landowner Earl Robert-Baron (Jack Thompson). Squid as Runt with Lily LaTorre as Annie. Credit: Court McAllister As this account suggests, Runt the movie is conceived in the spirit of pantomime.
Nearly all the adult cast is encouraged to mug relentlessly, whether heroes or villains (the unsinkable Deborah Mailman is allowed a little more restraint as Annie’s reclusive mentor). Runt himself is more plot device than character and there is little excitement to the choppily edited scenes of him going through his paces for the big tournament in London. Dramatically speaking, only two things can occur: he fails or succeeds by doing what’s expected of him.
There’s never any doubt Runt is a world-class talent: the problem is getting the world to notice, especially given his ten.