Emma Roberts and Jake T. Austin play Andi and Bruce, an orphaned sister and brother who are stuck with a pair of wannabe rock star foster parents (Lisa Kudrow and Kevin Dillon). Looking for a place to hide their dog Friday, the siblings happen upon an abandoned hotel, which they turn into a haven for Friday and other strays. The hotel is only one instance of the picture’s impressive art direction and set design. A decrepit, Jazz Age palace, the place is strewn with cobwebs and period furniture, like a flophouse run by Dickens’ Miss Havisham. Better yet is the massive, imposing headquarters of the city’s animal control division, a municipal arm that apparently has more funding than the Department of Homeland Security. A big slab of concrete with a single, ostentatious yellow streak, it’s as if a Brutalist architect designed an IKEA store. What these background details point to is the amount of care that went into the project. Hotel for Dogs may be simple and juvenile, but it hasn’t been carelessly slapped together, as is so often the case with movies meant for kids.
