Marmaduke is based on a long-running comic strip, which is designed especially for children and automatically amuses adults. It's hard to believe that Fox made a feature film based on a single-panel comic in an era where expensive fanboy fare such as "Watchmen" or "Elektra" sometimes flames out.

Marmaduke describes the sitcom story, a tale full of predictable comic pratfalls and equally predictable heartwarming life lessons. The story starts when Marmaduke's family has moved from Kansas, the story follows two threads. The first has to do with doggy politics, whether the pedigreed dogs at the park are better than the mutts, which actually include Marmaduke. He tangles with Bosco (Kiefer Sutherland), the park's alpha male, while flirting with Bosco's girlfriend, a collie named Jezebel, even as Marmaduke ignores the grubby mutt who really loves him.

Meanwhile, Marmaduke's owner Lee Pace must talk the office politics of the organic dog food company he works for and trying to please a demanding boss William H. Macy without alienating his own family. In parallel developments, both man and beast will discover the importance of being true to oneself.

The movie is characterized less by this uplifting message than by frequent references to a well-known chain of pet supply superstores, sponsors of a dog surfing contest that is essential to the story. The movie itself is already like one long commercial.