Quartile rating: 5.5/10 · 1 rating
Since his arrival at Buckingham palace, Rex lives a life of luxury. Top dog, he has superseded his three fellow Corgis in Her Majesty’s heart. His arrogance can be quite irritating. When he causes a diplomatic incident during an official dinner with the President of the United States, he falls into disgrace. Betrayed by one of his peers, Rex becomes a stray dog in the streets of London. How can he redeem himself? In love, he will find the resources to surpass himself in the face of great danger…
The Queen's Corgi is a fairly generic European animated family film that borrows liberally from well-worn fish-out-of-water and redemption arc templates. The plot hits predictable beats — arrogant protagonist loses everything, learns humility through adversity, wins back affection — with little genuine surprise. The animation is competent but unremarkable by modern standards, lacking the visual ambition of top-tier studio output. Voice acting is serviceable but unmemorable. Novelty is the weakest point: the premise of a royal corgi going stray is thin, and the execution feels derivative of better buddy/redemption animated films. The ending resolves things in exactly the manner audiences will have anticipated from the first act. Nothing here is offensively bad, but almost nothing distinguishes it from dozens of similar mid-tier animated family comedies.