General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Firehouse Dog

Firehouse Dog is a 2007 American family comedy film directed by Todd Holland, in which Rexxx, a pampered Hollywood canine star, goes missing after a film stunt goes wrong and is adopted as the mascot of a struggling firehouse, where he befriends 12-year-old Shane Fahey and his father, fire captain Connor Fahey.¹^•² It was produced by Regency Enterprises and distributed by Twentieth Century Fox, opening in theaters on April 4, 2007.¹

Key fact	Detail
Release	April 4, 2007 (wide, United States); 111 minutes; PG¹^•³
Director / writers	Todd Holland; Claire-Dee Lim, Mike Werb, and Michael Colleary¹
Principal cast	Josh Hutcherson (Shane Fahey), Bruce Greenwood (Connor Fahey), Dash Mihok, Steven Culp, Bill Nunn¹
Canine lead	Four Irish terriers alternated in the role of Rexxx⁴
Box office	$13,932,383 domestic; $3,165,914 international; $17,098,297 worldwide³
Critical scores	Metascore 43/100 from 20 critics; 36% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer with 62% audience approval⁵^•²
Animal welfare	Monitored under American Humane's No Animals Were Harmed program; certified Full Certification⁴

Spoilers

Plot

Rex, Hollywood's most famous canine star, goes missing after a faulty movie stunt and is presumed dead by his handlers.⁴^•² He takes refuge in a row of lofts that catches fire, and makes a leap into the arms of fire captain Connor Fahey (Bruce Greenwood).² Connor's 12-year-old son Shane (Josh Hutcherson) becomes the dog's reluctant new master, and the firefighters unofficially adopt the animal, renaming him Dewey.²^•⁶ The dog's spunky personality and talent for tricks and rescues breathe new life into the down-on-its-luck firehouse, which has become the fire department's "last on the scene" joke.⁴^•⁶

The story mixes the dog comedy with an arson mystery plot and a father-son drama: Shane, known for skipping school and disobeying his father, and Connor are both grieving the recent loss of a relative who died in a mysterious fire, and Shane fears his fire-captain father will die on the job.⁷^•⁶ Trouble also looms when Rex's handlers try to get him back.²

Cast and production

The film stars Josh Hutcherson as Shane Fahey and Bruce Greenwood as Connor Fahey, with Dash Mihok as Trey Falcon, Steven Culp as Zachary Hayden, and Bill Nunn as Joe Musto.¹ The screenplay was written by Claire-Dee Lim, Mike Werb, and Michael Colleary, who also produced; Victor Hammer was the cinematographer and Jeff Cardoni composed the music.¹

The canine lead. Four Irish terriers were alternated in the role of Rex, credited individually as Arwen, Frodo, Rohan, and Stryder.⁴^•⁸ The production was monitored by the American Humane Society through its No Animals Were Harmed program and received Full Certification.⁴

Animal action. Rex's free fall from a plane into a truck full of tomatoes was created with special effects; the real dog was then filmed popping up from the tomato pile through a two-foot square hole in a plywood-covered tunnel built into the modified truck bed.⁴ The ring of fire was propane-fed, with crew standing by to shut off the fuel, and the scene ends before Rex decides whether to jump.⁴ The skateboarding sequence was shot in front of a blue screen with no car present; a trainer guided the skateboard by a wire attached to the board, and the table the dog jumped onto was covered with non-slip material.⁴

The engine company fire scene required careful choreography, with firefighters on site at all times. Flame bars and fire paste created the controlled background flames, and the dog never came closer than five feet to these devices; pathways were swept clear of debris, Rex was not brought to set until the controlled fires were burning, and three hidden trainers cued the terrier and acted as safety guards.⁴ The pole-slide rescue combined visual effects with footage of the real dog jumping and landing on a platform beside the pole hole, and the glass the characters run over was harmless candy glass.⁴

Reception

Critical response was mixed to negative. The film scored 43 on Metacritic based on 20 reviews, classified as mixed or average, with 20% positive, 55% mixed, and 25% negative.⁵ On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 36% Tomatometer from 80 reviews, against a 62% Popcornmeter audience score from more than 50,000 ratings; the site's critics consensus states that the film's cute premise is ruined by endless fart and poop jokes and an overlong run time.²

Reviewers divided along similar lines. The Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips praised a "surprisingly heartfelt father/son relationship, handled with restraint by director Todd Holland", and the Philadelphia Inquirer's Carrie Rickey called it touching, family-friendly entertainment.⁹ The New York Times' Jeannette Catsoulis credited the filmmakers with lively stunts but judged the film less nimble than its furry star, and the Washington Post's Stephen Hunter placed it in the "marginally watchable" category.⁹ Time Out's Anna Smith gave it three of five stars, noting clunky dialogue and one-note characters but concluding the film is so consistently earnest it is hard to dislike.⁷ Common Sense Media recommended it for ages 8 and up, calling it a sweet pooch pic with enough laughs and heart to rise above formula.⁶

Box office and home media

The film opened in 2,860 theaters and grossed $3,838,916 on its opening weekend, 27.6% of its eventual domestic total of $13,932,383.³ With international receipts of $3,165,914, worldwide box office reached $17,098,297, of which 81.5% came from the domestic market.³ Estimated domestic DVD sales of $17,918,927 exceeded the theatrical gross.³ The video release followed on July 31, 2007, by Fox Home Entertainment.³

In later home-video releases, the British Board of Film Classification passed the cinema version at 111 minutes 4 seconds and a shorter home-entertainment version at 106 minutes 36 seconds, both with the advice "contains mild language, firefighting danger and crude humour".¹⁰ The Australian Classification Board classified the DVD PG on July 11, 2007, with consumer advice of mild themes, infrequent mild violence, and incidental mild coarse language.¹¹ As of 2026 the film streams on Netflix and is available to rent or buy on services including Amazon Video and Apple TV.⁸

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 2007 to 2008 › Released in 2007

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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