The Queen’s Corgi Parent Guide

Rex (voiced by Leo Barakat) is the Queen’s (voiced by Mari Devon) favorite corgi, which gives him the golden collar and title of Top Dog. Pride, as they say, goes before a fall, and Rex soon finds himself homeless and the newest resident of the local animal shelter. Audiences will not be surprised by any of the rest of the plot, which follows the timeworn path of a character undertaking some painful self-assessment, acquiring some humility, and finally returning home with a newfound sense of appreciation.

What will surprise viewers of The Queen’s Corgi is the dog’s breakfast of serious content issues in this film, including sexual assault being portrayed in a comic light, violence against women, and attempted murder.

The innuendo regarding sexual assault comes early in the film. President Donald Trump (voiced by Jon Culshaw) is on a state visit to Buckingham Palace and has brought his corgi, Mitzi (voiced by Sarah Hadland), who is wearing lots of makeup and a very tight, pink pussy bow blouse. To cement the two countries’ special relationship, President Trump thinks Mitzi should “Grab some puppy” and mate with Rex. An excited Mitzi (“Take me, stud muffin”) and horrified Rex are shut up together in a room with Mitzi’s pink passion wagon while Rex does his best to evade her. This is the part of the film that will appall most parents because Rex’s lack of consent is never taken seriously. When Rex runs from her, Mitzi says, “Playing hard to get. I like that.” And when Rex throws thumb tacks in front of her to slow her down, Mitzi’s response is “Wanna play rough? Cuz I sure do.” Even worse, when a desperate Rex plaintively asks, “What part of “No” don’t you understand?”, Mitzi snaps back, “The N and the O.” How this movie got made in the #MeToo era is a mystery to me. Some viewers might argue that it is simply satirizing President Trump and the accusations of sexual assault made against him. But that is fodder for news broadcasts and late night talk shows. The idea that this would be considered suitable for children leaves me both angry and incredulous.

Sadly, the content issues don’t improve when Rex runs away from the palace, after his attempts to flee from Mitzi lead him to accidentally bite President Trump in “the unmentionables”. He is then manipulated by a fellow royal corgi who lures him onto a bridge, pushes him onto the frozen river, and then drops a brick through the ice to make sure Rex drowns. When Rex later returns to the palace, the dog sets fire to the room and barricades the door. Now, while a certain amount of slapstick violence is par for the course in animated movies for kids, the cold murderousness of these scenes is far too much for young viewers.

And the violence doesn’t end with attempted murder. When Rex winds up in the animal shelter, he discovers an underground canine fight club, complete with dog fights. In one particularly chilling scene, Tyson (voiced by Ray Winstone), the bully in charge, tries to throw Rex into a furnace. But the episode that will likely upset parents most involves Tyson and his “girlfriend”, Wanda (voiced by Jo Wyatt). When Wanda decides that she prefers Rex to him, Tyson grabs her, threatens her, and raises his fist to punch her in the face. I can see no justification for exposing children to this kind of relationship violence, especially in a way that normalizes it. This is, at best, irresponsible filmmaking, and at worst, an attempt to distort children’s perceptions of what constitutes healthy, normal relationships.

Given last year’s disastrous release of Show Dogs, and the controversy around teaching a character to accept non-consensual sexual contact, I had hoped that the film industry had learned its lesson. Apparently, it hasn’t. But moviegoers have a chance to give them a repeat lesson by giving The Queen’s Corgi a royal thumbs down and avoiding this execrable production entirely. No pooper scooper is big enough to clean up the mess this movie leaves in the theater.