Show Dogs is a slapstick, buddy-cop comedy with talking dogs that seemed perfect for kids. Terina Maldonado, a Mesa, Arizona writer for Macaroni Kid wrote a column, imploring parents to keep their kids far away from the movie. The column struck a nerve. Max the Rottweiler and [Frank], his human partner ... are undercover officers who must crack the case of a kidnapped panda by infiltrating a prestigious dog show. The first troubling scene comes when Frank (Will Arnett) tells the dog Max (Ludacris) he needs to get used to getting his privates touched - which is a part of any inspection in a dog show. "He was telling him he needs to go to his zen place, and I like right away was wait ... what? When it turns into this big pivotal scene in the end and he needs to be allowed to be touched to win the competition ... red flags were going up and around in my mommy head," Maldonado said. A second scene in the movie shows Max having his private parts handled during the finals of the dog show competition. Max goes to his zen place and pictures himself flying through the sky. Finding the stolen panda depends on his ability to let this happen. "If it has just been a casual part of the movie, it wouldn't have been inappropriate." Maldonado said. "But it turned into this pivotal moment and it was teaching him to disassociate from himself while they were touching his private parts." As a survivor of child abuse, Maldonado said that this type of disassociation is what child predators tell children to do when they're upset about being touched.
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