Teenage brat, Kathy (Scarlett Johansson) finds her brother George (Nick Fuoco) annoying. She plays a prank on him to get him into trouble with their cool babysitter, Matilda (Eva Mendez). He gets turned into a pig after accidentally activating a Mexican voodoo spell. They travel to Mexico to find a way to break the curse while their parents are on a cycling trip in France.
There a host of famous faces here. Judge Reinhold was the big name. He isn't in the film for very long and plays the wise cracking father, a role he's played many times. Scarlett Johansson is particularly annoying and comes across more as a bully than a cool girl going through puberty. Dee Bradley Baker voices the pig, he's best known for providing the voices for many hit Cartoon Network shows; he's only given a few lines, none of them good. Eva Mendez was around 25 at the time of the film's release. She doesn't look significantly older than Scarlett and plays a sort of big sis role, she's decent. Alex D. Linz deserves a mention as he is given the best lines and nails them.
I wanted to like this film more. Sadly it feels like a TV Movie at best and an overly long episode of a Saturday morning sitcom at worst. The characters are never really developed and feel a bit unrealistic. I didn't really feel Kathy had an annoying younger brother; I felt more sorry for him. His big crime is making a giant bowl of ice cream and trashing a kitchen. There's supposed to be some sort of comment on the brother and sister age gap; one is growing up, the other is still a kid. This theme is often explored in PG rated comedies, but it's not done as well as in say, Fudge (Fudgeamania).
The fantasy theme, not fantastical enough and the voodoo style curse never really explained. The special effects are bad even for 1999. The climax was a letdown as well given the film had been building for over an hour by that point.
I think it is a good film, but far from a great one. I didn't find the acting to be bad, just the characters underwritten. Compared to high marks of family films like Home Alone and Mrs Doubtfire, My Brother The Pig falls way short. That said there is something enjoyable about seeing a pig shaped mountain and there's a few funny lines. This film can't shake off dated Mexican stereotypes, but it did try to blend the two cultures before Dora the Explorer got it right.
Availability: The film is available on DVD in the UK rated PG uncut. It's quite rare. The DVD has nice picture quality and sound I'm fairly sure the film has been broadcast on terrestrial TV albeit 20 years ago. It's an OK 90 minutes timewaster, but even children will want a more meaty film.
