If you have seen promotional posters for “Marmaduke,” you either laughed at the silly dog with the sunglasses, or maybe thought, “Uh-oh — guess that movie won’t be any good.”
“It doesn’t bode well for your movie when even the CGI dog feels the need to wear a disguise while promoting the film,” jokes pop culture writer Christopher Moloney.
And judging by the track record of these films, we’re inclined to agree with him. The highest rating any of them earned on IMDb.com was a 6 out of 10 stars, and that was “Summer School,” released back in 1987.
So where did this trend start? Moloney guesses that the 1957 Farley Mowat novel “The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be,” about an adventurous pup wearing glasses on the book jacket, is to blame.
“It was a best-seller and everyone assumed [the glasses] were the reason,” he jokes.
