Movie Review: The Adventures of Pepper and Paula (trick dog, horse, cowgirl)

The Adventures of Pepper and Paula (Vertical Studio, Rated PG, 2015, 90 minutes, $9.97)

Remember co-hits? If you are old enough, when you went to the movies as a kid, you also saw a second, shorter movie before the main attraction. This one usually had unknowns acting in it but may have been more memorable than the main attraction – rare, but possible.

Or, is this a Grade B movie?

We thought that is what we were going to watch. But it turned out that The Adventures of Pepper and Paula (watch the trailer here) was actually pretty good in most places.

Synopsis

Pistol Packin’ Paula is a trick shooter in an educationally almost-inspiring Wild West show, who is adopted by Pepper, a smart, stray, trick-dog border collie.

The cowgirl-dog act travels to a trick shooting competition and takes first place to help save the re-enactment dinner-and-show from financial ruin: there they also meet a little girl and her single dad, the beginning of a lovely story between the three of them.

When Pepper and Paula return to the Enchanted Springs Ranch in Texas, they find that one of their fellow ‘gunslingers’ has been replaced by a flirty young blonde who flirts with the boss (played by Holt Boggs in a fun and most worthy performance).

Unfortunately, Paula the cowgirl is in a motor vehicle accident (Pepper races for help) and is out of commission while she recovers, only to find upon her return that the new ‘girly girl’ is firmly ensconced in the show.

What happens next happens quickly and is surprisingly so well put-together that even we did not expect it! But it all ends well for everyone – well, almost everyone – except the bad guys, of course.

Reading Between the Lines

Doing some internet sleuthing, we found a coloring book about Paula and Pepper (see below).

Hmmmmmmmm, then we saw that the movie was based on a true story about Paula (Seletnik), originally from Connecticut but transplanted to Phoenix, who has even been on America’s Got Talent with her real-life trick Cattle Dog! She'd love to teach your gun-twirling in her DVD, too!

The Best Part of this Family Flick

The best part is that the dog comes before the girl! Pepper gets top billing! And, you can even watch it free here!