Show Dogs, a new family comedy about a police hound who goes undercover to infiltrate a dog show, has come in for criticism over a scene which some feel sends a troubling message to impressionable audiences.
In a statement on Tuesday, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) says a scene in which Max (voiced by the actor-rapper Ludacris) is instructed to put his discomfort over genital groping to one side and instead “go to a zen place” sends “a troubling message that grooms children for sexual abuse”.
Meanwhile, the New York Times’s critic bemoaned the gendered stereotyping, but did not mention the scene in question.
“The dog is rewarded with advancing to the final round of the dog show after passing this barrier.