Snow Dogs is a 2002 American comedy film directed by Brian Levant, and produced by Jordan Kerner.

The film stars Cuba Gooding Jr., with a supporting cast of James Coburn, Joanna Bacalso, Sisqó, Nichelle Nichols, Christopher Judge, Michael Bolton and M. Emmet Walsh.

One day, Ted receives a letter from Alaska, naming him as the only heir of Lucy Watkins, a resident of the backwoods village of Tolketna.

Completely out of his element, Ted is confounded by blizzards, thin ice, foxes, skunks, grizzly bears, an intimidating, crusty old mountain man named James "Thunder Jack" Johnson, and the aggressive, defiant lead dog, Demon.

Barb helps Ted to deal with the dogs and teaches him how to drive a sled, and the two fall in love.

When Ted loses consciousness while practicing sledding and being chased by a bear, Jack rescues him and takes him to a cave.

Jack claims that he and Lucy hid from a storm in the same cave during an Arctic Challenge, and it was then that Ted was conceived.

In Miami, Ted recounts his experiences to his mother, who accidentally breaks a frame holding a picture of Lucy and Demon.

In some scenes, the faces of the dogs are partially animated to give them human expressions like winking or smiling.

The animatronic version of Demon was created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop and performed by David Barclay.

The dogs D.J., Koda, Floyd and Buck also starred in the later Disney live-action adventure film, Eight Below.

[1] The site's consensus reads "A mediocre live action children's movie, Snow Dogs is filled with clichéd dialogue, tiresome pratfalls, and stale fish-out-of-water jokes.

"[2] At Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the film received a score of 29 out of 100 based on 26 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".