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As the rest of the franchise, The Legend of Saw Tooth Cave was published by the now-defunct Greek Studio, who had already etched their name in history as one of the most notorious video game developers and publishers to release awful games. This is the first game in the anthology which decides against the habit of preceding names with their corresponding numerals.
Over a decade after their initial release, The Alpha and Omega franchise is perhaps best known for its meme culture, especially on sites such as TikTok and Youtube, where different movie screenshots and scenes have been put together to glorify on how bad the films are. The franchise is infamous for its horrendous animation and storytelling.
Their most recent, and arguably their best, release, is the animated feature film Alpha and Omega: The Legend of Saw Tooth Cave which came out in 2022. Unlike the 2010 version, the character designs were actually crafted with great attention to detail and care. The waning popularity of the franchise is exploited with this new release.
Cutting to the present, we see Winston (Larry Thomas) and Tony (Bill Lader) at Alpha school, where they train the new leaders of the pack, including Stinky (Kate Higgins) and Claudette (Lindsay Torrance). Runt is the cutest of puppies – like his father, he is an Omega, which means he has to go to a very different school than his brothers and sisters.
To show his family and pack that he is as brave as one of the leaders, he sets out to explore the haunted Saw Tooth Cave, against the advice of wolf and porcupine alike.
What he discovers is, actually, the approach and element is never actually solved for the supernatural, which is very uncommon for a children’s film. There is no Scooby-Doo-style unmasking going on here and in fact, the apparition is revealed to be one of guardianship and protection. It is very refreshing to find a ghost story that does not conjure an escape route out of its mysticism in order to not come across as creepy.
The new film is definitely of better quality than the last one primarily due to why the budget increased to $7 million from $1 million. This makes it the second most expensive film in the series after the original which was $20 million and the most expensive out of all the direct to DVD sequels.
While these films still do not have any significant difference in visual appeal compared to the first two sequels, the changes made in this installment busker are just shy of an entire league higher than its predecessors.
Regardless of any changes that were made in this installment, one thing that stands out is the active use of humor while crafting the screenplay unlike the prior films which focused on dull sounding choreography.
As with all other projects in this franchise, the previous cast members returned. However, the notable change was Debi Darryberry changing her stage name to Dee Dee Green and reprising her role as Runt.
The film’s 45-minute runtime is impressive enough by itself, but it is particularly so given the fact that it was only produced within a span of a year (and it was the second in the series to come out within one year). Remember, most theatrical CG pieces need production time in the range of 4 to 6 years.
Overall, while Saw Tooth Cave does not change the beauty of CG animation and is clearly a straight to DVD production, it does bring the franchise back in line with the original film’s fun and creativity.
With two new sequels and a third on the way, it is a logical assumption to wonder why LionsGate and Crest Studios have not decided to just follow DreamWorks’ lead and turn Alpha and Omega into a animated series. Hopefully, that is the Behind the scenes plan, but this DVD is much closer to what original fans have been hoping for in sequels.
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