Ace Ventura Jr: Pet Detective

Ace Ventura Jr: Pet Detective is a family adventure comedy about a twelve-year-old boy who struggles to be ordinary but keeps slipping into the habits of his father, a detective famous for his eccentric ways. When a baby panda goes missing from the zoo, the boy's mother falls under suspicion and is arrested. Certain of her innocence, Ace Jr sets out to clear her name, using the animal-tracking instincts he has inherited. His friend Arnold Plushinsky, known as A Plus, and his schoolmate Laura Wilson, on whom he has a quiet crush, help him work the case.

The film was directed by David Mickey Evans, who wrote the screenplay with Jeff Sank and Jason Heimberg. It arrived in 2009, after several earlier Evans films including The Sandlot, First Kid, two Beethoven sequels and The Sandlot 2. Josh Flitter plays the young lead, with Emma Lockhart, Ann Cusack, Cullen Douglas, Art LaFleur and Austin Rogers in supporting roles. The production, backed by Morgan Creek and Four Aces Productions, had a budget of eight million dollars.

Audience response has been poor. On IMDb the film holds a rating of 2.1 out of 10 from around 6,100 votes, and on TMDB it stands at 3.3 out of 10 from just over 200 votes, both pointing to a widely disliked entry in the series.