It doesn't take long for the hilarity of Fido's central idea to kick in: the world is reeling from the Zombie War; and the undead are being contained in two different ways. Some of them are roaming loose in fenced-off wilderness zones. The rest are; thanks to the good people at the ZomCom corporation; docile and domesticated--indeed; available as house servants for the upwardly-mobile. Such is the case with the Robinson family; a suburban clan who seem to have stepped straight out of an old episode of Lassie. Little Timmy is happy about the new manservant; whom he promptly dubs "Fido;" and Fido himself is fine as long as the mechanical collar around his neck doesn't malfunction (in which case he will revert to being a cannibalistic brain-eating zombie). Fido is played; in a stroke of inspiration; by the Scots comedian Billy Connolly; although you wouldn't be able to recognize him without already knowing he's in the movie. Dylan Baker and especially Carrie-Anne Moss are just right as Timmy's parents; who have accidentally wandered out of a John Cheever novel and into a George Romero world. Director Andrew Currie skillfully gets the 1950s satire and the zombie action right; although there's no way to disguise that this premise is too thin to spread out over feature length. For a while; though; Fido hits a stride--a staggering; vacant-eyed stride. --Robert Horton