I can't be the only one who just called this movie Homeward Bound. I don't know what this "The Incredible Journey" bullcrap is, but this movie is called Homeward Bound, that's it.
Homeward Bound is another one of those movies that I grew up with and watched a bunch of times. While I can't quote the movie and I don't recognize certain beats and tones taken in the delivery of lines, I still have a pretty good recollection of this movie and it was definitely a nostalgia trip re-watching it tonight.
The story is mainly told through the eyes of Chance, a dog who was recently rescued from the pound and is still adjusting to being apart of a family.
The family is pretty new as the mother of three children, all of which "belong" to the pets as Chance describes it, is getting remarried and they're all moving to San Fransisco for the new father/husband's work. The step-father is played by Robert Hays.
The human story is your typical step-family drama where the kids aren't totally comfortable calling Robert Hays dad yet and of course when push comes to shove there's family drama and eventually they come together and the big development is that one of them calls him dad for the first time. It's there, it's the boring part of the movie, try and move past it as fast as you can.
The real story is when the pets are left at a friend's farm for a while while the family is in San Fransisco. They believe that they were abandoned and it's their duty to find their way back to the family. Thus begins an adventure through the Sierra Nevadas where the trio find themselves forging the elements, bears, cougars, and other people who would potentially bring them to the pound in order to find their way home to their humans.
It's not really a super complex story and in all reality it was a Disney film really directed at kids who just like to watch dogs and cats walk around while hearing all the pop culture references that these dogs really shouldn't know but do because its a kids movie like what a chicken nugget is, or other 90s pop culture references that don't really age well.
The animals don't move their mouth which requires the animals to be acting in a way that you would expect them to if they were actually saying something and I'll give this movie credit, it's pretty well done that as long as you're not taking it too seriously, you can project those inflections on the animals and it's well done.
What I never realized until my most recent watch is the communications block between the animals and the humans. There are several points where humans are talking to the dogs and if the dogs understood what they were saying they would know they don't need to go on this adventure. But this communication block is pretty inconsistent especially since the dogs are talking in English, same as the humans and yet they only understand a few words the humans say like home randomly. Again, you really can't think about this movie too hard.
The truth is, Peter has a really weird and probably unhealthy relationship with his dog Shadow. I'm not insinuating anything gross but he REALLY loves his dog so much that when they're calling the woman who's taking care of the dogs, he wants to talk to Shadow and reassures him like he can actually understand what he's saying, which is definitely not the case.
And I get it, when you're young you form relationships with your pets and those relationships can be really strong. However, there's a point where the step-dad (played by Robert Hays) flat out tells the kids that they need to be realistic and I'm sitting there like, "Yeah, yeah you do. Those dogs are probably dead. This guy isn't a bad step-dad, he's just trying to brace these kids for the very real possibility that those pets are gone for good".
And it doesn't really help that more than half of the human cast is not so great child actors who didn't do much of anything beyond this movie and its sequel and then you've got Robert Hays... the guy from Airplane. If you're a twenty-something like me and you're revisiting this movie for nostalgia's sake, you're going to want to possibly skip all the human scenes because the scenes surrounding the pets are sooooo much better.
It really helps that the pets are voiced by great actors like Michael J Fox, Sally Fields, and Don Ameche. These guys are definitely professionals and they really didn't phone this movie in when they really could have. I always thought it was a little weird that they put Michael J Fox as the voice for an American bulldog and it honestly takes a little bit of getting used to when the movie first starts.
But eventually you get sucked in by Michael J Fox's unique voice and inflections and it really blends. And the American bulldog, though I still think is a little bit odd of a choice, really brings some physical comedy and hilarity. On top of that, he is a little bit self aware and makes for a great vehicle to carry the story across in narration.
And I mean c'mon...
Sally Field of course is a perfect voice for a snooty cat who continuously believes that cats are superior to dogs, even citing the ever so famous "Cats rule and dogs drool" catch phrase. I never really liked Sassy when I was a kid and I still don't really, but when I heard Sally Field's voice this time around watching it was recognizable and I appreciate the character more.
This dog is the reason every kid in the 90s wanted a Golden Retriever. This dog is the reason Air Bud was a thing. This dog is amazing!
There's a great line where Chance is describing Shadow and he describes him as the perfect dog. "Shadow was loyal, Shadow was faithful, Shadow was a chump!" And I don't think I've ever seen a character described better in such a short sentence. Because Shadow is the most loyal, most faithful dog ever and it really rides a line of being too cheesy on top of the cheese that already cakes this movie hard. But with the combination of Shadow's story being told through the eyes of Chance and the amazing voice of Don Ameche, really make this character work and makes him work well.
And here's the reality. This movie centers on two dogs and a cat walking through the woods for an hour. By itself it sounds like it shouldn't work. But the thing that makes this movie work is the heart and just how darn cheesy of a movie it is.
I'm going to show the video for the ending of this film. If you haven't seen it and you don't want to know the ending I suggest stopping here and checking it out, it's a fun movie if you're in the mood for a Disney Cheese fest with dogs. But here's the ending to both the first and the second film. I haven't seen the second one, but I can already tell it's not as good with just the amount of sincerity and heart in the ending. Chances are you've probably seen this clip even if you haven't seen the movie.
The ending to this movie just has so much going. Even if you don't watch the movie, it's executed in a way that you can guess what's going on with these characters and just the image of people reuniting with their pets is so universally loved that the ending works so well.
On top of that, the main theme of this movie is incredibly well done. The orchestra is fantastic and the swells that are infused in that theme just make you feel like there's a lot at stake and there's an adventure happening and in the ending when that theme is used it signals the culmination of that adventure.
It's funny because the rest of the soundtrack is just generic guitar filler that you could probably find on GarageBand and it's not memorable at all. But that main theme is still pretty iconic, especially if you grew up watching this movie.
There's not a lot more I can say about this movie cause it's a pretty simple movie. It's not overly complicated and again, it's really not a movie you should be thinking too hard about. If you need something to uplift you and you can handle some really wooden acting from the human characters, check out Homeward Bound. It's on Netflix. It's not a brilliant movie, but it's cute and will entertain you.
But those are my thoughts on Homeward Bound "The Incredible Journey". What do you think of that movie? Did you watch it as a kid? Was it as much of a staple on your childhood as it was on mine? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you'll get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog as well as some random live tweets I do while watching films from time to time
I'll leave you with this. I don't know why but I found it to be incredibly funny. Both the content of the video and how many people actually believed that there was a third Homeward Bound movie that they missed. Enjoy!
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