This is a movie about two dogs and a cat that travel home. Not sold you yet? Well it just off the top of my head it has the voices of Michael J Fox and Sally Fields along with Dom Ameche (had to look him up). The movie was released back in 1993 and took a tidy $41.8m at the box office. It was the old style of Disney movies that tries to tell a story as opposed to trying to tell you what type of person you should be and it tells a story in a dramatic and heart-warming way. It stars Robert Hays, Kim Grist, Veronica Lauren, Kevin Chevalier and Benji Thill. (No, I’ve never heard of them either). Just for a change my score is in the middle of the other two gauges I’m using with IMDb at 6.9/10, then me then Rotten Tom’s score of 87% who seem to love this movie. I think it’s a good time to dive into the first half of the plot, don’t you think?
This is a film where you can hear the thoughts of the main animals involved in the plot namely an older dog called Shadow who is wise and thoughtful. A cat called Sassy who is a typical smart mouthed and quick of mind and feet cat and finally there is Chance an American Bulldog who is young, naive, disobedient and fully of energy. They are taken to a ranch whilst the head of the household has to go to San Francisco for work. The family decide that the pets would be better off on the ranch until the end of the contract where they can return home and collect the pets as well. Due to a bungled message the woman looking after the three pets leaves her neighbour in charge of looking after the pets. The neighbour doesn’t get the message so the dogs and cat are home alone without any support. They decide to follow the instinct of Shadow and agree to leave the ranch and head over the Rocky Mountains in an attempt to get home. If I am honest I could leave the plot there and I will not add to much as I don’t like giving spoilers without warnings, so you could probably guess they have lots of adventures as they travel across the mountains, struggle to find food, have a run in with the natural wildlife including a mountain lion (they were in all the old Disney movies weren’t they) and a porcupine. They come close to death more than one and will they all make it? Well that would be telling.
For me this movie just about steers itself in the amazing but not unrealistic path. Its enjoyable and just like Stuart Little has the voice of Michael J Fox so has to be a great movie. I think this was one of the reverses of my usual comments here and say I got this for me in the guise of buying it for the kids. This is not a movie for two teenagers who would prefer to watch superhero’s do battle with Thanos but despite the age of the movie this is still a good film. You really do feel for these animals as they battle against the elements and the wildlife. The characters of the animals are really complimented by the voices and it is a perfect little gem of a movie that I would recommend to anyone young or old. Although probably not enough superheros for the current teenage attention span. You can go and enjoy on your own this time.
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