User Reviews

I loved the first Homeward Bound so much, it was one of my favorite childhood films. My friend had the sequel and I guess I was kind of curious where the story would go or end. The first Homeward Bound was so adorable and such a great story, so why not see the second one? It seemed like a great concept and go back to the magic of the first one. While it's not as good as the first one, I warn you, I think this was still a fine family film.

The family is going on vacation again, but this time they are taking the pets with. But Jamie and Chance's relationship has changed, where Jamie isn't playing with Chance as often and Sassy teases Chance that he's going back to "the bad place", in the dog world that means "the pound". So, Chance escapes the cage taking him to the plane, Shadow and Sassy follow to help Chance. They end up lost in San Francisco and get their butts saved by other street dogs, Chance also falls for one of those dogs named Delila. But it's street vs. pet and if humans are really worth risking everything for.

Like I said, the second Homeward Bound doesn't compare to the original and the plot is extremely similar, but I think over all that it worked very well for the kids. The whole family will enjoy the film, it has positive energy and fun jokes that anyone could enjoy if they don't have an attitude problem. So, give the second Homeward Bound a chance, you may just like it.

6/10

The original had a solid story when it didn't need to as I believe it was a straight to video Disney movie. It was emotional, adorable and between the voice actors, the rest of the actors, the settings, music and how brilliantly the animals were trained you could really feel the situation and finish the movie with a nice warm feeling (assuming you can feel for the relationship between a person and their pet nearly as much as I do).

Pros: Considering many of the embarrassing family films starring animals they've released since Beethoven and these two Homeward Bound movies in the 90's, this sequel isn't too bad. Animals still seem like they've been through a great deal amount of training and I did get one or two chuckles from some of the dialogue. These days filmmakers don't care how stupid the dialogue is it doesn't ever even need to make you smile, "as long as you just get a dog to sit there and CGI the mouth to move around I guess you're good to go, kids are entertained? No? Oh well we made money." And that's about it. The dogs are beautiful and you can tell the voice actors are still invested as well.

Cons: The excitement was significantly dimmed considering they weren't in as much danger as the first one. I mean we're going from wilderness with larger more dangerous animals, no food except whatever fish the cat could catch, fast flowing rivers waterfalls, unsteady hills and rock paths etc. Now they're in a city with an infinite amount of leftover food thrown away, other dogs to make friends, no wild animals, and tons of places to take shelter on the way home. They even had a guide get them to the bridge lol. Woo hoo. The setting and story is much weaker than the first film, the dialogue is overall weaker, there's not much character development, the kid actors are now stale as they probably don't care anymore outside of all the money they're about to make again.

It's cute and it's far from the worst Disney movie focusing on live action animals, but it's definitely not the best. If you want a fun movie featuring real trained pets and old slapstick humor with a couple laughs, then check out this movie. If you want to really feel something of the connection between kids and their pets, just go watch the first one again and you're good. Also check out Beethoven, My Dog Skip and Marley and Me If you want it to tug at the heartstrings.

SPOILER WARNING

The original Homeward Bound story is a fascinating story of wide panoramic settings, a strong bond between the three animals, Shadow, Sassy and Chance and a pledge with one another to walk home to San Francisco despite the miles and miles of dangerous wilderness between them. The three main characters are well rounded, interesting, and you care about them so much that the human characters seem somewhat less relevant (though not entirely because they serve as motivation for the characters to when they will return home).

This however, is not.

We're at a point where the family is preparing to go camping in Canada, but after a paranoid Chance cocks things up by thinking he's being abandoned, the animals stupidly run away from the airport and find themselves down the back streets of San Francisco.

The animals seem to meander around the city mindlessly, dodging two very thick men working for illegal testing labs and two incredibly irritating strays (one of whom dubiously has a voice uncannily similar to Mike Tyson), team up with a gang of other misanthrope strays now and again (even more insufferable with some of the awful garbagy lines spouted out), and in general, the film doesn't seem to know what to do with itself, because as we all know, since these animals successfully navigated an entire wilderness for miles and miles last time, a city would be pretty small potatoes! We even fill the gap by having a bit where a kid is saved from a burning house! Any minute, I would expect Rin-Tin-Tin to come up with his attorney with a cease-and-desist note and threats of suing for copyright (and to be honest, I wouldn't blame him)! It is so bone-idle, that it in fact levers in a cheesy romance plot between Chance and a stray called Delilah! What were the writing team thinking when they cooked this up? My only conclusion: They're all raving lunatics! We don't need a stupid romantic sub-plot levered into these films, it's totally superfluous! To make this story aggravatingly boneheaded, we even have a love rival by the way of another irritating redneck-drawling stray dog with the brains of a kipper! (For some reason, they use a Grand-Bleu De Gascogne for this, sadly a very rare dog, which would smack of doggie racism, unless it perhaps indicates that the writers hate the French and the rednecks.) I also wonder why Chance still behaves like a terminally-naive puppy despite his last experiences in the wilderness which would surely have taught him a thing or two! Not forgetting, in the first film, Chance explained that before he was adopted he was a stray dog, and was abandoned when still a puppy, so he'd know a little about living on the streets don't you think? The conclusion that wraps up the film's stories is cringe worthy to the point of wanting to put your foot through the telly! I won't reveal it, but if you look at the rest of the film, a climax of this film will not be worth the case it is carried in! Stick to Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey. At least that way you can pretend that this Godawful mess never existed and enjoy the better original. Watching this sequel may result in you hurling yourself in front of a freight train! You have been warned!

It's obvious that this film is a bit of a rip off of "Home Alone 2", having some of the charm of the first Homeward Bound but missing a key ingredient that would have made it as good. That ingredient is believability, another case of "Here we go again" that followed "Home Alone 2" all around Manhattan. Shadow, Chance and Sassy are all back, and Ralph Waite has stepped into the fur of the late Don Ameche as the loyal and wise Shadow, and it's a perfect transition because their voices are very similar. You wouldn't expect the aging Shadow to change, but Michael J. Fox has chance and Sally Field as sassy are back to where they were at the beginning of the film even though it is two years later. It's particularly noticeable with Sassy who is twice as "catankerous" as she was in part one.

Like the "Look Who's Talking" sequels, this gets more gimmicky with additional voices, and the combination of some bully alley dogs and a pair of animal thieves disguised as dog catchers is a rip-off of the two idiotic robbers from "Home Alone". There's a touching moment where Shadow and Sassy become hero and heroine by rescuing a young boy and a kitten from a burning building, but the romance between Chance and a female street dog is cloying and forced. Still, it's great to see the three dogs, separated at one point of course, making their way all over San Francisco, although it's ridiculous that they get to the city from the airport so quickly considering that it's really far away.

Another element that is disturbing is the character of the youngest son Jamie who for some reason seems angry at Chance (or at least bored by him) in the opening scenes, not very realistic considering how the first film ended and his worries that were shown throughout. It is still a very enjoyable film even with these major flaws, and I'm glad that they decided to end the franchise here. It's just that the lack of originality and its rip off of various other franchise rip offs does indicate that not a lot of thought was put into the creation of what could have been another modern classic.

I'm being kind by giving this movie a six. Ralph Waite did the voice of Shadow. He's pretty good, though not as good as Don Ameche, who died in 1993. He couldn't do the voice of Shadow if he were dead, right?

Delilah is a street dog that Chance meets. Voiced by Carla Gugino, I don't think she was very necessary. Chance seems to like her, though.

Eventually, the Seaver's find their pets, but through a near-fatal way. Chance is crossing a highway, and is very nearly run over. The Sever's van just happens to be driving down that same road, and they think he did get run over.

There's little humor in this movie, and I wouldn't recommend it for anyone, unless you have nothing better to do.

My Score: 6/10.

Disney's Homeward Bound (remake of The Incredible Journey) introduced the three talking animals, and this was the sequel that followed it, from director David R. Ellis (Final Destination 2, Snakes on a Plane). Basically it's been three years since the previous events, the family are happily living in San Francisco heading for a vacation to Canada. Once again the pets somehow get left behind just after the plane takes off, so Shadow the dog (voiced by The Bodyguard's Ralph Waite, replacing Don Ameche), Chance the dog, (voiced by Michael J. Fox) and Sassy the cat (voiced by Sally Field) try to find their way back to their owners. Along the way they meet scruffy bully dogs, abandoned rebel dogs, some bumbling dog catchers in their "Blood Red Van", and Chance even finds himself a girlfriend that could distract him completely. Eventually they make it out of the city in one piece, and hardly any danger or shenanigans, and back to their owners, with Chance's girlfriend not too far behind. Also starring Airplane's Robert Hays as Bob Seaver, Kim Greist as Laura Seaver, Veronica Lauren as Hope Seaver, Kristina Lewis as Stacy, Kevin Chevalia as Jamie Seaver, Adam Goldberg as Pete, Sinbad as Riley and Stephen Tobolowsky as Bando. The animals are still lovable and fun to watch, but the lack of adventurous moments makes it is pretty boring compared to the first one. Adequate!

Homeward Bound II is a sequel to the 1993 film on the same name about 2 dogs and a cat who go missing in a Home Alone style scenario and have to try and find there way back home. This time the family and the 2 dogs and the cat Sassy are off to Canada but one of the dogs(voiced by Micheal J Fox called Chance)ends up freaking out and Shadow(Ralph White) and Sassy(Sally Fields) also free themselves from the cages they were in and end up getting lost in San Francisco. Of course Chance ends up falling for Deliah later on in the movie and two men who are up to no good are after the dogs. So will they or won't they get back home in time to be reunited with their families again?

Overall I really enjoyed this movie and I was glad I came across it in HMV this year for a bargain. If I see the original sometime out on DVD I will definitely be buying it too. The voice cast is great,the story is nice and the backgrounds are nice too. Its nice that the dogs mouths aren't moving like in Marmalade or that god awful Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

7/10

SPOILERS

I very much wanted to see this movie. I really enjoyed the original so I obviously wanted to see how the tale of the classic animals would come to an end. I was not disappointed. I knew as a fact that this would not be as good as the original, and since I gave that a seven, and this was not as good, I am giving this a six. This is still, like the first Homeward Bound, a very strong and fun film for the entire family.

Here is the plot of this movie. Our favorite talking animals Shadow, Chance, and Sassy are back after their adventure. It has been three years since their first incredible journey and some things have changed. Jamie, who is Chance's owner, does not play with him as much as he used to. Then the family decides to go to Canada with the animals. Fearing that he is going to the pound, Chance gets off the plane, with Shadow and Sassy, and they have to roam the streets of San Fransico. On the streets they encounter dog-fights, dog gangs, and illegal animal control. With the help of other dogs they defeat the animal control, and Chance falls in love with a dog named Deliliah. In the end the animals are saved by their family, and Deliliah becomes part of it.

Overall, this is a good family sequel to a great family movie. It can not top the original, and some moments are corny, but this is a fun and exciting sequel. There are also some emotional scenes, like Chance getting trapped under a truck and the family does not know if he survived until Jamie checks and discovers he is all right. It is just too bad that Don Ameche died before he could reprise his role as Shadow, but Ralph Waite does a good impression of him. Anyway, this is a fine family movie that you can enjoy.

6/10

Recommended Films: Homeward Bound, the Incredible Journey.

Who doesn't like a film about animals? My only fear was that one of these animals would die. The film was good, the voice over work for the dogs was great and the actions and expressions of the animals made it much more believable. At least in the wilderness there was more fun it is not so for this adventure. The plot, of course, was similar to the first one with the exception of no real stakes or problems that aren't quickly solved. I.E. the red van as an example.