These Animals Talk! Marathon: Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993)

A movie where the animals talk through the power of their minds!

Screenplay By: Caroline Thompson & Linda Woolverton
Directed By: Duwayne Dunham

It’s okay for movies to be about simple base emotions. I know I spend a lot of my time searching the movies I watch for a higher meaning or purpose. Even in the case of a movie without a higher meaning I tend to look for technical craft or a higher quality in the production. It’s all too easy to ignore, or try to ignore at least, the emotional element of movies because it’s hard to quantify emotionality. Emotions come from our very core and movies that appeal to our emotional side our often looked down upon because it’s easier to strike at peoples emotions than it is to aim for something higher. I fall in line with that way of thinking, but the subjective way in which I view film leaves me more open to well done emotion that a more objective way of looking at film.

From that perspective comes a film like Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey. There’s no higher aim or purpose in this film, nor is it a film that needs to be lauded for its technical craft (although I will give the film credit for an interesting way of handling the talking animal gimmick). What Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey becomes by its finale is a film about the honesty of emotions. It’s okay to want to see the three pets make their way back home and it’s more than okay to be happy when they do make it back home. That happiness is earned, the emotion that comes from watching the happy ending doesn’t feel cheap. Having the emotion be earned and the happiness be legit is an important factor in elevating Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey above a simple emotional sobfest.

There are plenty of flaws to be found in Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey. The jokes don’t always hit, and while the voice acting is commendable the physical actors are all essentially TV actors filling out the time. Luckily the flaws that can be found in Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey are hidden nicely by a simple story and earned emotion. It’s not a film for the ages, but in it’s basic premise and it’s willingness to work for its emotion Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey is an example of a well made family film. What can I say, I’m a sucker for a well made family film with two adorable dogs and a cute cat, sue me!

Rating:

***

Cheers,
Bill