I checked the new dog movie A Dog’s Journey. This is the sequel to A Dog’s Purpose from a couple years ago. That was the one about the dog who continuously dies and resurrects as a new breed as he works his way toward finding his original owner. Both of these movies are Peak Dog movie in that you kind of know most dog movies are going to have the “dying dog” moment that’s designed to squeeze your soul and rip the tears out of your eyes. This one is that, once again, done multiple times (I think there are five doggy deaths). Why put yourself through this hell?!!
But, hey, the movie is actually low-key pretty good. The original film followed the dog across multiple owners with fairly independent storylines. This new one has the dog trying to track down and protect the daughter of his original owner from her time as a baby, through adolescents, teen years, and then into young adulthood. In that sense, it’s more a continuous story of a young woman trying to make her way in life who incidentally has a number of dogs.
Those dogs are all once again voiced by Josh Gadd… and you can give or take a bunch of his doggy-so-funny comedy. Sometimes it works, more often it doesn’t.
But, hey, as a story of a one person’s life, this is actually pretty good. I enjoyed her story and her growth as a person and sometimes the dog was cute. It’s not an amazing film but I can’t deny that I wasn’t satisfied and moved by the end… the emotional manipulation worked.
Score: 80