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.
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.