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A DOG’S JOURNEY: Cat Lovers Beware

A DOG’S JOURNEY: Cat Lovers Beware

A Dog's Journey: Cat Lovers Beware

Do you like dogs? Then you might like A Dog’s Journey, the latest “try not to smile” puppy compilation turned corn-syrup narrative.

Keeping with tradition, director Gail Mancuso has fashioned the cinematic equivalent of puppy-dog eyes. His film begs you – and I mean begs you! – to fall for its warm heart and fuzzy charms. Except this time, it’s us who are rewarded with a treat. The second you see a couple of old mutts playing in the countryside, as a golden retriever leaps out of the golden brush to snag her owner’s football, the smiles and “awes” will already have touched the hardest of hearts. (Bring tissues. Even the strongest of faucets will permit a couple of drops).

The thread that ties these two together is tender but steadfast. Bailey, the golden retriever, voiced by Josh Gad, still has a bouncy ball’s enthusiasm. Spewing saliva and love all over her owner Ethan (played by Dennis Quaid). What separates this dog from the pack is no less than the everlasting subject of reincarnation. Bailey, who made a name for herself in the breakout hit A Dog’s Purpose in 2017, turns out to be the Quantum Leap for pooches. She dies and comes back to life as a different breed with the same desirable soul.

Quantum Leap For Pooches

This time her purpose is Clarity. Not plainspoken lucidity – Gad’s cheesy voiceover is fine in that regard – but Ethan’s adorable granddaughter who goes by C.J. Quaid’s voice, on the other hand, still sounds as if it hasn’t been cleared since the ’90s. No matter, his fondness for his dog, granddaughter, and wife (Marg Helgenberger) is unmistakably clear.

A Dog's Journey: Cat Lovers Beware
source: Universal Pictures

So he decides it’s time to let Bailey help someone else out. And so she does. The opening scenes see Bailey caring for baby C.J. on a white picket farm primed for a Budweiser commercial. Fittingly, Mancuso’s throw-as-many-cute-things-at-the-screen-as-you-can style fits right in. When Bailey isn’t shepherding lost souls, you can find her sniffing bacon, sniffing bugs, and sniffing tail.

I smelt an engaging movie taking shape the moment C.J’s mom entered the frame. Gloria (Betty Gilpin) has a glare that could shatter the Louvre. She’s grieving the loss of her husband, usually with alcohol, and decides it would be best to escape the big city noise at her parents. That is until she wrongly confuses her parent’s love for a scheme to get her daughter’s inheritance money. Jealous and lost, she flees with her baby C.J.

A Dog's Journey: Cat Lovers Beware
source: Universal Pictures

These early moments hint at the mother she would become. Gladys Cooper’s Mrs. Henry Vale comes off as a saint in comparison. That’s where Bailey comes in. When mom’s off flirting with different men, Bailey is always right by her side (in one form or another). Dog heaven sends down a Beaglier in her teens and a Yorkshire Terrier in her adult stage. Just as human heaven seems to have sent down Trent (Henry Lau), her dorky best friend with a pet’s loyalty.

If all of this sounds like a manipulative melodrama, that’s because it is. As C.J. grows, so do her life lessons. In high school, she must learn to be independent, as well as to not fall for the douche, who may or may not be a stalker. As an adult in New York, she learns not only how to find her voice but how to use it – she’s quite the musician, played with harmony by Kathryn Prescott.

A Dog’s Journey: Conclusion

These lessons give the film its purpose – to show kids the importance of good role models. To surround yourself with the Kent’s of the world. It’s a safe notion, in a relatively safe feature, but it’s one that should have parents pleased and their kids inspired.

The script may not be taking any chances – Mark Isham’s maudlin score sure isn’t – but what it lacks in vision, it makes up for with puppy eyes. Forget pacing that occasionally moves in dog years, when a puppy’s teary, mopey eyes plead for company, you give them the benefit of the doubt.

Have you seen A Dog’s Journey? What were your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below! 

A Dog’s Journey was released on May 17th, 2019 in the U.S. courtesy of Universal Pictures. 

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