In a way, watching 'Homeward Bound: the Incredible Journey' was like a milestone in my own personal viewing experience - it was the first time, that I can remember, I found myself settling down to see a remake of a movie I was already well-familiar with. I was still in primary school when this film hit the screens, but already I knew every scene and character of the charming 1963 classic 'the Incredible Journey' pretty much off by heart. It was a simple but engaging storyline which followed a trio of household pets - an elderly dog named Bodger, a young dog named Lua, and a cat named Tao - as they embarked on a remarkable 200 mile trek across the North American wilderness to be reunited with their owners, learning how to fend for themselves, encountering hostile local wildlife, and maintaining a good close-knit bond with each other all the way.
This 90s update follows much the same route, with latter day critters finding themselves in a similar situation and enduring all the obstacles that their forerunners did before them (bears, rivers, porcupines, wild cats), with the odd tweak here and there. The main difference being that they themselves have been given significant makeovers in mind-set, moniker and vocal chords - this time round, Shadow, Chance and Sassy, as they're now known, all sport human voices and, unsurprisingly, more human dispositions. This being a pre-Babe talking critter flick though their mouths don't actually move along with the dialogue being uttered, having it pasted instead on top of their filmed behaviours, a technique which looks more convincing in some scenes than others. And, as good as much of the voice work itself indisputably is (Michael J Fox's charisma never wanes), I'm afraid I have to disagree with most of the comments before me that it actually enhanced their story or characters in any way. Sure, Lua, Tao and Bodger of the original didn't speak, but then again they didn't need to. The animals playing them were expressive and entrancing enough on their own, and had a true naturalistic charm in the sense that they were so believable as a threesome of innocent beings wandering through an environment considerably more vast and intimidating than the one they're used to. They may have lacked the ability to express it in words, but it was evident just how devoted they were to both their owners and each other. Sassy, Chance and Shadow, meanwhile, are more outspoken, but this same unifying sense of friendship and affection is something which they certainly don't pull off. Perhaps because the duration of their journey is marked by so much taunting and bickering amongst themselves, which in turn makes them a tad less appealing as characters - the spitefulness always present in the way that Chance and Sassy interact with each other is especially distracting.
The fundamental flaw of 'Homeward Bound' isn't really in the talking itself (which always had the potential to be very charming), but that it rarely uses it as anything more than an opportunity to crank up the comedy which comes mostly from anal fixations and a harmless but wearisome debate about which of the two species is superior (or rather, which one 'rules' while the other 'drools'), along with lashings of silly lightweight slapstick on the side - basically, things which didn't really bother me the first two or three times I saw it, but which started to grate big time as I got older (as opposed to the infinitely more mature original, which has never outworn its welcome). The fact that one of the dogs has a full understanding of who Arnold Schwarzenegger is probably doesn't help their case.
Missing also from this mix is not only the bulk of the original's warmth, but much of the darkness and poignancy too - if anything, the story has been distinctly softened up for this particular telling. While its predecessor was never afraid to get ugly in its depiction of the perils of the natural world that our heroes were fording, 'Homeward Bound' chooses instead to play them up for whatever amusement value they might have - the river-crossing mishap, very fortunately, remains a serious matter, but their confrontations with other animals are sorely lacking in the same bite as before (the way in which Chance and Shadow here deal with a cougar on their trail is embarrassingly cartoony and childish).
In the end, what we have here is a lively but pretty routine family film for its decade, and which, as a remake, falls way short of the charm, the adventure and indeed the flavour of its forebear. It will no doubt amuse its intended audience, and I suppose that's half the battle already won. More demanding viewers though will be better off with the genuine article, which trumps it on all counts.
Grade: C
This 90s update follows much the same route, with latter day critters finding themselves in a similar situation and enduring all the obstacles that their forerunners did before them (bears, rivers, porcupines, wild cats), with the odd tweak here and there. The main difference being that they themselves have been given significant makeovers in mind-set, moniker and vocal chords - this time round, Shadow, Chance and Sassy, as they're now known, all sport human voices and, unsurprisingly, more human dispositions. This being a pre-Babe talking critter flick though their mouths don't actually move along with the dialogue being uttered, having it pasted instead on top of their filmed behaviours, a technique which looks more convincing in some scenes than others. And, as good as much of the voice work itself indisputably is (Michael J Fox's charisma never wanes), I'm afraid I have to disagree with most of the comments before me that it actually enhanced their story or characters in any way. Sure, Lua, Tao and Bodger of the original didn't speak, but then again they didn't need to. The animals playing them were expressive and entrancing enough on their own, and had a true naturalistic charm in the sense that they were so believable as a threesome of innocent beings wandering through an environment considerably more vast and intimidating than the one they're used to. They may have lacked the ability to express it in words, but it was evident just how devoted they were to both their owners and each other. Sassy, Chance and Shadow, meanwhile, are more outspoken, but this same unifying sense of friendship and affection is something which they certainly don't pull off. Perhaps because the duration of their journey is marked by so much taunting and bickering amongst themselves, which in turn makes them a tad less appealing as characters - the spitefulness always present in the way that Chance and Sassy interact with each other is especially distracting.
The fundamental flaw of 'Homeward Bound' isn't really in the talking itself (which always had the potential to be very charming), but that it rarely uses it as anything more than an opportunity to crank up the comedy which comes mostly from anal fixations and a harmless but wearisome debate about which of the two species is superior (or rather, which one 'rules' while the other 'drools'), along with lashings of silly lightweight slapstick on the side - basically, things which didn't really bother me the first two or three times I saw it, but which started to grate big time as I got older (as opposed to the infinitely more mature original, which has never outworn its welcome). The fact that one of the dogs has a full understanding of who Arnold Schwarzenegger is probably doesn't help their case.
Missing also from this mix is not only the bulk of the original's warmth, but much of the darkness and poignancy too - if anything, the story has been distinctly softened up for this particular telling. While its predecessor was never afraid to get ugly in its depiction of the perils of the natural world that our heroes were fording, 'Homeward Bound' chooses instead to play them up for whatever amusement value they might have - the river-crossing mishap, very fortunately, remains a serious matter, but their confrontations with other animals are sorely lacking in the same bite as before (the way in which Chance and Shadow here deal with a cougar on their trail is embarrassingly cartoony and childish).
In the end, what we have here is a lively but pretty routine family film for its decade, and which, as a remake, falls way short of the charm, the adventure and indeed the flavour of its forebear. It will no doubt amuse its intended audience, and I suppose that's half the battle already won. More demanding viewers though will be better off with the genuine article, which trumps it on all counts.
Grade: C