Homeward Bound The Incredible Journey is an adventurous and heartwarming tale about the importance of family and being there for one another. Homeward Bound 2 however, is a mediocre cash grab trying to recapture what made the original so endearing and fails on almost every single level in telling a compelling story with heart humor and dignity. I’m not gonna act like this is the worst movie I’ve ever seen, but knowing the care and effort that went into making the original, it just pains me to see a well told story being dumbed down into this waist of a sequel.
The family is going on a trip to Canada and they decide to take their pets along with them. Chance however, mistakes the people at the airport for pound workers. He panics and escapes leaving Sassy and Shadow no choice but to go after him. After failing to catch up with the plane the family leaves on, the animals find themselves in the streets of San Francisco where they come across many stray animals including a Kuvasz named Delilah who Chance falls in love with. The pets better be on their paws because a whole new slue of dangers awaits them, including an “evil” dog catcher and two mean stray dogs who are after Sassy.
Once again the animals have a big adventure ahead of them to make their way back home. For some reason though, it’s not quite as well paced or even as large in scale like the original. There are many dangers, but they aren’t as many of them that were exciting and even that suspenseful. Some of them are kinda stupid like this unrealistic dog catcher bad guy who acts too cartoonishly over the top to the point that theres no belivablitty in him whatsoever. Not to mention that there are a ton of new characters the movie likes to introduce but with the exception of Delilah, none of them really leave that much of an impression. Even the main characters are watered down versions of their first movie counterparts. It’s especially the case with Chance, who is now too dimwitted and not in a way that's funny or enjoyable.
With that said I do appreciate getting the majority of the main cast to reprise their roles with Micheal J Fox as Chance and Sally Field as Sassy. The only one who had to be replaced was Don Ameche, the voice of Shadow, who sadly died shortly after the release of the first movie. He’s replaced by Ralph Waite and while I can definitely tell he’s no Don Ameche, I at least appreciate that he is trying to sound like the first movie Shadow. However, the biggest insult this movie throws at us is the family. In the original, yeah I admit they were kinda corny but they react to the pets disappearance in a very real matter. Heck Peter blows up at his Step Father that’s how much the pets meant to them. Now the family is just like “Eh, the pets are gone I should feel some emotions but whatever” It really ticks me off.
Even the Cinematography is somewhat of a step down compared to the big and lush lands of the Sierra Nevadas. Don’t get me wrong sometimes the cinematography can look good sometimes when we're in the park or seeing shots of the San Francisco city line. Most of the time thought is spent in the alleyways or the ugly parts of the city which isn’t bad but it’s just not super interesting. The music score is unfortunately very limited then it was before heck you don’t even hear the main theme from the original that much which is quite disappointing and even the new scores they try to shoehorn in don’t stick with you like before which is very unfortunate.
It’s really sad to see an awesome movie like Homeward Bound to be turned into such a forgettable mess. While there may have been some funny jokes here and there, having most of the main cast reprise their roles and some effort in making the animals act, It’s still not enough to save this movie from being as mediocre as it is. My advice is to skip this movie and just go back and watch the original.
(Final Grade: C-)