An unexpected delight, "Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey" is a children's film that isn't just for children. Parents will have just as much fun as their kids with this one.
Based on the original 1963 Disney film, "The Incredible Journey," this update is sort of a live-action cartoon crossed with "Look Who's Talking," utilizing "thought dialogue" provided for three household pets - Sassy the prissy cat (voiced by Sally Field), a lively pup named Chance (Michael J. Fox) and a wise old golden retriever called Shadow (Don Ameche).
Though the gimmick initially takes a bit of getting used to, it isn't long before audience acceptance takes hold, and the comic dialogue (despite an occasional pun overloaded) is witty and bright.
The geography is a bit fuzzy here, but the story has a newly blended family (headed by Robert Hays and Kim Greist) leaving its rural home for temporary digs in San Francisco. They can't take the pets with them, so they take them to the ranch of a friend (Jean Smart). (Has San Francisco outlawed pets?)
When Smart leaves for a couple of days, the animals decide they've been abandoned, so they escape from the ranch and try to cross the Sierra Mountains to get back home.
The action shifts between this trio of domesticated animals encountering all kinds of adventures and dangers and their human family's search for them.
The appealing comic byplay keeps the wilderness-tour plot afloat and the distinctive characterizations offered by Field, Ameche and Fox are perfect - and often very funny.
This is sentimental, anthropomorphized nonsense, of course. But first-time director Duwayne Dunham (a former editor for David Lynch and George Lucas) and screenwriters Linda Woolverton ("Beauty and the Beast") and Caroline Thompson ("Edward Scissorhands," "The Addams Family") have peppered the action and dialogue with material aimed directly at today's sophisticated small-fry - and the result works very well.
Mention should also be made of the stunning cinematography by Utah County native Reed Smoot ("Windwalker"), who has been laboring in television of late.
"Homeward Bound" is rated G; there are a few mildly vulgar gags here and there but nothing that should offend anyone.