REVIEW: A Dog’s Way Home

Here’s my review for A Dog’s Way Home which stars Jonah Hauer King, Ashley Judd, Alexandra Shipp and the voice of Bryce Dallas Howard.

A Dog’s Way Home Trailer

The movie is set with the POV of the cute dog named Bella, who grows up with a loving family but gets lost due to some technicalities from the city ordinance. Bella is ripped away from Lucas. Now Bella, journeys throughout Colorado to “go home” and be with her family including Lucas.

The movie plays on the themes of family and loyalty. A Dog’s Way Home gave massive feels with Bella and her determination to get back to Lucas. The pacing suffers from time to time and it’s pretty obvious that they wanted to slowly show how long she’s been gone. For me, it felt like the way scenes were made could have been shot and written a little better.

The CGI-ness of “Big Kitty” is awful. We’re already in the year where Disney is doing a CG version of “The Lion King” and yet, we’re getting CGI cougars/ bobcats that look like they were ripped off from a bad Playstation 2 game. Playstation 2.

Oh and I must warn you, A Dog’s Way Home can go to dark territories. This isn’t Homeward Bound after all. The studio and the writer probably wanted to touch on social issues for both dogs/ pitbulls and people. There’s one scene featuring Alexandra Shipp that talks about the banning of Pitbulls and she goes “that’s racism for dogs”. That is true. Because apparently in the US, you can send a pitbull to their deaths with kill shelters.

There’s also things like depression, PTSD, homelessness and racism.

A Dog’s Way Home Verdict

8/10

Overall, the movie works to trigger emotions. Both Bella and voice actress, Bryce Dallas Howard were great in this. It gets dark from time to time but it still bounces back. Still, the light-heartedness of the film is worth watching.

A Dog’s Way Home is directed by Charles Martin Smith based on the novel by W. Bruce Cameron. Opens February 6 from Columbia Pictures Philippines!