L'incroyable voyage à San Francisco

"Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey" is a beautiful, charming, emotional and timeless classic, as well as one of the best animal movies. But I can't say the same about its sequel.

"Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco" is not a bad film. For a sequel, it's not all that bad. It is still entertaining enough and features the same main cast (except Don Ameche, who passed away in 1993). But the movie just can't reach the greatness of the first one, so the fact that it is disappointing comes to me as no surprise. This movie simply doesn't follow the spirit of the original neither the spirit of others like it.

The plot is somewhat similar to the first one's. However, instead of the Sierra mountains, this one takes our 3 pet friends to the urban life, more precisely to the worst streets of San Francisco. Basically it focus more on desert roads, empty streets and dirty alleys. We don't see that much of San Francisco, neither of its most beautiful things. This is a radical contrast with the first movie's environment, which shows us all the beauty of pure nature in the Sierra mountains.

In this film, our buddies Shadow, Chance and Sassy often face city's dangers, such as weird people, two dog catchers who lock street dogs in their van to take them to one of those creepy laboratories and two rival dogs: a vicious boxer-like dog and a goofy bulldog-like dog, despite the help of numerous street dogs (Riley and his gang).

The two rival dogs are particularly annoying, especially the boxer-like dog. Most of the street dogs here are annoying either, except for Delilah (a beautiful Kuvasz) and Riley. As for the dog catchers, the driver isn't that annoying, but his partner is. On the other hand, the cute little boy Tucker was adorable and his cute kitten Tiger too.

The movie isn't nostalgic, emotional or charming like the first one. While it has some funny gags, it isn't humor as pleasant as in the first one. The soundtrack isn't as good as in the first one, although this one still has some good music.

One of the few really good things in this movie is the Golden Gate Bridge (the enormous bridge in San Franciso), a construction that always fascinated me.

After revisiting the first one I had to follow it up with this. It's basically hitting the same notes as the first movie, except notes instead of the wilderness, we're hitting the big city as the lovable pets traverse the urban landscape of San Francisco.

This is still a fun ride. We get introduced to a bunch of new dogs and go on some fun adventures. One of our main characters may even fall in love! It's got a moderate case of sequelitis that prevents it from fully living up to the first, but it's still a fun experience.

Fortunately, if you liked the first this should be enjoyable as well. And they're currently both available on the same streaming service, so that's a plus. If you check out the first and it's not for you, there's no reason to watch this one though.

Chance, Shadow and Sassy get lost again.This time those two dogs and the cat try to find their way back home from San Francisco.They are in constant danger as they get chased by illegal dog chasers and a couple of street-wise dogs.But something good happens on the journey when Chance falls for the street dog Delilah.Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco (1996) is directed by David R. Ellis.Michael J. Fox does the voice of the American Bulldog Shance again.Sally Field is the Himalayan cat Sassy again.Ralph Waite has replaced the late Don Ameche as the old Golden Retriever Shadow.Adam Goldberg is the voice of Pete.Carla Cugino is Delilah.Tommy Lasorda is Lucky Lasorda.Michael Bell is Stokey.Jon Polito is Ashcan.Sinbad gives the voice-over for Riley.In plain actors we see Robert Hays, who plays Bob Seaver.Kim Greist is Laura Seaver.Jamie Seaver is played by Kevin Chevalia.Hope Seaver is played by Veronica Lauren.Benj Thall is Peter Seaver.This isn't quite the same level with the first part, but it works.It's fun to watch the small quarrels between those animals."Cats Rule, dogs drool" and that sort of stuff.

A lackadaisical sequel.

The wilderness is, arguably, the main reason why 'Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey', and the film it remakes, is enjoyable. That's because it, obviously, feels peculiar seeing a cat and two dogs in the wild. So what does this film do? It puts them back in their natural habitat, so you're just left with emotionless animals talking telepathically in street alleys. To no-one's surprise, that's super boring.

Credit to Michael J. Fox for reprising his role as Chance. He doesn't mind doing sequels, even ones of a poorer variety; e.g. 'Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild' - on that note, I guess 'Atlantis: Milo's Return' was a step too far, understandably so!

Elsewhere on the cast, all the main humans return as does Sally Field as Sassy. Ralph Waite comes in to replace the late Don Ameche as Shadow, I didn't actually notice a difference if I'm completely honest - astute casting! The film also adds a bunch of random cats and dogs to proceedings, absolutely none of them are memorable; despite a few recognisable names in the cast, including Carla Gugino (Delilah).

I'm sure some, especially younger audiences, will find enjoyment here. For me, it's a lame follow-up.

Homeward Bound:The Incredible Journey was a beautiful charming film, that I have loved since childhood. And maybe it is just me but I feel it is underrated as well. This sequel is inferior, but in my mind, it is decent. It does have its problems, such as the lame direction, the not-so-crisp editing and one too many slow and corny moments in the plot. But what does compensate hugely is the witty script(of which Sassy gets the majority of the best lines), the lovely soundtrack and the voice acting. Michael J Fox and Sally Field once again do fine work, and while the late Don Ameche was a lot more noble and gentle, Ralph Waite does an above average job as the voice of Shadow the Golden Retriever. The animals also did wonderfully and came very close to stealing the show, and the camera-work is often excellent. All in all, worth the look, but be warned that it doesn't quite live up to its original. 7/10 Bethany Cox