‘Homeward Bound’ By Megan Rosenfeld Washington Post Staff Writer February 13, 1993

Director: Duwayne Dunham Cast: Robert Hays; Kim Greist; Jean Smart; Veronica Lauren; Kevin Chevalia; Benj Thall General audience Compare prices for this movie Find local video stores More movie shopping Save money with NextCard Visa

That this anthropomorphic adventure is a cliche-ridden weeper is not its biggest defect -- after all, each generation must learn to predict its own predictable everyone-is-saved-and-reunited-in-the-end plots. Its worst flaw is a tendency to pander to the older segments of the audience, be they prepubescent children or adults, with excessive use of the word "butt" and lines such as "I'm too pooped to poop."

Other than that, matters are accomplished by director Duwayne Dunham with fairly professional skill. The animals are a young obnoxious puppy, an older and wiser dog, and a fuzzy cat, who are all able to talk to one another in the voices of Michael J. Fox, Don Ameche and Sally Field, respectively. The puppy, Chance, is a sort of juvenile delinquent adopted by a family for their youngest child; the older dog is Boy's Best Friend incarnate, and the cat, of course, belongs to the girl and is fussy about its diet.

The plot hinges on the fact that Mom is getting married to a new Dad -- what happened to the original Dad is never explained. Did he abandon them? Did he die? Did he turn into a spider? Surely scriptwriters Caroline Thompson and Linda Woolverton could have spared a line or two to clear up this mystery. The new Dad (Robert Hays) seems very nice, but because of him the whole family has to temporarily leave its cozy semi-suburban home for an apartment in San Francisco, and the animals have to board at a friend's ranch in the mountains.

The animals are suspicious of this arrangement and run away to find home again, not realizing they are going to have to climb mountains, ford streams, outwit wild cats, catch fish etc. As is usual in these children's fables, there is a bond between the children and the animals that is nobler and stronger than that with any adult, and the animals feel an obligation to their young masters that all children want to believe really exists.

There is even a heartwarming (i.e., implausible) interlude in which the animals save a tot lost in the woods and lead her frantic parents to her. But the heroic doggies and cat, like the Lone Ranger, elude the rescuers themselves and plod on with their journey.

Giving human voices to the animals is perfectly acceptable to children, raised as they are on video wizardry far more sophisticated than this. To a parent it feels as though someone is reading a storybook aloud and there's a movie on at the same time.

The age range for this mini-epic is probably 3 to 10; kids older than that may not buy in to anything but the butt jokes. By the way -- for those children who get incredibly anxious when an animal seems to have made that last trek to the water bowl -- the cat does not die in the rapids.

Perhaps because this is a remake of a book written in 1960 and a movie made in 1963, just about everyone in it looks as though he has stepped right out of a Norman Rockwell support group, or, well, a Disney movie. The kids -- actors Kevin Chevalia, Veronica Lauren and Benj Thall -- are all adorable, and so is every other character except the mountain lion.

There is a nice little message about taking responsibility, and learning from one's elders. Chance, the rambunctious puppy, describes what he has learned at the end: "That friendship and love were more than just mushy stuff." If that isn't Disney, I don't know what is.

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