Electrified_Voltage
This is the sequel to the 1993 family adventure film, "Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey". In my review of that film, I talked about my experience seeing most of it probably not long after its video release in 1993. "Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco" must have been new (or fairly new) to the VHS format when I saw it for the first time in 1996. I was around ten years old when that happened, and can't remember much from my first viewing, but I do remember liking the film. After finally watching its predecessor from start to finish earlier this week, leaving me with mixed feelings, I watched this 1996 sequel for the first time in nearly fourteen years, and this time, I basically thought it was average.Chance, Shadow, and Sassy are still living with the same family, but the troublemaking Chance isn't sure if his young owner, Jamie Seaver, wants him around anymore. The family decides to go on a trip to Canada and take the pets with them. However, at the airport in San Francisco, when the three animals are in carriers about to be put in the cargo hold of the plane, Chance panics and the three of them escape! The plane takes of with the humans on board, who don't know that they are leaving their pets behind. The naïve young Bulldog, wise old Golden Retriever, and arrogant Himalayan cat find themselves lost again, this time not in the wilderness, but on the streets of San Francisco! While walking through the city, they meet many stray dogs, some good and some bad, and Chance even falls in love with one of the good ones, a Kuvasz named Delilah. The animals have to try and stay away from two cruel dogcatchers who drive around in search of dogs to capture and take to a laboratory! One thing that is meant for laughs in the first "Homeward Bound" film is the rivalry between Chance and Sassy, which continues here, and unfortunately, it's not that funny in either film. I once again didn't usually find either of these two characters funny, and was once again not that impressed with the voice-overs provided by Michael J. Fox and Sally Field. Just like in the first film, the humour in this sequel rarely works. There were times when I smiled, and I couldn't help but laugh a little when Chance runs off with a baseball player's catcher's mitt near the beginning, but this was not enough, and most of the dogs introduced in this sequel don't tend to help much. When I recently watched "Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey", I found that it was dull for a while but then improved when the big adventure began. However, while watching this sequel, I found that it basically continued to be dull when the adventure began, and stayed this way for most of the film. The adventure of the three pets here takes place in a very different setting, and we don't get the nice scenery. There is SOME suspense here, especially towards the end, but definitely less than there is in the 1993 release. I almost forgot to mention that the dog romance here also wasn't done do well, and it's something the original "Homeward Bound" doesn't have.Since I only found "Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey" to be barely above average when I saw it this month, I may not have ended up watching this unsurprisingly inferior sequel if I had never seen it before, but since I had previously seen "Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco" and remembered thinking it was good (better than the original at the time), I intended to watch it again and review it. Well, some movies one enjoys in their childhood can still be entertaining in adulthood, and some of them can't, and for me, this is one of the latter. I first watched it around the same time I first watched "Jumanji", and I've seen that film again twice in the past few years and it hasn't disappointed me, but that didn't turn out to be the case with this "Homeward Bound" sequel. It seems to be considerably less popular than its predecessor, as sequels often are, and even though I'm certainly not as big a fan of the 1993 film as many clearly are, I think I can understand why, at least somewhat. If they were to make another "Homeward Bound" movie, I highly doubt I would bother watching it.
Atreyu_II
"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.
dearkayzak
I might be the only one but I loved the first and second movie equally! I thought it was awesome to see them find their way home threw the wilderness and then threw the city! But some people got upset that the animals didn't explore to much of the city! Go there one day and you'll understand why they didn't! I for one thought it be a bit silly if they were to wander around SF for most of the movie, but thats just me! This movie made me laugh and cry, just as the first one did! I really cried at the scene where everyone thought Chance got hit by the truck! I mean a dog is a man's bf!! I know my dog is!! But I also love the voice actors who 'play' the animals! I believe Fox is an awesome actor/voice actor! I was upset when I heard that the original voice actor for Shadow had passed away, I watched the first movie so often that you can really tell the difference and it just sounds kinda weird!! But all in all its and excellent movie and I know they can't do a third one, cause there's nothing to do it on, its a shame nothing more can be done with the story!
