Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey is a 1993 remake of the 1963 film The Incredible Journey based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Sheila Burnford. The film was directed by Duwayne Dunham who has directed other films such as Little Giants and television shows such as JAG and Twin Peaks.

The film was released on February 3, 1993 and went on to gross over forty million dollars at the box office. The film was considered a success and a sequel was produced and released in 1996 titled Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco. The sequel featured the same animals and the same actors voicing the animals, except for Shadow, who was voiced by Ralph Waite in the sequel because Don Ameche died shortly after playing his role in the first film.

The film was shot at various locations in Oregon. Four national forests were used in filming, these included Deschutes National Forest, Mount Hood National Forest, Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, and Willamette National Forest. Cities and towns in Oregon that were used for filming included Portland, Oregon, Bend, Oregon, Joseph, Oregon, and Wallowa, Oregon. Two other areas used for filming were the Columbia River Gorge and Eagle Cap Wilderness Area.

This film was rated G by the MPAA.

Plot

The film stars a Golden Retriever named Shadow, voiced by Don Ameche, a Himalayan cat named Sassy voiced by Sally Field, and an American Bulldog named Chance voiced by Michael J. Fox.

The animals belonged to the Burnford-Seaver family. Bob Seaver (Robert Hays) recently married Laura Burnford (Kim Greist) and merged their families: Peter Burnford (Benj Thall), Hope Burnford (Veronica Lauren) and Jamie Seaver (Kevin Chevalia) - owners of Shadow, Sassy and Chance respectively. The plot begins when Bob must take a one-year job in San Francisco, leaving the animals at a friend's Oregon ranch. But after several days, the worried animals begin to think their family must be in trouble, so they decide to go out and look for them. On their incredible journey across the ruggedly beautiful Sierras, they encounter dangerous animals, a waterfall and even a frightening dog pound before finding their way back to the children.

Differences from the novel and 1963 film

For this film, the setting was changed from Canada to the western United States. The three central animals of the story all have their names, breeds, personalities and in one case gender changed from the original story, though their roles remain mostly intact. The elder dog in the novel was named Bodger, a white Bull Terrier. This role is given to Shadow, the Golden Retriever, who also assumes a much stronger leadership role. The younger, newly adopted dog was Luath, a red-gold Labrador, a role filled in the film by Chance, a American Bulldog. Chance is portrayed as more foolhardy than Luath, and at first expresses little loyalty or devotion to his humans. The role of the cat was originally Tao, a male Siamese. This role was changed to a female Himalayan, Sassy, who is portrayed as having a strong distaste for canines and seems to enjoy antagonizing Chance. Also, in the film all three "speak" to each other telepathically, unheard by human observers.

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