The predecessor to this film, A Dog's Purpose, had me in tears. Luckily, I was streaming it so I could pause it while I gathered my emotions back together. For its spin-off sequel, I was in the theatres on opening day, so I had no escape if the tears were to come this time around. But that was not the case. There were a couple of times when I could feel the lump forming in my throat, but it didn't have the same emotional impact so I was able to keep control of it.
If you have seen the trailer, you have unfortunately seen the entirety of the film trimmed down to 90 seconds. So there is little that I could do to spoil it, but I will try and reduce spoilers to a minimum as per usual.
The simplified version of the plot is that Bella (played by dog actress Shelby) ends up 400 miles away from her owner, and must travel to find her way back home, overcoming obstacles along the way. Now the pacing of the film is a bit off and does feel like it's dragging after a while. This likely comes to the film taking nearly half the film to finish developing the characters and getting the plot started.
As far as obstacles go, there were some great scenes and other animal actors involved, but there was also a huge portion that revolved around tangents with unnecessary CGI animals. Not horrible CGI, but definitely noticeable CGI that takes you out of the film each time you see it. With some very odd CGI movement and a lot of odd shakycam fight scenes, at times the film actually became laughable.
Perhaps this was because the film is based on a novel, and the novel writer is actually one of the screenwriters, so they wanted to include everything. But everything doesn't necessarily translate to the big screen that well.
As far as the good aspects, Shelby did a great job as the lead role of Bella (a role that I was shocked to find isn't listed under the film's cast list), herself being a junkyard dog that was rescued. Well trained, there were very few occasions that required her to be replaced by a CGI version, and those were the parts of the film that really shone.
If you are a dog lover and are more than happy to come to see some cheesy moments that will pull on the old heartstrings then you will certainly enjoy this film. But for all others, there are a lot of aspects that will leave you asking whether it was, in fact, worth the price of admission.
Now a driving part of the plot is that Bella is part Pitbull, and Pitbulls are a breed that is considered dangerous in many countries, to the point that they can be euthanised if animal control thinks they might be Pitbulls. It's a contentious issue for dog owners who largely agree that no dog is inherently dangerous (it's all about the owner), and the film tries to tackle this issue but struggles to do more than scratch the surface. There is the talk of it being "racism for dogs" and how Pitbull is a generic, subjective term like "hound dog", but ultimately it doesn't go deeper than that. The fact that they chose Shelby as the lead to portray the Pitbull tells you that they were afraid themselves to go all the way with it. I would have loved to be able to show a more traditional Pitbull on screen involved in all of these heartfelt moments and adventures. That would have truly been a step towards ending the stigma, but Bella looks more Labrador than Pitbull.
All in all, this is a basic film that dog lovers will enjoy. It may not be suitable for the really young members of the family, with a few scary moments, but would otherwise make a great family film with some feel-good moments.