A Dog's Journey (film)
A Dog's Journey is a 2019 American family comedy-drama film directed by Gail Mancuso in her feature film directorial debut and written by W. Bruce Cameron, Cathryn Michon, Maya Forbes, and Wally Wolodarsky. The film is based on the 2012 novel of the same name by Cameron and is the sequel to the 2017 film "A Dog's Purpose". The film stars Josh Gad, Dennis Quaid, Marg Helgenberger, Betty Gilpin, Kathryn Prescott, and Henry Lau. The film is a co-production between Amblin Entertainment, Reliance Entertainment, Walden Media, and Alibaba Pictures and was  released by Universal Pictures in the United States on May 17, 2019. Plot. Bailey, an old St. Bernard/Australian Shepherd, lives happily with his owner Ethan, the latter’s wife Hannah, their 2-year-old granddaughter CJ and her mother Gloria on their farm in Michigan. He is very fond of CJ. Gloria is an inattentive mother, hates dogs, has a strained relationship with her parents-in-law and an ambition to be a singer. Gloria's suspicious nature leads her to move out with CJ. Ethan discovers a tumor in Bailey's stomach, later he holds Bailey lovingly, asking  him to take care of CJ before he is euthanized. Bailey is then shown running through a grassy field towards CJ. Nine years later, Bailey, reincarnated as a beagle named Molly, sees a now 11-year-old CJ with her best friend Trent and his parents, who are adopting the former’s favorite brother Rocky. Remembering the promise she made to Ethan in her previous life, Molly runs outside to CJ. Now living in the suburbs with Gloria, she takes Molly home, hiding her. Gloria eventually discovers this and scolds CJ for getting a dog, but reluctantly allows her to  keep Molly after CJ persuades her, as she feels neglected and lonely. CJ and Molly grow increasingly close over the years, along with Trent and Rocky. Now a teenager, CJ tells Trent she wants to drop out of high school and move to New York City with her deceased father Henry's insurance settlement to become a musician. CJ begins to date Shane, who Molly distrusts and tries to protect her from. Attending a party which gets busted by police for underage drinking, CJ is sentenced to community service where Molly learns how to detect cancer. Her grandparents try to  pay her and Gloria a visit, bringing a box of Henry's belongings, but still angry and distrustful, Gloria closes the door on them. But Molly and Ethan recognize each other and he reminds her of the promise to protect CJ. Shane assaults CJ, prompting Molly to bite him. Gloria responds nonchalantly to this, also revealing she spent all of Henry's settlement money (meant for CJ) on designer bags, her house, and car, prompting CJ to leave town with Molly. On the way out, they are stalked and tail-ended by Shane, which causes CJ’s car to flip , killing Molly. Shane flees the scene in a panic to avoid his arrest. Molly is then shown running through the same grassy field that Bailey had run through when he died. Molly is reincarnated as a Biewer Terrier named Max, who is at an adoption event in New York. Avoiding adoption until he finds CJ, he sees and chases her into her building. Although reluctant at first, she adopts Max so he doesn't get put down. Living with her boyfriend, working as a dog walker while still an aspiring musician, she hasn't overcome her stage fright. While returning  a dog to a client, Max recognizes the familiar scent of Trent and ends up at his newly rented apartment, where Trent lives with his girlfriend but without Rocky. In the scene where Max was in Trent's apartment, she could sense the fact that Rocky had died. Max, sensing CJ and Trent's feelings for each other, intentionally misbehaves, sabotaging CJ’s relationship, causing her and her boyfriend to break up and her to move out. After staying with various friends, Max pulls CJ to Trent on the street, who offers her his spare room. Remembering how to diagnose  cancer during his life as Molly, Max signals to CJ that he detects it on Trent and CJ urges Trent to see a doctor. The doctor confirms and Trent begins chemo. His girlfriend shallowly leaves him, so CJ becomes his primary caretaker. Once Trent is cancer-free, he urges CJ to accept a meeting with Gloria, who was at the time 9 months and 13 days sober. Gloria has since warmed up to dogs and has stopped being neglectful. She gives CJ some of the things sent from Ethan and Hannah (letters from Henry that he had written while she  was pregnant with CJ). They inspire CJ to write more songs and lead to her finally perform, kicking off her musical career. To repay CJ, Trent takes her and Max on a road trip to her grandparents’ farm, where she reunites with them for the first time since she moved away. Ethan immediately recognizes Max as Bailey. He shows CJ, having Max perform a trick with Ethan that only Bailey would know. She finally understands that Bailey, Molly, Big Dog, and Max are all the same dog who brought her and Trent together. CJ and Trent confess their love for  one another, eventually marry and have a son named Saint. Gloria reconciles with her daughter and in-laws. Ethan dies in bed, surrounded by his family, with Max at his side. Max later ages and dies as well, with CJ at his side. The final scene is with Bailey running through the grassy field, morphing backwards through his previous incarnations, before crossing the Rainbow Bridge and reuniting with Ethan in heaven. Bailey got to be with Ethan forever as a reward for being a good dog throughout all of his lives. Production. On June 21, 2017, CEO of Amblin Entertainment  Michael Wright announced that a sequel to the film "A Dog's Purpose" was in development. On August 26, 2018, Universal Pictures began production on the sequel. Principal photography began in August 2018. Release. The film was released by Universal Pictures on May 17, 2019. It was released by Entertainment One in foreign territories, where actor Peter Baykov is the voice of Trent for international release. Home media. "A Dog's Journey" was released on digital on 6 August and Blu-ray, DVD and on-demand on 20 August from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Blu-ray Bonus Features Include: Reception . Box office. "A Dog's Journey" grossed $22.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $52.8 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $75.6 million. In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside "" and "The Sun Is Also a Star", and was projected to gross $10–14 million from 3,267 theaters in its opening weekend. It ended up debuting to just $8 million, the lowest opening of any of W. Bruce Cameron's "Dog" films. In its second weekend the film made $4.1 million, finishing seventh, and then $ 1 million in its third. Critical response. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads: ""A Dog's Journey" is as sentimental as one might expect, but even cynical viewers may find their ability to resist shedding a tear stretched to the limit." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 43 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on  an A+ to F scale, the same as its predecessor, while those at PostTrak gave it 3.5 out of 5 stars.