Cats may have nine lives but Bailey, the four-legged hero of A Dog's Journey, goes on forever.
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His creator, American author W. Bruce Cameron, has invented canine reincarnation. In his novel, A Dog's Purpose - filmed in 2017 by Lasse Hallstrom - he hit on a concept that had Bailey, the film's narrator, equipped with a new identity each time he died. His memories remained intact, along with his perky disposition and irritatingly folksy voice, supplied by singer-comedian Josh Gad, but his many lives included time spent as a golden retriever, a German shepherd police dog and a Welsh corgi.
![Abby Ryder Fortson plays a young CJ in 'A Dogs Journey'. Picture: Supplied Abby Ryder Fortson plays a young CJ in 'A Dogs Journey'. Picture: Supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/fdcx/doc76n4mai66ys17o94g91a.jpg/r0_0_2081_3122_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
When we left him at the end of A Dog's Purpose, Bailey was a great Pyrenees Bernese mountain dog, a breed with an impressive coat and a serious look. He was probably wishing that he had been left to communicate for himself instead of having an annoying human do the job. And I sympathised.
Why can't we return to the days when dogs weren't endowed with voice-overs? Lassie and Rin Tin Tin became movie stars on the strength of their repertoire of inquiring expressions, insistent yelps, baritone barks and sudden dashes to the rescue. They didn't offer up character studies of their owners or readings of their moods. They got on with doing what a dog had to do.
Bailey's mission is to go on protecting Ethan (Dennis Quaid), the Michigan farmer to whom he has been devoted since Ethan was a boy and Bailey was a retriever. And it's been a long while, marked by numerous doggy deaths, rebirths and separations but Bailey has always found his way back.
Now Ethan has greying hair, creaky joints and a granddaughter, CJ. The girl's mother, Gloria (Betty Gilpin), is still mourning the death of her husband, Ethan's stepson, and their shared grief isn't making her feel any closer to Ethan and his wife, Hannah (Marg Helgenberger). She resents them and likes Bailey even less. In a temper, she takes off for the city in pursuit of success as a singer, taking CJ with her and leaving Hannah and Ethan distraught.
At this point, the film may make you feel as if you're swimming through treacle, such is its need to impress you with the strength of the magical bond between a dog and its human soulmate. But the script is canny enough to keep you diverted with its sinuous storyline and the pace and diversity of Bailey's many lives and missions. He must look after CJ (Kathryn Prescott) as she moves through childhood and adolescence before going to New York to weather the highs and lows of trying to make a career as a singer-songwriter - something her mother failed to do.
But that's nothing compared with the feats of adaptability required of Bailey as he takes on two new and very different lives. First, he has to downsize and become a female. I should say bitch but this new self - Molly, a cavalier spaniel beagle cross - is so richly endowed with anthropomorphic features that it would sound like an insult.
However, Gad's voice still isn't a match for it. That happens only when the story arrives in New York and Bailey morphs into Max, a yappy Yorkshire terrier who's no more than mildly funny - although he is determined, expressing his disapproval of CJ's boyfriend by strategically forgetting that he's house-trained.
Like Bailey, these films could go on forever. But if there's more sequels, I hope future Baileys cut the chat and leave the punchlines to the human members of the cast.