Disney: The Incredible Journey (1963)

One of my absolute favorite movies from my childhood was the 1993 Disney movie, Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey. From the moment I first saw it when I was very young, around the age of six, I watched it constantly, especially when I got it on VHS (one of the few video tapes from my childhood I still have and really treasure, as it means that much to me), to the point where I could quote it to you almost word for word. I was even obsessed with having two dogs and a cat exactly like those in the movie. Then, at some point when I was much older, like before I entered middle school, I realized it was actually a remake of an older movie that Disney produced. Though I might've been told or read about it beforehand, the exact moment where it dawned on me was when I randomly came across the VHS of this film at Wal-Mart. As if the cover art and the synopsis on the back weren't enough, what really sealed it for me was realizing that this movie's title was Homeward Bound's own subtitle, which I never paid much attention to before. While I didn't buy that VHS, I later read up on the movie and learned that, while the basic story was the same, unlike Homeward Bound, there were no voice-overs for the animals. Also, the general consensus I picked up on was that it just wasn't as memorable as its remake. In any case, I only saw The Incredible Journey for the first time in late summer of 2022, when I watched it on Disney Plus. I did it mostly because I plan on reviewing both Homeward Bound and its sequel and figured I might as well do the original, too. Upon watching it, I thought it was perfectly fine. Rather than truly groundbreaking or amazing, it was simply a harmless, charming live-action Disney film, and at just 80 minutes, it was hardly much of a commitment. While I, of course, will always prefer Homeward Bound and the great voice performances of Michael J. Fox, Sally Field, and Don Ameche, I thought the use of a narrator worked here and it was fun watching the three pets roaming the wilderness, which itself was shot very well, and getting into various misadventures, even if some of the sequences were so potentially dangerous for them that it can make you wonder what went on behind the scenes. 

If there are any faults with The Incredible Journey, one is that the writing is very, very simple. Though we certainly care about them, since we're learning everything about the pets through an omniscient narrator, we don't get to really know them as characters like we do in Homeward Bound, where they're surprisingly complex and have their own individual arcs. Another is that many of the scenes with the human characters are superfluous in the long run and tend to interrupt the flow of the story, save for a few who aid the pets on their journey. It also doesn't help that these characters are as bland as can be and have nothing to them, with the performances by the child actors being pretty bad. And finally, while I shouldn't be faulting the movie for this, because so many of the obstacles the animals run into and the major events and directions in the story are repeated in Homeward Bound, almost in the exact same chronology, there are little surprises for others like me who are coming into this after having seen the remake many times.

In the Canadian wilderness, John Longridge is looking after three pets: Luath, a young Labrador retriever, Bodger, an old bull terrier, and Tao, a Siamese cat, while their owners, the Hunter family, are away in England. Longridge plans to go on a hunting trip the next day, and when he gets a distorted, static-filled call from his housekeeper, Mrs. Oakes, about her coming by the next morning, he decides to leave her a note telling her that he's going to let the animals out for a morning run before he leaves. But, during the night, Tao, while chasing a moth, knocks that part of the note into the fireplace. After Longridge leaves the next day, Luath, who's homesick, spots a flock of geese heading for home and decides he wants to go home as well. He begins heading west, not understanding that their home is 250 miles away, and is promptly joined by Bodger and Tao, as the three of them are close-knit friends. When Mrs. Oakes and her husband come by later, they only find one half of Longridge's note and figure he took the animals with him. Traveling through the wilderness, the pets face challenges such as black bears, getting shot at, an old, doddering hermit, Bodger's old age, river rapids that temporarily separate Tao from his friends, and porcupines. Through it all, they never lose their bond, and Luath's ever-present homing instinct keeps them going, but as they make their way to the point where they're beyond human help, winter's approach may make it harder and even nigh impossible for them to persevere.

Based on a 1961 novel by Sheila Burnford, The Incredible Journey was directed by Fletcher Markle, a Manitoba-born filmmaker who, by this time, was a veteran of the industry, working mainly in radio and television. He notably worked with Orson Welles, directing his Mercury Theater series in 1946 (there, he met and, for a time, was married to Mercedes McCambridge, who was a member of the troupe and, most famously, would go on to voice the demon in The Exorcist) and helping with the screenplay for his 1947 film, The Lady from Shanghai. He was also majorly involved with the radio anthology series, Studio One, and later worked on the television version. The many television series he worked on include Front Row Center, Thriller, Father of the Bride, Colgate Theater, Lux Playhouse, Buckskin, and, for his final credit, a 1977 episode of The Magical World of Disney. Notably, The Incredible Journey would prove to be Markle's last feature film, which he hadn't directed since the early 50's. He died of heart failure in 1991, at the age of 70.

As we learn from the narrator, the three pets, while hardly complex and multi-faceted, do have their own distinct personalities. Luath, the Labrador, is sort of the de facto leader of the trio, as it's his homesickness and strong homing instinct that kicks off the adventure, as he decides to head for home after being inspired by a flock of geese. Young and eager, he has a knack of knowing which way is west and always wants to be moving, but quickly

finds that, for different reasons, his two friends don't quite share his determination. Luath also does everything he can to avoid human contact out of fear that they would be recognized, and that includes getting food from them. But eventually, he has no choice but to accept help when his ignorance and curiosity get him a face full of porcupine needles. He's found by James Mackenzie, a local hunter, who brings him home and removes the needles, as well as gives him and

old Bodger food and shelter. Speaking of Bodger, the bull terrier, he's more of a follower, quite satisfied to let Luath lead the way. However, his old age and stiff, achy joints initially prove to be a liability for the group, as he has to stop and rest often, and it's only due to his friends' intervention that he's saved from getting killed by a black bear. And unlike Luath, Bodger is willing to seek help from humans, especially if it means a meal. It's his idea to follow a hermit named Jeremy home (although, they get no food from this old and befuddled man), and when Luath is brought home by Mackenzie, Bodger has already arrived and made friends with his wife. And finally, Tao, the Siamese cat, is the most free-spirited of the group. While Luath and Bodger keep in step with each other, Tao is always running about and inspecting everything he sees and hears, as well as chasing after anything he can possibly make a meal of (that behavior contributes to the adventure happening at all, as he unintentionally destroys part of John Longridge's note while chasing a moth around the house). When they have to stop to wait for Bodger to rest and recuperate, Tao has no problem with it at all, as it gives him the opportunity to do some more exploring. However, when they have to cross a river, his natural disdain for water gets him in serious trouble when he attempts to use a beaver dam as a bridge, only for it to break, causing him to be swept away. Though the dogs believe him dead, he's found by a Finnish family, the Nurmis, living by the riverside and is nursed back to health. He promptly rushes to catch up with the dogs and later, when Mackenzie puts them in the barn for the night, Tao climbs in with them, as nothing will keep these three friends apart.

That's what you come to realize very quickly about these pets: they're lifelong friends who are positively inseparable and will put their lives on the line for each other. Not only is Luath willing to let Bodger rest, despite his eagerness to carry on, but when Bodger's legs give out on him and he basically collapses, Luath and Tao try to help him, the latter hunting down a bird for him to eat. Moreover, when Bodger is attacked by a black bear

and is too weak to defend himself, his friends come running, put themselves between him and the bear, and manage to drive her away. By the same token, when Tao falls into the river and is swept downstream, Luath jumps in and tries to save him, while Bodger, due to his age and lack of strength, can only watch from the shore. After Tao disappears into the rapids, the dogs, despite knowing instinctively that he's gone, wait by the

riverside for hours, hoping that, any minute now, he'll pop up and come back to them. Eventually, they realize they have to push on without him, though eventually, they are reunited. Shortly afterward, when Luath gets on the bad side of a porcupine, both literally and figuratively, Bodger tries to help, but only makes things worse by pushing the quills deeper into his skin. Later, when the dogs are momentarily taken in by the Mackenzies, Bodger, not knowing that he's trying

to help, becomes defensive when Mackenzie goes to remove the quills and softly bites onto his arm. Though he doesn't hurt him, the gesture, coupled with his growling, says it all, and Mackenzie has to get his wife to lure Bodger onto the porch so he can finish the job. The whole time, Bodger barks from outside the window, as well as jumps up and down, not liking the sound of Luath's pained whining, and when he's let back inside, he goes straight for his friend and licks the side of his face.

That night, Mackenzie puts the two of them in the barn and Tao, who's been watching everything play out from afar, without Mackenzie's knowledge, sneaks inside and joins his friends, unlatching the screen door they're put behind. This allows them to continue on their journey the next day, unaware that John Longridge has put out a bulletin for them.

The narration is provided by Rex Allen, an actor, singer, and songwriter who, in the 1950's, was a big box-office draw when he starred in a number of westerns as a "singing cowboy" in the vein of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. He was also very much in demand for narration, with The Incredible Journey being just one of a number of similar Disney live-action films and shorts where you can hear him, with other examples being The Legend of Lobo, Yellowstone Cubs, A Country Coyote Goes Hollywood, Run, Appaloosa, Run, and Charlie, the Lonesome Cougar (he also later narrated the animated film of Charlotte's Web). You can definitely understand why he was sought after just from watching this, as he had a very rich, warm, and soothing voice, with a drawl that made him come off like the quintessential cowboy (he was often called "the Voice of the West" for this very reason), and he makes up for the lack of voice acting from the animals. His description of their personalities and thoughts, combined with the performances by the animals themselves, help sell the story.

Though most of the human characters are very superfluous, John Longridge (Emile Genest) is significant in that he's the character who sets up the whole story. A flashback reveals how he was visiting his friends, the Hunter family, when Prof. James Hunter announced that he'd been offered a visiting fellowship at Oxford University. They then realized that, in their excitement, they hadn't thought about what they were going to do with their pets, and that's when Longridge stepped in and offered to take care of them while the family was away. But then, when the opening day of duck season comes around, he leaves for an annual hunting trip, intending for his housekeeper, Mrs. Oakes, to take care of them in the meantime (he couldn't just forget about it for one year for the sake of his friends' pets?). He writes Mrs. Oakes a note, telling her that he'll let the animals out for a morning run before he leaves, but when Tao knocks that part of it into the fireplace, and Mrs. Oakes and her husband find no sign of the animals when they arrive, they assume Longridge took them with him. Returning home later in the movie and learning the animals aren't there, he figures that they've gone home, remembering how Luath offered him his paw before he left, as though he were saying goodbye. He also correctly guesses that they would instinctively head west, and though he doesn't give much for Bodger or Tao's chances, he feels Luath might make it. He calls the forest rangers and learns that Tao got as far as Lintola, a hundred miles away, then flies to the Hunters' home to be there when they return and tell them what's happened. There, he and the Hunters keep trying to find the animals, and Longridge learns that James Mackenzie recently had the dogs at his home in Conrad. With all hope lost when they realize that the animals would have to head through the harsh territory of the Ironmouth Mountains, Longridge, feeling guilty about it, decides to arrange it so young Peter Hunter will be able to adopt a bull terrier puppy from a kennel. Of course, by the end of the movie, it's not necessary.

There's little to nothing to be said about the Hunter family, as they truly are one-dimensional. Prof. James Hunter (John Drainie) is so preoccupied with his invitation to lecture at Oxford that he forgets about the issue of what to do with their pets. Though his wife, Nancy (Sandra Scott), suggests simply putting them in a kennel, young Elizabeth (Marion Finlayson), Tao's owner, as well as Longridge's goddaughter, doesn't like that idea,

mentioning how the cat doesn't like being cooped up. At the end of the movie, though the adults have written the animals off, Elizabeth is convinced that Tao will come back and it keeps her spirits up. However, her brother, Peter (Ronald Cohoon), Bodger's owner, is pretty despondent over having apparently lost him. Though Longridge tries to cheer him up with the bull terrier puppy's kennel registration papers, which he gives him for his

birthday, it doesn't do much. Then, Elizabeth hears the sound of a dog barking nearby, as do the others eventually, and both the kids and Longridge, convinced it may be Luath, get James to whistle for him. Luath then comes running, followed shortly afterward by Tao, much to Elizabeth's delight, but in the excitement, everyone realizes that Bodger hasn't shown up. Initially, Peter, despite his sadness, is willing to accept Bodger's loss, only for him to then come straggling along and for Peter to

happily run to him. While Drainie and Scott do the best they can with their underwritten roles, those kids can't act to save their lives. That's especially true of Ronald Cohoon, whose sorrow over having seemingly lost Bodger feels very artificial and wooden, despite the "tears" on his face.

You'd probably expect Mrs. Oakes (Beth Amos) and her husband, Bert (Eric Clavering), to be sort of comic relief, given Longridge's static-filled phone call with her and how, when they arrive at the home, she's fussing about, wondering where the animals are, while Bert tells her to settle down. But, much like the Hunters, they're peripheral characters, not seen again until Longridge returns from his trip and learns that the animals have disappeared. They briefly help him in his trying to figure out where the pets are and get the word about them out to the rangers, but once he decides to meet with the Hunters to give them the bad news, they're not seen again.

Of the humans the pets meet during their journey, the most interesting is definitely Old Jeremy (Tommy Tweed), an oddball hermit who, according to the narrator, is a kind enough soul, especially to animals. Bodger and Tao first meet him as he's walking home, humming "Oh My Darling, Clementine," as Maud, a crow who lives with him, sits atop his hat. He proves his friendliness when, upon being approached by the dog and cat, he chuckles and says, "Good day to you." The two of them follow after him as he heads on, and Luath, who's just caught himself a rabbit, does the same, although warily, given his desire not to attract attention from humans. Arriving at his cabin, and knocking, despite living there alone, Jeremy invites them in, as he prepares to serve some really nice-looking stew (it reminds me of the stew my grandmother used to make). But he sets three places for them at the table, apparently not comprehending that they're animals, and when he's served bowls of the stew, he tells them to sit, which they do... on the floor. He then sits himself and begins eating his serving, as the confused and hungry animals watch on. When they don't eat the other bowls of stew, he absentmindedly polishes them off himself, and is only snapped out of it when Maud, who's being stalked by Tao, flies onto his arm. Figuring it's time for their nap, Jeremy lets the other animals out and, if it weren't already clear, proves that he has dementia when he thanks them for coming by and tells Bodger, "Remember me most kindly to your mother."

After Tao is washed down the river, he's saved and taken in by the Finnish Nurmi family living by the river. He's first spotted by the young girl, Helvi (Syme Jago), and she goes and gets her father, Carl (Jan Rubes), who retrieves him from the water and brings him ashore. With the help of his wife (Irena Mayeska), Carl and Helvi dry Tao off and nurse him back to health. Tao becomes especially close to Helvi, as she's rather lonely, being her parents' 

only child, and so, it's kind of sad when Tao has to leave in order to catch up with the dogs (especially after the heartwarming scene where Carl takes the two of them to bed and tucks them in while singing a Finnish song). He does try to tell her goodbye while she's sleeping before heading out the window. Similarly, after Luath is injured by the porcupine, he's found by local hunter James Mackenzie (Robert Christie). Seeing the quills stuck in his face, he takes the dog back home with

him, only to find that Bodger is there and has made friends with his wife, Nell (Beth Lockerbie), after showing up and begging for food (Tao is there as well, but the Mackenzies never see him). Though Bodger objects to it, once Nell gets him on the porch and out of the way, Mackenzie is able to remove the quills from Luath. Feeding them and putting them into the barn for the night, he intends to try to find who they belong to the next day. By then, the animals have gone, though John Longridge and the Hunters do learn that he temporarily had them.

Besides its animal actors, the movie's biggest strength is how beautifully shot it is, with a rich, bright color palette that brings out the beauty of the Canadian wilderness in the autumn. The opening credits sequence itself is used as an excuse to show off just how lovely this area is, with helicopter flyover shots of the forest and plains, a very beautiful lake (Lake Vernon in Huntsville, Ontario), a nice little farm (also in Huntsville), and a picturesque hamlet of a village (Aspdin, again in

Ontario), ending with a gorgeous sunset before we're introduced to John Longridge and the animals. However, while these shots and others, such as Old Jeremy and the Nurmi family's homes, were shot up in Canada, much of the work with the animals was actually done in Washington, with some additional shooting in Oregon, as the season in Ontario was too short to film up there entirely. In fact, before filming began, producer Jack Couffer visited author Sheila Burnford at her home in Port

Arthur in order to photograph the wilderness and find places in the United States that matched. Though I've never been up to Canada myself (I have gotten close to Oregon), I think they did a pretty good job with the matching, as I never questioned that we were still in the Canadian wilderness. The animals pass through a number of memorable, lovely spots, like a small bridge running over a creek, pretty forests, some train

tracks going across a bridge, a seemingly deserted sawmill, a river with beaver dams and raging rapids, and plenty of lovely streams and meadows. Some of those latter shots feel more like they were done in the springtime than in the autumn, but they're offset by the last part of the journey, where the animals head through the area near the Ironmouth Mountains, which becomes icy and snowy as they go on. The quality of the

cinematography by Kenneth Peach is always superb, and while it's never showy or fancy, because of the lack of humans for much of the movie and the natural graininess of the film stock, it often looks like a nature documentary, like one of Disney's True-Life Adventures. In fact, there are shots of other animals beside our main trio that I'm sure are stock footage from such sources. The only thing that can kill that notion of documentary authenticity is the scenes where they have to use day-for-night photography, such as during the nighttime exteriors at the Mackenzie home.

In the animals' interactions with humans throughout their journey, we run the gambit of various types of homes. We start with John Longridge's very nice, well-furnished, country house in the woods, with a big fireplace in the den, where Tao likes to sleep, a nice kitchen, where Luath beds down for the night, and a big bed in the master of bedroom, which Bodger sneaks into while Longridge is asleep. Although we only see it during Mrs. Oakes' static-filled phone call with

Longridge, her and her husband's home is rather nice as well. But the loveliest house in the film belongs to the Hunter family. Though we only see a little bit of its exterior, the dining room and den, it's enough to see how well off they are, as it looks even more posh than Longridge's already nice home. By contrast, Old Jeremy's cabin deep in the wilderness is much smaller and simpler, but when you see its interior, you see that it's not at all rundown or unkempt; in fact, it's kind of nice in

its simplicity, with one large room containing a dining table and stove on one end and a bookshelf and some nice furniture on the other. The same goes for the Nurmi family's home, which looks like a haphazardly put together cabin on the outside but, on the inside, it's very lovely and quaint, like something straight out of Little House on the Prairie, with its little kitchen and dining room, and Helvi's bedroom upstairs. Finally, the Mackenzies

live on a small farm and are clearly much more well off than the Nurmis, with modern conveniences such as a telephone and a sink with running water, as well as a barn and bales of wheat in the front yard, which really help bring out that feeling of fall.

As I've already said, the three lead animals are where the movie really shines. Not only are their interactions with each other just delightful, as you see the close bond between them and how they're willing to lay down their lives with each other, but they're also very well trained (each one of them had his own trainer), each displaying his own distinct personality. But, while the more action-oriented and suspenseful sequences, like when Bodger is menaced by a big mother black bear and

his friends come to the rescue, Tao falls into the river and Luath tries to save him, Tao is stalked and chased by a lynx while trying to reunite with the dogs, and Luath gets a face-full of porcupine quills, are exciting enough, like any film dealing with animals in this manner, you can't help but hope that the filmmakers weren't too abusive or put them into too much danger. That's especially true when you remember that this was just five years after the notorious Real-Life Adventure, White Wilderness,

with its staged lemming "migration" and "mass suicide" scene (incidentally, the director of that film, James Algar, wrote the screenplay for this). While I'm fine with the moment where the two bear cubs crawl over to and mess around with Bodger (although the dog himself doesn't appreciate it), when the mother bear comes in and attacks him because she thinks he hurt them, it's a bit harrowing to watch. That bear is really big,

towering over the animals when she's on her hind legs, and there are a number of shots where she's in the same frame with them, so you know there's no editing or visual effects used to splice them together. And as tame or trained as she might've been, the animals look genuinely frightened of her, and she seems thrown off and scared by their reactions to her, so there's a chance she could've really attacked them.

Even more nerve-wracking is when Tao falls into the river and is swept away, despite Luath's attempt to save him. You actually see the cat attempt to jump across this large gap in the beaver dam, only for it to give way underneath him, and then, you see him heading down the river, trying to keep his head above the water. On top of that, Luath desperately runs across the riverside and jumps into the water, trying to catch up to Tao, only for the cat to disappear within the rapids. While

another of the controversial scenes in White Wilderness, where a polar bear cub falls down a slope of ice, was eventually revealed to have been shot in a studio rather than in the wild, throughout this scene, it's clear that they filmed on an actual river, put the cat in a section where the current gets rough, and let him get swept into the white water rapids. I really hope they put in safety precautions and that there was someone down there waiting to catch him, or net him, or something. Even the dog

playing Luath wasn't completely spared, as you see him getting knocked around on some rocks before he climbs up onto them for safety. Similar to the scene with the bear, when Tao is stalked and chased by a lynx, you can see the lynx right on his tail, and after a moment where he almost catches him on the ground, he corners him up on a tree branch. That moment, again, is rather harrowing, as Tao is clearly frightened, growling and swiping 

at the lynx as he gets closer, before jumping down to the ground, only for the lynx to continue the chase. The lynx corners him again, this time inside a hollow log, and tries to get at him, but is chased away when a young boy with a rifle comes along and takes a shot at him. Like with the bear, even if that lynx was docile and trained (I don't know if that's possible), those wild instincts could've easily led him to kill Tao for real. 

Speaking of which, in those scenes where the animals hunt for food, like when Tao gets some fish early on, then hunts and kills a bird for Bodger to eat, and Luath chases and catches a rabbit, I can't help but wonder if they really let them kill those animals. Likely, the dead ones they carry around in their mouths were already dead, but I can't help but wonder. Also, in those instances where they're shot at, like when this guy at the sawmill shoots at Bodger and that kid hunter shoots at the lynx, those

gunshots hit awfully close. Even if they were blanks, that could still be potentially dangerous for them. Finally, while I'm sure the quills he gets in his face after he tangles with the porcupine were just something they glued onto him, the scene where Luath actually messes around with him could've been truly dicey, as he gets his face really close to the quills in the back. In the end, while no

evidence has ever been uncovered that the animals here were mistreated or even killed, as is widely believed to have happened on The Adventures of Milo and Otis, given what we now know about how Disney handled wildlife previously, it does give you a bit of an unsettling feeling during those scenes.

Still, the animals, along with the lovely location work and Rex Allen's narration, are what make the movie, which can't be said of many of the scenes with the human characters. While the opening with John Longridge works nice as a set-up for the adventure, and the scenes with the Nurmi family and the Mackenzies are significant in the story, with the former being quite touching in the short bond between Tao and Helvi, just about everything else feels like filler that could've been removed.

That includes the entire scene with Old Jeremy. Rather than funny, it's just kind of awkward, given Jeremy's clear dementia and how the hungry animals miss out on a meal because of it, and it stops the movie cold for a little over five minutes, as nothing about it advances the story. In addition, all the stuff with Longridge returning home to find the animals missing, his attempts to track them down by putting out a bulletin on them, and his

going to the Hunter home at the end to deliver the news and continue with the search, could've been trimmed or removed as well, given how none of the characters are that memorable or interesting. The filmmakers could've easily come up with new scenes with the animals to pad out the missing running time and then keep the ending where they're reunited with their family. Okay, to be fair, you could keep the scene before that, with

Longridge and Mr. and Mrs. Hunter, as you see his regret about letting this happen and learn how the kids are taking the loss, which play into the ending, but we could figure out that the humans would've eventually learned of their disappearance and would be searching for them, so there wouldn't be any need to dwell on it. Homeward Bound would handle this part of the story much more effectively.

And as I said in the introduction, unfair as it may be, that's something major The Incredible Journey has going against it: there's a much more popular remake that, for many, including myself, improved upon it in every respect. It not only made the animals into actual characters through the voiceovers but made the human characters, especially the children, people you actually get into and don't mind watching when they're onscreen rather than the animals. It also doesn't help that the

sequence of major events here are repeated almost verbatim and in the same order in Homeward Bound, so for someone like me, who's seen that movie dozens and dozens of times, I was sitting here, checking off the plot-points. One of the dogs decides to go home and the others follow him? Check. The person looking after them has to go somewhere and leaves a note for their temporary caretaker, only for part of it to get lost? Check. They encounter some bear cubs, followed by a big

bear? Check. The cat falls into the river while crossing and is swept away? Check. The cat is found and nursed back to health by one or two good Samaritans, then later reunites with the dogs? Check. One of the dogs gets on the wrong end of a porcupine? Check. The other dog thinks his friend is being hurt when the quills are removed and tries to help? Done very differently and in a much more elaborate sequence, but still, check. The ending is

almost completely the same, too, right down to the kids first hearing one of the dogs, the young dog appearing first, then the cat, and finally, after a little bit where they believe he didn't make it, the old dog, who comes hobbling along, as his elated owner runs to him. And speaking of the ending, unlike Homeward Bond, the animals don't have to get around one last major obstacle in the final act.

We can see they're going to have a hard time as they head towards the Ironmouth Mountains, as they have to make their way through icy and snowy conditions, but that's the last time we see them before the ending, so it's a bit anticlimactic and undramatic.

On a really sad note, this was the final film for longtime Disney composer Oliver Wallace, who'd been with the company since the mid-30's and had scored well over a hundred of their animated shorts, as well as a number of their features, both animated and live-action, including their documentaries and Real-Life Adventures. His score for The Incredible Journey, which was released two months after he died, is about what you would expect: big, adventurous, and exciting, as well as whimsical and saccharine, although it never gets overly emotional or sappy. Unfortunately, it's not the most memorable score, coming off as rather bland and so-so, without much variety and no really memorable themes or motifs. I hate saying that about the final work of such an accomplished composer, but I can't recall much about the score, save for the Finnish song Carl Nurmi sings while putting both Helvi and Tao to bed.

If you want something totally inoffensive to put on for the kids or need to kill an hour and a half, you could do much worse than The Incredible Journey. While not among the greatest Disney movies by a long shot, as the writing, especially for the human characters, is very simple, said humans are, for the most part, insignificant in the story, bland, and, in some cases, badly acted, and the music score isn't the greatest, what it has going for it are three likable and memorable animal leads, Rex Allen's charming narration, and beautiful cinematography of the real locations where the film was shot. If you can watch it without thinking about how the animals may have been treated during some of the dicier sequences (which I am able to), it's a perfectly fine, harmless little flick that the whole family can enjoy.