A Dog's Purpose is a 2017 American comedy-drama film directed by Lasse Hallström and written by W. Bruce Cameron, Cathryn Michon, Audrey Wells, Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky, based on the 2010 novel of the same name by Cameron. The film stars Britt Robertson, KJ Apa, Juliet Rylance, John Ortiz, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Peggy Lipton, Dennis Quaid and Josh Gad.
A week prior to the film's release, a video surfaced on TMZ showing footage taken from the set of the film, which showed a German Shepherd dragged and dipped into rushing water while visibly resisting. After initial backlash, it was determined the video had been deliberately edited to mislead viewers.
The film is a co-production between Amblin Entertainment, Reliance Entertainment, Walden Media and Pariah Entertainment Group. It was released by Universal Pictures on January 27, 2017, and grossed over $196 million worldwide.
Video A Dog's Purpose (film)
Plot
In the 1950s, a feral puppy named Toby is whisked away to the dog pound and quickly euthanized, wondering if "fun" truly is life's purpose.
His strong spirit is reborn and reincarnated as a newborn Retriever puppy in 1961. Toby leaves his cage at a puppy mill and is found by two garbage men who plan to sell him for their own profit. They leave to drink and Toby is spotted locked inside their pick-up truck by a young boy named Ethan and his mother, who rescue him from the brink of death by heatstroke. After they convince Ethan's father, the dog is allowed to stay and renamed Bailey.
Bailey and Ethan bond quickly, especially over the summer when the family visits Ethan's maternal grandparents' farm, and Bailey now believes Ethan alone is his purpose. Years pass and after several attempts at advancing in his job failed, Ethan's father has become a deadbeat alcoholic, though teenage Ethan still tries to respect him - inviting him to a football game now that he has been named starting quarterback.
Over the summer, Ethan goes to a fair with Bailey and meets Hannah, who he quickly begins dating, with Bailey referring to her as "part of the pack". Ethan and Hannah spend their summer happy together though their senior years are upcoming, but they plan to go to the same school; popular Ethan getting a football scholarship and Hannah following him on an academic one. When he goes home one night though, Ethan's father is drunk and shouting at Ethan's mother. He turns on Ethan then and when his mother tries to keep them separated, he shoves her to the ground. Ethan orders his father to leave and never come back, and becomes "the leader of the pack".
Later, at a game watched by scouts, Ethan is offered a full 4-year scholarship to Michigan State, but that night a vindictive classmate named Todd throws a lit firecracker into Ethan's house as a prank, which unintentionally results in a house fire. Bailey alerts Ethan, who goes to save his mother. Unable to get out of the door, they head out through his mother's bedroom window upstair. Ethan first lowers her with her sheets to the neighbors below, then Bailey - but when trying to jump himself, Ethan badly fractures his leg, ending his dreams of an athletic scholarship. Bailey attacks Todd, who is apprehended and arrested by the police. Now, Ethan must go to an agricultural school where he will learn to take over his grandparents' farm. Falling into depression, self-pity and bitterness, Ethan grudgingly breaks off his romance with Hannah before leaving for college. Sometime afterwards, an aged Bailey slowly expires at the veterinarian's office after sharing an eleventh-hour teary goodbye with Ethan.
Bailey reincarnates into another dog life, a female German Shepherd police dog named Ellie, sometime in the late 1970s/early 1980s, while possessing full memories and experiences of his past lives. Ellie is partnered with a widowed officer named Carlos from the Chicago Police Department, and works hard at "showing" and "finding", now seeing the job as life's purpose. The two form a close relationship which ends after Ellie jumps into a rushing river and saves a kidnapped girl from drowning, and is then fatally shot during a struggle with the armed kidnapper who was a moment away from killing an unsuspecting Carlos.
Reborn again in the mid-1980s as a Pembroke Welsh Corgi, he forms a bond with an Atlanta college student named Maya who names him Tino. Maya is lonely, which Tino, having bonded closely with the girl, realizes, and makes his purpose to find her some happiness. She starts a relationship with another classmate named Al who she begins seeing after Tino falls for Al's dog, a black and white Landseer named Roxie, and allows her to open up to him. Maya and Al marry and have 3 children who all love the Corgi. In love with Roxie (though she does not seem to reciprocate the romance), Tino is permanently heartbroken when one day she does not return from the vet. As he lies dying of old age in the late 1990s, Tino thanks Maya for giving him one of his best lives.
Bailey is again reborn and reincarnated, this time, as a St. Bernard-Australian Shepherd mix, sometime during the next decade, only to be taken in by an abusive and neglectful urban couple who name him Waffles. Waffles is eventually dumped in an abandoned lot and reluctantly sets off in search of a new life. Walking past a dog park and remembering how long it had been since he played, Waffles meets a dog and her human who hold a familiar scent to him, though he knows neither of them. He gradually makes his way to the country area where he spent summers as Bailey without even realizing at first where he is headed. He joyfully reunites with his old master Ethan, who is now somewhere in his 50s, living a lonely life and apparently broken in spirit at his grandparents' old farm, which he now owns and runs. Ethan, of course, initially has no idea who this wandering dog really is and hands him over to the local animal shelter. But he soon has a change of heart and reclaims him, naming him Buddy. Buddy, sensing that he has finally found the true purpose of life that has long evaded him, finds a way to reunite Ethan with a widowed Hannah, and they eventually get married.
Buddy finally convinces Ethan that he is his beloved childhood pet by performing some tricks and responding to key phrases that were known only to the two of them all those many, many long years ago. The dog in voiceover tells the viewer that life is about having fun; saving others; not getting caught in the past or regrets; finding someone to be with; and living for today.
Maps A Dog's Purpose (film)
Cast
Production
In 2015, DreamWorks acquired the film rights for Cameron's novel. On May 8, 2015, it was announced Lasse Hallström would direct the film. On August 5, 2015, Britt Robertson and Dennis Quaid joined the cast. On September 18, 2015, Pooch Hall was cast in the film. On October 15, 2015, Bradley Cooper joined the cast to play the dog's inner voice. He was eventually replaced by Josh Gad. Principal photography began on August 17, 2015.
Release
In December 2015, the film switched from a DreamWorks Pictures release to under the Amblin Entertainment banner as per Amblin Partners' newly enacted branded strategy. The film was released by Universal Pictures on January 27, 2017. Universal also distributed it overseas, except for countries where Mister Smith Entertainment handled international sales.
Box office
A Dog's Purpose has grossed $64.5 million in the United States and Canada and $131.9 million in other territories for a worldwide gross of $196.4 million, against a production budget of $22 million.
In North America was released alongside Resident Evil: The Final Chapter and Gold, and was projected to gross $18-22 million from 3,050 theaters in its opening weekend, slightly lower than initial $27 million tracking had the film debuting to before boycotts against the film were called for. It made $466,000 from Thursday night previews and $5.3 million on its first day. It ended up debuting to $18.2 million, finishing second at the box office behind the second weekend of Universal's own Split. The film dropped 40.6% in its second weekend, grossing $10.8 million and finishing third at the box office.
Critical response
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 33% based on 133 reviews, and an average rating of 4.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A Dog's Purpose offers an awkward blend of sugary sentiment and canine suffering that tugs at animal-loving audiences' heartstrings with shameless abandon." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score 43 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.
Home media
A Dog's Purpose was released on digital HD on April 18, 2017, and was followed by a release on Blu-ray and DVD on May 2, 2017, from Universal Studios Home Entertainment. The film topped the home video sales chart for the week ending on May 7, 2017.
Animal abuse allegations
Initial reaction
On January 18, 2017, a video surfaced on TMZ showing footage taken from the set of the film, which shows a German Shepherd named Hercules being dragged and dipped into rushing water while visibly resisting. After a cut in the video, the next clip shows the dog being submerged in the water at the other end of the tank while a voice on set can be heard shouting "CUT IT!", and various people are then seen rushing towards the dog. The American Humane Association, which ensures that animals are not harmed in entertainment productions, announced that its representative on set had been suspended over the incident, and that the incident is under further investigation. PETA called for a boycott of the film. Actor Josh Gad, who voices the dog in the movie, was not on set during the making of the film, but stated that he was "shaken and sad to see any animal put in a situation against its will". Due to the release of the video, Universal Pictures cancelled the film's scheduled January 19 Los Angeles premiere.
Director Lasse Hallström stated on Twitter that he "did not witness" the actions in the video, and was "very disturbed" by the footage.
Validity of the video
Amblin Entertainment released a statement in regards to the incident, saying that "on the day of the shoot, Hercules did not want to perform the stunt portrayed on the tape so the Amblin production team did not proceed with filming that shot", and that "Hercules is happy and healthy".
Dennis Quaid also came out against the TMZ video, stating that the video did not tell the whole story, saying:
My experience is that the animals were treated great. There was no animal abuse. That video that someone took and sold for money and held on to for a year and a half until right before the film's coming out, does not tell the whole story. First of all, it's been edited and manipulated. And I think it's a scam, to tell you the truth. What they (the viewers of the video) saw was completely out of context. It was edited...and all of the footage I saw, the dog was going into the water happily and had to be restrained, actually, from going into the water many times during that day.
Quaid also said that the video was shot towards the end of the day and I would not say, in real context, that the dog was frightened. The dog was acting like a dog who was kind of tired of taking a bath and was ready to get out. And, in fact, that's what happened. They took the dog out.
On February 4, 2017, the American Humane Association reported that an independent third-party animal-cruelty expert had concluded that safety measures on the set of the film were in place and the video had been deliberately edited to mislead the public.
The film was released with AHAD approval number 06202.
Sequel
On June 21, 2017, CEO of Amblin Entertainment Michael Wright announced that a sequel was in development.
See also
- Oh! Heavenly Dog (1980 film)
- Fluke (1995 film)
- Quigley (2003 film)
References
External links
- Official website
- A Dog's Purpose on IMDb
- A Dog's Purpose at Rotten Tomatoes
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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