A Dog’s Journey | 2019 | PG | – 2.3.2

Why is “A Dog’s Journey” rated PG? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “thematic content, some peril and rude humor.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a couple of kisses and some cleavage revealing outfits; several scenes of dogs dying (by euthanasia and accidents), several scenes of physical and verbal abuse toward children and adults, a few scenes of peril to both humans and dogs, and discussions of cancer and cancer treatment; and a little strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.”

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In this sequel to 2017’s A Dog’s Purpose, a beloved dog (its thoughts and narration voiced by Josh Gad) has been repeatedly reincarnated, and has been reunited with its first human companion (Dennis Quaid), who is now a senior citizen caring for his step-granddaughter. However, the child’s dog-hating mother (Betty Gilpin) takes the child away and the sick, dying dog promises its owner to find the girl in each of its next lives. Also with Marge Helgenberger, Kathryn Prescott and Henry Lau. Directed by Gail Mancuso. [Running Time: 1:48]

A Dog’s Journey SEX/NUDITY 2

 – A woman hugs a man and in a later scene they both say I love you and kiss for several seconds. A twentysomething man kisses a 17-year-old girl in a pickup truck for several seconds.
► A woman says to another woman about a man, “He always had such a thing for you,” and the second woman denies a relationship with the man. A standing dog looks between its forelegs to a point we cannot see and says, “Nope, I’m a girl this time.”
► A woman wears several low cut tops and dresses that reveal cleavage and once also the top quarter of her bra. A woman wears tight-fitting leather pants that hug the curves of hips, buttocks and calves. A woman wears short shorts that bare her full legs and thighs. A woman has a large pregnant belly outline under a long dress and the scene cuts to her holding a baby at home. A woman wears slacks and a pajama top through which we see the outline of a bra and we see her abdomen.

A Dog's Journey VIOLENCE/GORE 3

 - A dog dies four times and is reincarnated three times as other dog breeds. An agitated dog owner finds a lump in the neck of his dog and the dog is euthanized; we see a large hypo injection into the dog's foreleg and his eyes close as the man cries, the screen goes white and comes up in a golden field where the dog runs through wheat. A dog dies inside a wrecked car (we see no blood); its eyes close and then we see the dog running in a wheat field. A large dog ages and walks away from its sleeping owner into the woods and then we see him running in a wheat field (implying that it died). A dog lies in a pet bed and closes its eyes as a woman cries and we see it running through a cloud in a field and it emerges as another dog, enters another cloud and comes out as a different beagle, then emerges from another cloud as the yet another dog, and runs across a rainbow bridge and meets its original owner, who died in bed as the dog lay by his side.
► A teen girl tells a young man to leave her alone when he tries to grab her, but he chases her car with his pickup truck; she swerves, squeals her tires, and flips the car onto its roof, shattering glass in a cloud of smoke as she hangs upside down, releases her seatbelt (we see no blood), and she cries as her dog lies in the roof of the car, closes its eyes and dies.
► A toddler climbs under a fence into a corral where a horse rears and paws at her, and a dog runs in and barks at the horse as a man grabs the toddler to safety. A young man hands an underage teen girl a cup of beer at a party where many teens and adults are holding cups of beer and one man sips beer from his cup; the young man purchases a bag of white powder drug from a guest as police raid the party and arrest the underage teen girl (we do not see her in jail).
► A man shouts at a woman and a dog bites his leg through his clothing; the man shouts, but we see no blood and two dogs growl at him. A dog sticks his nose into the rear end of a woman bending over a baby pool and she falls in, becoming angry and shouting. A small dog snaps at the fingers of three different women who try to pet him (no blood shows); each woman gasps and walks quickly away. A dog jumps up on a preteen girl and knocks her down, but she is unhurt. A dog rips a cushion and we see some stuffing fly. A woman slams her front door in the face of a man and a woman.
► A woman argues with her in-laws, cries, screams at them, and removes her child from their care. A woman argues with a man who tries to grab her by the arms; she escapes, shouting at the man and ending their relationship (this happens with two different men). A man shouts that he will kill a dog, but does not harm it. A woman belittles and shouts at her teen daughter several times and the girl cries. A woman tells her teen daughter that if a man attacked her, she must have provoked him. We see scenes of a woman repeatedly telling her daughter as a toddler and young child that she was useless if she was chubby. We hear that a child's father died when she was a baby. A loud thunderstorm scares a preteen girl who finds her mother is still out on a date and the child shouts and gets under a blanket with her dog. A woman comes home at dawn one morning and her young daughter finds her passed out face down on a bed. A woman stays out all night, frightening her young daughter.
► A dog is placed in a shelter and a man drives there and claims him. A woman returns a dog to a pet adoption fair and is told the dog will be euthanized, so she keeps it; the dog had chased her, run through heavy traffic, and been passed over in the street by a large truck, but was not hurt and the dog's leash catches in an elevator door, choking him, until the woman removes it and saves the dog. A woman discovers that her dog has been reincarnated four times and those dogs brought her back to her grandparents and a former boyfriend.
► An aging man groans with stiff joints in a few scenes, walks slightly bent over, and finally lays dying in bed with a favorite dog lying next to him; the scene cuts to mourners weeping softly around a coffin at a graveside service. Cancer-sniffing dogs in a clinic sniff patients and discover that a few have cancer. In a home, a dog signals that a man complaining of fatigue has cancer and the man confirms it with his doctor; we hear but do not see that he has chemotherapy and we later see him bald, resting at home and the man's girlfriend breaks up with him because she "does not like hospitals."
► A woman shovels dog feces from a graveled area that dogs are trained to use for that purpose. We see a large pool of yellow vomit on a sidewalk. A dog urinates on a bed and later, on a man's shoe while he is wearing it; the man yelps. We see a dog squat indoors and the scene cuts to a close-up of feces on a floor as a man's foot in a sock steps on it and he shouts. Two dogs walk in a circle, smelling each other's rear ends. A dog bites and scratches a leg several times and then we see him in a head cone to keep him from biting.

A Dog's Journey LANGUAGE 2

 - 4 mild scatological terms, 2 mild anatomical terms, name-calling (stupid, crazy, insane, weird, filthy dog, hero dogs, dog ladies, gross, mother, magician), exclamations (quiet), 1 religious exclamation (Oh God). | profanity glossary |

A Dog's Journey SUBSTANCE USE

 - A man buys a small pack of a white powdered drug at a party (no one is shown using it). An abusive single mother is an alcoholic who drinks wine in front of her young daughter in four scenes and often slurs her words, a woman stays out all night and drinks a mimosa on the front steps in the morning, a party scene shows many men and women as well as teen boys and teen girls holding cups of beer and one man sips his beer, and a bar scene features a few glasses of beer on the bar and glasses of beer at several tables (no one is seen drinking).

A Dog's Journey DISCUSSION TOPICS

 - Dog as pets, families, widows, parenting, parental abuse, abusive men/boyfriends, death, loss, grief, alcoholism, depression, recovery, joy, reincarnation, educating girls, resilience, self-worth, dedication, purpose, loyalty, love, companionship, music as a career.

A Dog's Journey MESSAGE

 - The best people love dogs, and they make loyal companions.