In 1961, Red Retriever Bailey (voiced by Josh Gad) is a puppy on a quest to figure out his reason for being. He is already on his second life—his first didn’t even last long enough for him to find an owner. This time around, Bailey discovers that’s there’s so much more to life when he’s taken in by 8-year-old Ethan (Bryce Gheisar). The two of them become fast, inseparable friends. No matter what family issues or hardships arise, Bailey is always there for Ethan, and Ethan is there for him. Bailey is even the perfect wing-man for teenage Ethan (K.J. Apa), helping him meet Hannah (Britt Robertson), the future love of his life. Sadly, no one lives forever, and when it’s Bailey’s time to move on, he still doesn’t have an answer to what his purpose is in life.

So, as the decades pass, Bailey continues to be reincarnated into various dogs with new owners, who each help him piece together the answer he his looking for. With each new owner Baily discovers a new way of living and new kinds of relationships. In this journey of several lifetimes he experiences being a K-9 German Shepherd named Ellie in the ’70s with a widower cop as an owner, a Corgi named Tino in the ’80s with a lonely college student, and in the ’90s/’00s, a neglected St. Bernard/Australian Shepherd mutt named Buddy. However, no matter how much time passes, he never forgets his first owner, Ethan.

A Dog’s Purpose is narrated by Bailey. While not every camera shot is viewed from the dog’s perspective, viewers constantly hear his thoughts on the new things he sees or experiences, his dislike of cats, or how he misinterprets human behavior in some comical way. I’m not a pet owner, but I could tell the kind of jokes the writers were going for, and I think viewers who are pet owners will relate to and find humor in all of the trouble that Bailey gets into and his misguided observations.

The crux of the film is spent following the relationship between Bailey and Ethan, and how that evolves over the years. This provides a really interesting dramatic story that explores friendship, first love, dealing with an alcoholic father, and ultimately loss. Then the film becomes more of an anthology, telling the stories of other owners and their relationship with each incarnation of “Bailey”. Upon hearing the premise of the film, one might assume that it would be depressing to see this dog die over and over again. While there is sadness, each of the stories also provides a lot of fun moments, and show how Bailey is able to transform many of his owner’s lives for the better. You also start to see that the end for Bailey is really just the beginning of a whole new adventure.

This film has lots of fun moments with pets going wild, some heartbreaking dramatic moments, and even some action-packed sequences. Overall, I enjoyed the film—while sad at times, the film ultimately builds to a happy and uplifting final act that should leave audiences in tears…this time, of joy. Each of Bailey’s incarnations provides an interesting story, however, some of the middle lives felt like they were there own separate things instead of being part of some larger narrative. The pacing felt a bit unbalanced—Bailey’s first life is done within a few minutes, then the film spends a long time on Bailey’s life with Ethan, followed by three more much shorter tales. Bailey’s quest to discover a dog’s purpose seems to get lost at times during the drama or action of the film, and this notion just pops up once a decade or so. This made the his other lives feel more like a mechanism to pass some time in order to get when the film needed to be for its final act, rather than as a reason to help Bailey figure out a dog’s purpose. While I thoroughly enjoyed the final act, I never felt like the title question of the film was ever fully answered or earned. That said, this didn’t affect my enjoyment of the film.

The filmmakers assembled a great cast—both the human and four-legged kind. The animal actors are a lot of fun on screen, and Josh Gad’s commentary really helps enhance that. The three actors playing Ethan in various stages of his life (the adult version is played by Dennis Quaid) do an excellent job of utilizing the same mannerisms to make you really believe they are all the same person. I found Britt Robertson to be delightful as Hannah, and also fully enjoyed Kirby Howell-Baptiste’s performance as lonely ’80s college student Maya.

The Blu-ray presentation looks and sounds fantastic. With each of Bailey’s lives, the color pallet changes to match the decade—in the 60s things are bright and colorful, and then in the 70s things are grey and more subdued as the K-9 officer hits the streets with her human partner. No matter what the color pallet, the picture always looks crisp, detailed and beautiful—at times you can even make out the individual hairs on Bailey’s face. The audio track provides clear dialogue and a catchy soundtrack, which also changes to match the decade. The stereo and surround channels are used effectively to add dimension to the action taking place on screen—as Bailey runs back and forth in the house you can hear him running back and forth between the right and left speakers.

This Blu-ray release also contains a small, but nice, selection of bonus material. This includes fifteen deleted scenes, two minutes of outtakes, and two behind-the-scenes featurettes (one on the film and the other on the book). The discs comes packed in standard keepcase with a slipcover, which also contains an insert with a code to redeem for a Digital HD UltraViolet or iTunes digital copy of the film as well as a code to redeem for an additional bonus digital film.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:40:02)

Blu-ray:
• 1080p / Widescreen 2.40:1
• Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English DVS (Descriptive Video Service), Spanish DTS Surround 5.1, French DTS Surround 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French

DVD:

• 480p / Anamorphic Widescreen 2.40:1
• Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, English DVS (Descriptive Video Service), Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French

Digital HD (for redemption deadline, see NBCUcodes.com)

• HD Digital copy redeemable via UltraViolet (Universal, Vudu, Flixster or CinemaNow) OR iTunes
• Additional bonus digital movie (expires 11/5/2017), redeemable at www.upherewards.com. The list of available titles at launch includes Beethoven’s Treasure Tail, The Darkness, Hail, Caesar!, Intolerable Cruelty, Notting Hill, and Somewhere in Time. This list is subject to change.

Extras:

• Deleted Scenes  (9:24)
  Collection of 15 deleted scenes. Play All or select from “He’s a Keeper”, “We’re Raising a Monster”, “I Wouldn’t Eat That”, “A Member of Our Pack”, “Bailey Soaks Ethan and Hannah”, “Bailey’s Ball Stuck in Tree”, “Bailey Sees Hannah in Town”, “Ellie Finds an Alzheimer’s Patient”, “Carlos Doesn’t Want To Socialize”, “Good Girl”, “Old Photos – Version 1”, “Old Photos – Version 2”, “Buddy Searches For Food”, “A Familiar Place”, and “Ethan or Nothing”.
• Outtakes  (2:11)
  This montage of outtakes includes moments with the cast flubbing lines or dealing with unexpected reactions from their four-legged co-stars, as well as the dogs having fun or acting in front of a green screen.
• Lights, Camera, Woof! (8:46)
  Roxy the dog narrates this look at the making of the film. The cast and crew discuss working with the dogs, choosing a voice for the dogs, and more. Includes lots of behind-the-scenes footage on set and in the recording studio, and interviews with director Lasse Hallström, book author/co-screenwriter W. Bruce Cameron, animal coordinator Mark Forbes, executive producer Alan Blomquist, director of photography Terry Stacey, production designer Michael Carlin, and actors Britt Robertson (“Teen Hannah”), Bryce Gheisar (“8-Year-Old Ethan”), K.J. Apa (“Teen Ethan”), Juliet Rylance (“Ethan’s Mom”), Kirby Howell-Baptiste (“Maya”), Dennis Quaid (“Adult Ethan”), Pooch Hall (“Al”), John Ortiz (“Carlos”), and Josh Gad (voice of Bailey, Ellie, Tino, Buddy).
• A Writer’s Purpose (4:44)
  Author W. Bruce Cameron and co-screenwriter/wife Cathryn Michon talk about the story behind the best-selling novel and the reactions to the book. The actors also give their own thoughts on the novel. Includes interviews with actors Britt Robertson, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Dennis Quaid, Juliet Rylance and John Ortiz.

Final Thoughts:

A Dog’s Purpose is a fun, heartwarming (and sometimes heartbreaking) film. The crux of the film follows the relationship between a dog named Bailey and his owner/best friend Ethan. However, the middle of the film becomes more of an anthology, exploring other dog/owner relationships as Bailey reincarnates into other lives. The Blu-ray has excellent audio and video presentation and includes a small-but-solid selection of bonus material. Pet owners should relate to and find a lot humor in Baileys thoughts and actions. While the film in centered around the idea of a dog dying and being reborn over and over again, it does build to a happy, uplifting ending. This film is definitely worth checking out.