To that end, the largest chunk of the film is given over to his time as a Golden Retriever in an idealized Midwestern town, where he's adopted by a boy named Ethan (Bryce Gheisar). In narrative terms, the dog's purpose here is to serve as a deus ex machina that links multiple stories together and contrives an improbable arc between the first one and the last. In other words, a great time at the movies! The one distinguishing feature, baked into the film's conceit, is that we get to anticipate the dog dying at the end of every segment, and endure the repeated heartbreak of owners who cannot know its spirit is infinite.
#A DOGS PURPOSE GERMAN SHEPHARD MOVIE#
Nothing in the movie itself is that compelling, since the individual stories mostly don't have the space to develop beyond clichés about lonely people needing a loyal friend or situations that call for canine derring-do. Or, at a minimum, a premise more suggestive of Cloud Atlas than Lassie.īut these are questions one can only idly consider while A Dog's Purpose goes through its paces, perhaps alongside questions about the morality of paying money to see a movie trailed by allegations of animal abuse. The implications of decades - centuries, millennia - of a dog continuing to learn, independent of its corporeal shell, is. That means it's accumulating knowledge and experience from past lives, which would have to make its purpose far greater than merely being a very, very good dog. What it doesn't answer is how reincarnation figures into it: This same incredible dog not only keeps coming back from the dead, but doesn't forget its previous incarnations. It arrives at an answer eventually, something in line with the sentimental bromides expressed throughout the movie, which showcases its playfulness, courage, and companionship astride many owners. This existential question haunts a canine as the pup takes several different forms in A Dog's Purpose, from Golden Retriever to German Shepherd to Corgi and other breeds throughout the years, starting in the 1960s and continuing to the present day. Nose Thyself: Buddy (voiced by Josh Gad) and Ethan (Dennis Quaid) get existential in A Dog's Purpose.