The Incredible Journey (film)

The Incredible Journey is a 1963 adventure film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution. Based on the 1961 novel The Incredible Journey by British-Canadian writer Sheila Burnford,[2] the film follows the adventure of Luath the Labrador Retriever, Bodger the Bull Terrier, and Tao the Siamese cat (Syn Cat) as they journey 250 miles (400 km) through the Canadian wilderness to return to their home. The story is narrated by Rex Allen.

Not to be confused with The Incredible Human Journey.
The Incredible Journey
Original theatrical poster
Directed byFletcher Markle
Produced byJames Algar
Walt Disney
Written byJames Algar
Based onThe Incredible Journey
by Sheila Burnford
StarringSyn
Émile Genest
John Drainie
Tommy Tweed
Sandra Scott
Narrated byRex Allen
Music byOliver Wallace
CinematographyKenneth Peach
Edited byNorman R. Palmer
Production
company
Distributed byBuena Vista Distribution
Release date
November 20, 1963 (1963-11-20)
Running time
80 min.
CountryUnited States
Canada
LanguageEnglish
Box office$4.2 million (US/Canada) (rentals)[1]

The film was mostly praised for its nature scenes and for Allen's narration. However, the human scenes, including the climactic ending, met with mixed to negative reception for disrupting the mood of the film.

Plot

The Hunter family receive a telegram detailing that the father, James, has been offered a visiting fellowship at Oxford University in England. However, their two children, Peter and Elizabeth, worry about what is to be done with their two dogs, Luath the young Labrador Retriever and Bodger the elderly English Bull Terrier, along with their Siamese cat Tao, while they are away. Family friend John Longridge offers to (free) convince the animals to stay with him at his house in Northwestern Ontario, so that is what is arranged.

After a few days of having the animals in his care, John leaves for the opening day of duck hunting season, so he leaves his housekeeper Mrs. Oakes and her husband Bert to look after his house and the animals while he is absent. Soon after John drives away, Luath hears the calls of wild geese overhead, returning home. This makes him want to do the same, so he starts off down the road and Tao and Bodger soon follow after him. Later, Mrs. Oakes arrives at John's house expecting to see the animals, but cannot find them. Then she finds half of a note that John had written that appears to imply that he took the animals with him on the trip (however, the other half of it was accidentally knocked into the fireplace by the cat, but Mrs. Oakes doesn't realize this).

Now, well on their way home, the animals stop at a river to have a drink of water, but have to hide from a passing truck in case they are recognized. After that, they continue on. By the next morning, old Bodger is very tired and is beginning to slow down, so the animals stop for a rest in a clearing and wait for Bodger to regain his strength. Tao goes off into the brush to hunt a quail while the old dog rests. Soon, two bear cubs happen upon Bodger and investigate him, but then their mother arrives on the scene. The mother bear, thinking Bodger has been hurting her cubs, threatens to attack him; the cat witnesses this and in turn attacks her in trying to protect his friend. However, Tao eventually backs up, frightened. Finally, Luath sees the bear and what is going on and starts barking furiously; this, combined with the yowling, spitting cat, is enough to cause the mother bear to back down and run away.

After a whole week of travelling, the animals adapt to travelling after dark so that there is less chance of someone seeing them. They cut through an old saw mill, but they are shot at after a rather foolish Bodger steals an old bone from a cookhouse's rubbish bin. They escape unharmed, despite the fact that Bodger's dignity is given a serious blow. After ten days, while Bodger is resting, he hears the singing of a hermit, named Jeremy.

The eccentric old man takes the animals to his hut, where he makes a stew for them to eat. The dogs, being well behaved house pets, don't understand the invitation to sit at the table and eat out of dishes, and Tao is more interested in stalking Jeremy's pet crow, but they don't show that they aren't interested. After a while they decide to leave and continue their journey. Many miles along, the animals come to a wide river, which they realize they have no choice but to cross. Luath and Bodger make it across easily, but Tao prefers not to get wet so he finds a dam to cross. However, when he reaches a large gap, he tries to jump over it, but he falls into the water. Luath tries to rescue him, but he is too slow to keep up and ends up losing him in the process.

After trying to console one another, Bodger and Luath decide to press on without their friend. However, many miles downriver, a young girl named Helvi discovers Tao, soaking wet, barely alive and half-starved, by the side of the water. She and her parents proceed to take Tao into their care and nurse him back to health over a number of days. One night, after being fully recovered, the cat decides he should leave the family and get back to the dogs.

Tao takes his time in travelling, now that he is alone. But, as he journeys deeper into the forest he discovers that he is being quietly stalked by a hungry lynx. The lynx attacks Tao and chases him up a tree, but he escapes. Then the lynx corners Tao in a log, but is driven off by the arrival of a young boy with a rifle, allowing the cat to press on.

Not long after that, Luath and Bodger hear Tao calling. They immediately recognize their friend and the threesome are joyfully reunited. Together once again, the animals set off in search of food. Luath spies a porcupine, but ends up getting too close to it, leaving him with sharp and deadly quills stuck to his muzzle. Soon, while soothing and recovering his pain at a river, Luath meets hunter James MacKenzie, who takes pity on the foolish young Labrador and brings him back to his house for medical treatment. When he arrives, he discovers that his wife Nell has found Bodger. The cat hides on a wood pile outside the house, watching and waiting and unnoticed by James or Nell. James has removed the quills from Luath's muzzle (although he has initially been on the receiving end of Bodger's protective instincts over the young dog) and that night, he locks the dogs in his barn, planning to ask around and find out whom they belong to. Tao then rejoins his friends.

Meanwhile, John arrives home only to discover that the animals have disappeared. After some initial confusion as to why, the humans deduce that Luath has taken them home. John telephones the various ranger stations around the Ironmouth Range area, but they all say they will get in touch with him the following day. Later, the Hunters arrive home; John lets them know what's happened and Peter is quick to realize that an older dog such as Bodger most likely wouldn't have the strength to complete a journey so long, but Elizabeth remains firmly convinced that Tao will, sooner or later, return home. The animals, meanwhile, escape from the barn and the humans realize where they are and that they have only forty miles (65 km) left to go, causing the humans to believe that if they have managed to get this far, they just may be able to make it all the way home.

On Peter's birthday soon afterwards, John gets Peter a registration paper from the Kenmore kennel, who are holding another Bull Terrier puppy in his name. All of a sudden, Elizabeth hears a dog barking in the distance and becomes immediately convinced that it must be Luath. Despite initial reservations, James whistles to the dog to see if Elizabeth is right; moments later they see Luath charging across the heathland ahead and barking, overjoyed to have finally returned home. A few seconds afterwards, Tao follows on and also arrives home safely.

Peter is convinced that Bodger has perished and was too old to make the journey, but is happy to see Tao and Luath again. Just then, Peter suddenly spots a white shape on the horizon, which he soon realizes is, in fact, Bodger, coming as quickly as he possibly can. The boy and the old dog are ecstatic to be reunited once again. The cat and Labrador join Bodger and Peter in their frolicking and all is well as the three very brave animals have finally completed their incredible journey.

Production

Before filming, director Jack Couffer visited Burnford in Port Arthur, Ontario to photograph the surrounding countryside which he used to pinpoint a filming location that fitted the area as close as possible. This was necessary as the season in Ontario was too short to schedule the necessary filming.[3]

There were three animal handlers; Hal Driscoll looked after the Labrador, Bill Koehler the Bull Terrier, and Al Niemela the cat.[3]

Burnford spent seven days with the film crew, including one session where they filmed the Siamese cat "fishing in a creek, and landing its flapping catch with a lightningswift professional paw" as often as the director wished.[3]

Cast

Accolades

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

Remake

In 1993, Disney made a new version of the film, entitled Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey. Featuring the voices of Don Ameche, Sally Field, and Michael J. Fox, the film keeps the same basic story line, but adds a subplot in which the kids are dealing with a new step-family. All three pets are renamed, the breeds of the dogs are changed, the sex of the cat is changed, and the ages of the original Labrador/Golden Retriever and Bull Terrier/American Bull Dog are switched. It also has vocalizations of the animals' thoughts and communications with each other.

Unlike the original story, the wilderness through which the three animals journey across is in the Sierra Nevada mountains, not the forested wilderness of Ontario. Several other scenes were changed in the new film as well, including the following:

  1. The journey of the animals in the 1993 remake lasted less than two weeks, whereas it originally would have taken them at least three or four weeks considering the fact they had to travel more than 200–300 miles through mountainous and forested terrain. In the novel and 1963 film, the journey of the three animals lasted possibly 4–5 weeks considering the challenges they faced.
  2. The bear that chased off the three animals in the 1993 film was a grizzly bear, whereas in the novel and 1963 film, it was a protective mother black bear the cat and Labrador fought off. There is unlikely a chance that a grizzly bear can be found in the Sierras, as the only bears found there in the 1990s were black bears. Grizzlies were declared extinct in California since 1922, 71 years before the events of the 1993 film.
  3. Fish in streams and rivers would not have been the only food source that the three animals had to eat during their journey. If they had encountered humans in the wilderness, possibly hikers, campers, hunters, or fisherman, they would have been able to get some tidbits. They also could hunt for squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks, field mice, and game birds like mallards, Canada geese, wild turkeys, and quails.
  4. The same day the three animals encountered the bears by the stream was also the day the dogs had lost the cat in the river. The beaver dam which the cat had used to cross over the river was replaced with some rocks protruding out of the water, a couple branches that form a bridge, and a rotting log supported on two sticks that break apart when the cat jumps onto it.
  5. In the novel and 1963 film, the cat is rescued by a young girl named Helvi Nurmi. In the 1993 remake, the cat is rescued by an old man named Quentin.
  6. The big cat that stalked the cat in the novel and 1963 film was a Canada Lynx, whereas in the 1993 remake the dogs are stalked by a mountain lion. This is an acceptable possibility since mountain lions and bobcats are the only native big cats in California, as well as the fact that mountain lions are known to take down prey as large as elk and deer.
  7. In the 1993 film, the Himalayan cat leaves the old hermit Quentin and soon catches up to the dogs after a few hours’ pursuit. This is highly improbable since the dogs had traveled several miles away from where the cat was and it would have actually taken the cat at least 2–3 days to catch up with them. During that pursuit, the cat would have to stop once in a while to rest, drink water from a stream, pond, or river, and catch a fish, field mouse, chipmunk, or rabbit to eat. The cat would also have to face the predators in the wilderness such as bobcats, coyotes, foxes, bald eagles, cougars, and even black bears.
  8. In the 1993 film, the bulldog Chance attempts to befriend and play with a porcupine before he is struck in the face by the porcupine’s tail and receives several quills deeply embedded on the right side of his muzzle. In the 1963 film and 1961 novel, the Labrador retriever is struck in the face by the porcupine’s tail while attempting to kill and eat it.
  9. In the 1993 film, Peter’s teacher informs him and the rest of his class that the Sierras wilderness extends about 250 miles north and south and over 50 miles east and west. In reality, the mountains in the Sierras extend to about 400 miles north to south and about 70 miles from east to west.
  10. In the 1993 film, Bob Seaver and his newlywed wife Laura Burnford have three children- 12-year-old Peter, 10-year-old Hope, and 6-year-old Jamie. Peter owns the old golden retriever Shadow, Hope owns the Himalayan cat Sassy, and the young American bulldog Chance belongs to Jamie. In the novel and 1963 film, Jim Hunter and his wife Nancy have two children- 11-year-old Peter and 9-year-old Elizabeth. Jim Hunter is the proud owner of Luath the Labrador, Peter owns the old bull terrier Bodger, and Tao the Siamese cat belongs to Elizabeth.

Filming locations

References
  1. "All-time Film Rental Champs", Variety, 7 January 1976 p 48
  2. Wilson, Staci Layne (2007). Animal Movies Guide. Running Free Press. p. 15. ISBN 9780967518534.
  3. Burnford, Sheila (October 19, 1963). "The incredible talents of animal actors". Maclean's. Retrieved December 21, 2020.
  4. "AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers Nominees" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-08-14.
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