History YMMV / HomewardBoundTheIncredibleJourney

* FridgeHorror:
** The old man who rescued Sassy will never know she made home safely, will he?
** Chance's aversion to the pound and specifically "the back room." Did he see pets taken in to be put to sleep?

* HilariousInHindsight: The film was likely in production before ''SpinCity'' began filming, so it's funny that Carla Gugino is the voice of Delilah, the love interest for Chance, voiced by Michael J. Fox.

* {{Jerkass}}: Riley's old humans. Rather than doing something sensible with this puppy like keep him anyway and hope things work out in the end, give him to another family, or even turning him in to a shelter, they just drive out and abandon him on the road where anything can happen to him. In these movies that empathize with dogs, that's the equivalent of abandoning an unwanted baby in a dumpster.

* FridgeHorror: Chance's aversion to the pound and specifically "the back room." Did he see pets taken in to be put to sleep?

* HilariousInHindsight: In the Norwegian dub, Sassy is voiced by Mari Maurstad, who previously voiced Georgette in Disney/Oliver&Company, a snooty dog who gets annoyed with the new cat in the house.

* TheScrappy: Riley's old humans. Rather than doing something sensible with this puppy like keep him anyway and hope things work out in the end, give him to another family, or even turning him in to a shelter, they just drive out and abandon him on the road where anything can happen to him. In these movies that empathize with dogs, that's the equivalent of abandoning an unwanted baby in a dumpster.

* TheWoobie: Riley. Yes, he's bitter toward all humans and cynical about the pets' family, but he has the DarkAndTroubledBackstory to explain it -- being "left...on the coldest, rainest night of the year."

* {{Sequelitis}}: Averted, this movie is a decent sequel to the original.

* TheScrappy: Riely's old humans. Rather than doing something sensible with this puppy like keep him anyway and hope things work out in the end, give him to another family, or even turning him in to a shelter, they just drive out and abandon him on the road where anything can happen to him. In these movies that empathize with dogs, that's the equivalent of abandoning an unwanted baby in a dumpster.

* {{Sequelitis}}: Averted, this movie is a decent sequel to the original.

* WhatAnIdiot: "There goes the rabbit. There goes the pup. There goes breakfast."

* NightmareFuel: The scary forest noises in the dark while the animals are trying to sleep.
** Shadow's description of a moose to Chance & Sassy -- ''"A big, razor-toothed animal that comes out at night to eat the tails off smaller animals."''
** The scene of the animal rescue people removing the porcupine needles from Chance's face, while he screams for mercy. Even though they are clearly helping them, it damn well seemed terrifying to kids watching them seemingly torture him.
--->'''Chance:''' OW! Please stop, please stop, please stop. Oh, just let me die.\\
'''Shadow:''' They're killing him, Sassy.\\
'''Sassy:''' Gulp.
*** This troper never understood why they didn't sedate Chance for something like that... besides the obvious plot-related reasons, of course.
** The whole fire scene from ''Lost in San Francisco'' gave this troper nightmares for some time.
* TearJerker: [[spoiler: Shadow falls into a deep pit only a few miles from home, and is too injured to continue.]]
** [[spoiler: Not only was he injured, but Shadow was willing to give up because he feels he's too old. Also, he tells Chance and Sassy to leave him. Chance tries to get him to keep going like he did during the journey, and tells him that he loves him.]]
** It's rather upsetting to watch Sassy float rapidly down the river as she desperately calls out to Shadow for help.
** Shadow - old, worn-out, injured, limping Shadow - [[spoiler:finally tops that last hill, sees Peter - and ''runs'']]. Cue the entire audience sobbing like children.
** It is common knowledge that this movie has made two decades of children cry.

* HarsherInHindsight: Shadow's plight near the end becomes this when you know that his actor, Ameche, died in same year the film was released.

** It is common knowledge that this movie has made several decades of children cry.

** Also, the original film was based on a book.

!!''The original novel contains examples of:''
* AdaptationDisplacement

* ValuesDissonance: Bodger is an veteran of dog fights, which he found and finds great fun and the novel treats as a beautiful and noble sport.

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: This movie's got a nice (and often overlooked) soundtrack; [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lBx1QRotrw this]] is arguably the best score.

* TearJerker: [[spoiler: Shadow falls into a deep pit only a few miles from home, and is too injured to continue]].

* [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment BLAM]]: The Batdog scene near the beginning of the movie.

** [[spoiler: Not only was he injured, but Shadow was willing to give up because he feels he's [[GettingTooOldForThis too old]]. Also, he tells Chance and Sassy to leave him. Chance tries to get him to keep going like he did during the journey, and tells him that he loves him.]]