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The first A Dog’S Purpose was a gooey, family-friendly tear-jerker, but this 50-something dog-lover fell right into its heartfelt paws and it ended up on my top ten list of 2017’s best films. It told the story of one devoted dog who discovers the meaning of his own existence by dropping dead every half hour or so (after his life has run its course) and becoming reincarnated as a newborn pup with a diverse series of new owners. Josh Gaad voiced the hound and while the first film was like an episodic panorama of America as viewed through a dog’s innocent eyes, the sequel offers up a different narrative structure. A Dogs Journey focuses on Clarity Jane (fortunately shortened to Cj), the step-granddaughter of Dennis Quaid’s returning Ethan, and all of the different dogs (who have the same soul and are again voiced by Gaad) who guard...

There is apparently a sizable overlap between people who like films in which cute dogs scamper around happily, and people who like films in which cute dogs drop dead every half an hour. In 2017, “A Dog’s Purpose” catered to both groups by telling the tale of Bailey, whose soul transmigrates into the body of a newborn pup whenever he dies. He is granted a different name, breed, and (sometimes) gender with each metempsychosis, but his enthusiastic thoughts are always voiced by Josh Gad, and he retains his loyalty to his favorite master, Ethan, played in the film’s later scenes by Dennis Quaid.

Critics agreed that “A Dog’s Purpose” was, well, a dog, but Bailey, who can recall his past lives, is back in the sequel, “A Dog’s Journey”.

Again, it is a glossily nostalgic and moralistic Nicholas Sparks-style melodrama co-written by W. Bruce Cameron, and adapted from his novel.