Way back in 2015, Disney subsidiary Pixar released The Good Dinosaur, a boy-and-his-dog story that flipped things by making the big green lizard into the lost little boy and giving the dog’s part to a feral human child. Here, Disney flips Pixar back into conventional mode, returning the feral human child (Oakes Fegley) to his usual spot at the emotional, articulate center of things and turning the big green lizard into an oversized, long-necked, bat-winged Labrador retriever. (Admittedly, the transmogrification looks better than it sounds.) The big fellow is even named for a dog: Elliot, a storybook puppy who gets lost in the woods and must find his way back to his family. After an opening that briefly borders on shocking, David Lowery’s remake of the 1977 film keeps its enormous paws safely on the beaten path. Sure, you’ll feel things, because Labradors are awesome, and Elliot is one awesome Labrador. But there isn’t much beyond that, not even much in the way of the film’s repeated message of believing in what you cannot see. By the end, not even Robert Redford’s folksy narration can make any real sense of things. With Wes Bentley, Karl Urban, Bryce Dallas Howard. (2016) — Matthew Lickona
This movie is not currently in theaters.