Cute animals are usually a good source of tear-jerking cinema, and a story which sees a dog leading several lives, which means there are opportunities for various dogs to show up and melt hearts? A Dog's Purpose, it would seem, is to make the room get very dusty. Check out the first trailer.
Lasse Hallstrom (we can see the Bojack Horseman spoof version now, directed by Lassie Hallstrom) leashed this one, with W. Bruce Cameron and Cathryn Michon adapting Cameron's novel for the screen. Josh Gad is on voice duty for the central pooch, who attempts to discover his purpose over several lifetimes and with different owners. But it all seems to be tied specifically into the life of Ethan, who we meet at least twice in the story, played as a young man by Bryce Gheisar and then as a grownup by Dennis Quaid.
The dog learns lessons through various lives, including as a corgi and a female police dog before he's reunited with Ethan. The real challenge here will be if the movie can balance the sentimentality and musings on existence with comedy and earned warmth. We'll find that out when it arrives in the UK on January 27.