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Parents' Guide to

Adventures of Bailey: The Lost Puppy

By Brian Costello, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 5+

Talking animal adventure without much peril for younger set.

Movie NR 2012 90 minutes
Adventures of Bailey: The Lost Puppy Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

age 8+

Based on 2 parent reviews

age 9+

Mind control at it's worst

This film has a very disturbing agenda. Separation of family. Promotes your real home and family as the "Working Ranch" aka Corporate America". Promotes you aren't good enough until finally you follow the rules and then you are rewarded with belonging to The Ranch as your real home. Promotes family abandoned you. Has no Mother or female love but instead is narrated with a male masculine role model. Makes child question family bond and love. Uses very irritating high frequency sounds throughout film. Constant bird sounds in background are actually warning and distress calls. Completely screwed up our 7 yr old daughter. When asked about her concetning behavior, she said it started after watching this movie. DO NOT LET YOUR CHILD WATCH THIS MOVIE.

This title has:

Too much violence
age 7+

Don't be fooled by the cover -- NOT for sensitive littles

I chose this movie because we don't watch many moves. I am very selective about subtle objectification of women and emotional violence. People had described it as painfully slow and suitable for toddlers and preschoolers. Well, it was practically a nightmare for my 5 year old and also quite sad for my 8 year old. My 6 year old doesn't understand about movie templates and happy endings and that they'd be reuinted in the end. It was extrememly sad for her. The movie was overly dramatic in places it didn't need to be -- like the puppy getting separated. It was painfully drawn out with sad music. And then they kept pouring salt on the wounds. After the separation scene, my 5 y/o sobbed frightfully for a solid twenty minutes, and basically through to the end. She'd get to a point where she's start to feel OK, and then the other animals would say things like "oh they didn't really love you, they probably abandoned you" and she'd start sobbing again. I mean, really. It felt like a horrible punishment. The "life lesson" for the puppy was shaming. He wasn't good at the tasks they wanted him to do on the farm, and so he was merely tolerated and felt all alone. If he wanted to be loved he would need to somehow not be a puppy and conform to their needs (rather than be placed in developmentally appropriate tasks he could excel at, of which there were many). What a horrible lesson. Eventually the family is reunited with the dog, but by then he is finally accepetd in his new group and you're left kind of wanting him to stay with them, as mean as leader was. And then it abruptly ends. It was bizarre. Oh, and the crazy monkey scene is in fact as crazy as people say. It's bizarre and terrifying for young kiddos. The monkey is screeching like the wicked witch of the west and then the lead dog comes in and basically threatens to "get her" as they scuffle. This movie is scarily patriarchal. All of the dominant voices are male. It's just NOT was I was hoping for. As for the pace, to us it was not painfully slow as others have mentioned perhaps because we rarely watch movies.The pace was just fine, the content and lessons were creepy. If my kids were both 8 it would have been more tolerable but I'd rather having them watching a straight up nature movie, or something from the 70s.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (2 ):
Kids say (1 ):

ADVENTURES OF BAILEY: THE LOST PUPPY is a cute (if predictable) tale of a personified Golden Retriever puppy's interactions with various animals. While best enjoyed by younger children, pet lovers of all ages should find something to enjoy about this movie. There are plenty of scenes of dogs and puppies frolicing in fields, along with animals voiced as evil monkeys, wise old dogs, manipulative cats, and sweet llamas, among many others.

There isn't a great deal of ambition in this movie. The filmmakers set out to make a movie about a cute-voiced dog interacting with cute-voiced animals, and they succeeded. Nothing more, nothing less. But for parents looking for a movie for younger kids, who might be scared off by big moments of peril, this might fit the bill.

Movie Details

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