I TiVo'd this movie because I have an absurd sentimentality for animals. A friend actually snickered when she saw this on my TiVo "to do" list. No matter. I watched it on a night when I needed to just veg out - no challenging foreign films that night, thank you.

Boy, was I glad I did! As other posters have stated, this is a weird movie. No children star in this movie, but it has a talking dog narrator! And he's actually trained as a fighting dog -- something you probably wouldn't see in a "talking dog" movie made today.

Vic Morrow's voiceover was a bit distant -- joking a bit too much when you knew the dog was in sheer terror, for instance. But I liked the New York accent. It worked for the little street tough that the dog (his name was Wildfire) was supposed to be.

Human cast was terrific, especially Edmund Gwenn. Dean Jagger also good.

If you have a tolerance for G-rated talking animal movies, this one is different and worth checking out. It's not exactly a kids' movie -- children may be bored, in fact, since the action, though fast, isn't exactly at the breakneck cartoony pace that kids today are accustomed to. And there is some implied violence and "adult situations." But it's a brisk story that moves along nicely, and with some genuinely funny moments. And a sweet ending.