This is one of the best family movies I have ever seen. It is fun and totally entertaining, without being silly. It has very funny moments, but the humour is never contrived. The underlying story about dealing with past hurts and building new relationships is one that transcends age limitations. And the film has a very strong moral centre. Those with conservative values should find little to quibble about here. The acting is uniformly good to excellent, even from the newcomer Annasophia Robb. A great movie to watch and enjoy over and over. And the dog (that actually does smile) is amazing! The scene in the grocery store, which apparently took days to shoot, is positively hilarious. Hollywood needs to produce more films of this high moral quality.

It's one of the nice and beautiful movie. I had watched in past some time. Last week I went to local music store. And saw the DVD out there. The cover looked good. Looked like a nice movie. So, thought to buy the DVD. Yes, its indeed a Beautiful, funny and touching movie.The Dog and the little girl performed so well. Awesome performance by little AnnaSophia. She is so cute and lovely. A fun to watch for whole family. The setup is based in a small town, away from the busyness of a big city. Quite calm and beautiful countryside scenes. Its a slow paced, simple movie. Yet full of innocence, fun. A child's love for a adorable sweet dog. Its an enjoy to watch. :-)

This was a beautifully acted movie with plenty of atmosphere and very little in the way of "sap." I loved the diversity of the cast and the positive trajectory of the plot line. Dave Matthews was fabulous as Otis-- a real natural. The dog is too damned cute for words.Having grown up in Florida, I found the setting and the atmosphere to be very believable. It evoked a time and place that is too little seen any more-- small towns where a variety of people come together in the course of everyday life to interact with each other and make a community. The young actress who plays Opal is very gifted, and very beautiful, and the supporting cast-- including the incredible Cicely Tyson-- is consistently excellent.

At least if they're under 5...my 2&half year old loves this movie so much, & I've found it to be such a blessing that I just had to come here & give it props. Opal is great, Dave M. is cool, the story is wonderful, the music is perfect. My lil girl knows the entire script for this movie, & digs it more than Elmo or any other of the hundred or so kid movies in the house. Folks...your kids learn A lot from movies/television...when they're glued to good stories like this one, take it to heart. I found it amusing on here that a few folks were surprised this movie was only for young kids. I've never read the book but the movie could not have been put together any better.