A nice (not great, but nice) and engaging remake of the 1974 classic Disney dog flick/novel, this follows a young boy through the joy and tragedy of owning a pair of wonderful hunting hounds. Set in hardscrabble rural Oklahoma in 1935, a boy earns enough to buy a pair of coon-hunting hounds and becomes very good at what he does. OK acting (singer Dave Matthews first role), but Dabney Coleman is out of type as the nice grandpa. As always, Ned Beatty is a pleasure to watch as the local sheriff. Sad ending, to say the least. Pleasant to see and very good for the kids. Very pretty photography. It may confuse some kids, of course, about why you’d want to hunt, kill and skin raccoons. If there’s one big problem it’s that Disney is kowtowing to religious tendencies of the moment (made in 2003), putting way too much God into the movie. “Meeting God halfway,” miraculous winds, sacred ferns, well, they just irritate me. I’m getting disgusted by this sort of prattling on