For the 1995 film:
- Awesome Music: The soundtrack is very beautiful. Case in point...
- Cult Classic: The film was a critical and commercial failure on release, and critcs slammed it for its unusually downbeat tone for a family movie. Still, viewers who grew up watching it on home video have been somewhat kinder to it.
- Fridge Horror: According to the movie, everyone can reincarnate into someone else, particularly different species. Also, that fly you killed yesterday? Someone's reincarnated grandfather.
- Tear Jerker: The whole damn movie!
- Rumbo's sudden death can be upsetting for some.
- What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Despite being targeted at a kids/family demographic and a similar feel to other talking dog movies of the 90's like Homeward Bound, it's chock full of Nightmare Fuel and Tear-jerking moments, particularly in the first half.
For the original 1977 novel:
- Funny Moments: Fluke's conversation with a frog, who proves dismissively indifferent to the very concept of the existence of anything beyond his glade home.
Fluke: You'll never turn into a handsome prince!
Frog: What's a handsome?
