FOLLOWING in the paw prints of Lassie, Benji and their four-legged friends, Firehouse Dog imagines a magical bond between a boy and a dog.

Anyone but the dog. The kids, the president, take them, the nun who runs the orphanage, she can be chucked into the fire and die in slow, screaming, flesh-melting agony, but . . . not the dog. So ...

The result is a modestly entertaining firehouse movie, family fare with an after-school-special flavor. Last seen in "Bridge to Terabithia," Josh Hutcherson stars as Shane, the 12-year-old son of ...