All this with extraordinary animated effects. Bell pretty much steals the movie when her cat gets high on catnip and later teaches Gidget the “way of the cat” - complete with mandatory walking on a laptop keyboard and batting mugs off tables. There are some nifty touches, including a dream sequence in which Snowball fantasizes about being a caped crusader, which creates a comic book sequence INSIDE an animated film. It also opens with “Empire State of Mind,” an echo of how the first one opened with Taylor Swift’s “Welcome to New York.”
Another drawback is the scary elements: fearful wolves and an awful villain with a whip and a cattle prod.Įven so, the majority of the film is carefully constructed, switching from plot to plot to plot while also incorporating old characters - Dana Carvey’s elderly Basset hound and Hannibal Buress as dachshund Buddy - in an increasingly complex patchwork, fed by a lively soundtrack that includes Stevie Wonder, Jefferson Airplane, Coolio and ZZ Top.Īs signs of how well engineered this movie is, a cover of Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day” is used at the end, a callback to the original song’s appearance in the first film. “The first step in not being afraid, is acting like you’re not afraid,” he advises.įord gets to play with his own he-man screen persona, but we’re not sure this John Wayne bit - or the whole dynamic of pampered city folks versus tough country folks - is what we need right now. He is helped by a gruff farm dog voiced by Harrison Ford, who unfortunately muddies his first animated voice role with some hyper-masculinity.įord’s alpha dog is pure action cool, ripping off Max’s cone in disgust (not the best message for kids in treatment), rejecting Max’s embarrassed neurosis and being the cold, silent type. Oswalt is a fine replacement for Max, able to connect with the character’s timidity, wonder and blossoming courage. His quest is, like the others ones, to find his inner superhero. Meanwhile, Snowball is asked by a brave Shih Tzu (newcomer Tiffany Haddish) to rescue a tiger cub held by a malevolent circus boss. She promptly loses it in a cat lady’s apartment filled with crazed felines. Getting his head right is his quest.īefore he leaves, he asks Gidget to take care of his favorite squeaky toy. A trip to a farm in the country seems to offer a respite. He even develops a nervous scratching tick that requires a mortifying dog cone. “Was the world always this dangerous?” he asks after a harrowing New York City stroll. In one story, Max finds himself ever fearful for her owner’s new toddler, stressing out as the boy’s protector. But they manage it, creating a solid piece of entertainment for all ages, if not a terribly revelatory one. ” It’s a wise decision since none are deep enough to carry the film alone, forcing some convoluted stitching together. Returning screenwriter Brian Lynch and returning director Chris Renaud, who also voices the guinea pig Norman, have actually concocted three interlocking plots in ” The Secret Life of Pets 2. (Any helicoptering parent out there knows what we mean.) This time, the stranger is a baby, who Max learns to love unconditionally but which also ups his anxiety levels.
In the first, it was a new dog that allowed the filmmakers to explore sibling rivalry. Both films in the franchise deal with a new addition to the family.