Post by StevePulaski on Jun 8, 2019 14:46:12 GMT -5
The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019)
Directed by: Chris Renaud
Directed by: Chris Renaud
Some of the furry characters in the sequel to The Secret Life of Pets.
Rating: ★★★
15 years ago — or maybe even ten — Nickelodeon would've chomped at the bit to get The Secret Life of Pets ordered for a thirteen-episode TV series, and the fact that we got a sequel to the film before a television series is a curious thing to note. This is the kind of material that begs for a spin-off series, equipped with all the plush-dolls, action figures, play-sets, bedsheets, and various garments that could reasonably fit on store shelves. Perhaps it speaks volumes about where basic cable is at in this stream-first world, or maybe Illumination (Despicable Me, Dr. Seuss' The Grinch) wants to keep their properties on lock like a key. It's just something to ponder when you saw how "fortunate" the culture was to see long-running continuations of such favorites as Paramount's Barnyard and DreamWorks' The Penguins of Madagascar.
I bring this up because The Secret Life of Pets 2 is pretty episodic in nature, much more than its predecessor from 2016. Its looseness is a part of its success, but quietly revelas that you're essentially indulging in a made-for-TV movie that just so happens to look gorgeous and wonderfully detailed on the big-screen. But that fact will not matter much to the target audience, especially the under-10 crowd, who will be enriched with enough colors and animal humor to keep them entertained for 86 inoffensive minutes. While the first film felt wound up on cat-nip and dog treats, with a lot of manic energy it didn't really know how to use as fuel for the nuances of domestic pet-life, The Secret Life of Pets 2 slows down enough to give every character a moment to shine while minimizing the opportunity to be too meta in favor of being wholesome and lively.
In the opening minutes, we rekindle with the likable dogs Max (voiced by Patton Oswalt, replacing Louis C.K.) and Duke (Eric Stonestreet), who have continued to get along despite their various differences. They begin by taking note of how kids drastically change the lives of their owners, and too change the dogs in a given family as well. Both Max and Duke don't believe they'll have to worry about that until their own Katie (Ellie Kemper) meets a young man, marries him soon after, and eventually has a child with him. Once the teething, crawling, and crying phases have all but passed, Max and Duke see the new member of the family, Liam, as a welcomed addition to their family, but things get complicated when Max becomes more neurotic and stressed about safeguarding Liam from the dangers of the world.
This is one of a handful of plot-threads returning writer Brian Lynch juggles in the film. Other characters have their own prerogatives at hand, such as a Pomeranian named Gidget (Jenny Slate), who is tasked with watching Max's chew-toy while him and the family take a trip to the countryside. As fate (or the plot, rather) would have it, the toy winds up rolling down the fire escape and into the apartment of an elderly woman with a litany of rabid cats, which prompts Gidget to have to take lessons from the apathetic butterball Chloe (Lake Bell) on how to be a cat in order to retrieve it. Meanwhile, the ambitious bunny Snowball (Kevin Hart), who was the villain in the previous film, now fancies himself a superhero, who aids a small pup named Daisy (Tiffany Haddish) in rescuing a tiger from a circus and the clutches of Sergei (Nick Kroll), the circus director who is barely a character at all.
I was slightly underwhelmed by the first film due to its frenetic nature. As I look back on it, maybe it simply wasn't a good contrast to a year that gifted us Zootopia and Finding Dory, two rich, textured works from larger powerhouses that continued to push narrative and thematic boundaries in animation. In some ways, The Secret Life of Pets 2 isn't much more impressive, but it could be I was more in the mood for something like it. But what ultimately makes it stronger is its more prevalent observations on the eccentricities of our closest companions. Scenes are dedicated to showing how simultaneously needy and standoffish cats can be, and how simple-minded and reactionary dogs can be, but both traits of the respective species are depicted lovingly and without snark. Life itself would be considerably less beautiful if it lacked cats, dogs, and the unique attributes of both, and this sequel is happy to celebrate their individual traits while immersing them in a larger plot.
On a final note, there is a credit-cookie that comes very early after the credits begin to roll. Snowball turns into a rapper, assembles an entourage of stuffed animals, and belts out Desiigner's infectious "Panda" — a song that was circulating and gained popularity when the first film was released, ironically. It's such a delightfully odd moment that I had to do a double take. Who thought retaining the line "I got broads in Atlanta" in a film for children was a wise decision?
My review of The Secret Life of Pets: stevethemovieman.proboards.com/thread/5229/secret-life-pets
Voiced by: Patton Oswalt, Eric Stonestreet, Jenny Slate, Lake Bell, Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish, Harrison Ford, Nick Kroll, and Ellie Kemper. Directed by: Chris Renaud.