It doesn’t really have a place here, and his entire philosophy towards Max is predicated on the idea that Max just needs to be tougher instead of dealing with Max’s actual fears and anxieties. Rooster is clearly meant to be a more manly, take-no-shit character, and the machismo that he exudes is … weird. This is further complicated by the fact that Max is given a cone to stop his nervous habit of scratching, an accessory that Rooster scoffs at and derides. It’s funny … but it’s also not a good kind of funny. The other patients in the clinic are portrayed as straight-up loonies, culminating in a pair of cats who eerily only stare at the camera and intone “ we start fires”. But the fact is, the animals in these films are essentially stand-ins for people, and the film seems to delight in the anxiety from which Max clearly suffers. I’m not here to fight that battle, though I will say as someone who married a veterinarian, there are very real and often difficult-to-handle issues with pets that go beyond just physical injury or sickness. He’s taken to a pet psychiatrist and - look, you can make a case that the idea of a pet psychiatrist is silly. The book on Max in these films is that he’s always anxious, and now doubly so as his owners have had a baby that he’s become hyper-protective about. His plotline is slow and uninteresting, but it’s also hindered by some fairly odd and unpleasant writing choices. This is due to some truly sluggish pacing with Max’s story, which is essentially the film’s main focus. But really, the biggest problems lie with Max’s arc. Gidget and Chloe’s adventures in the cat house are fun enough, but I barely even remember the Snowball and Daisy storyline.
Yes, there are some solid, laugh-out-loud jokes, and my son seemed to enjoy it, but I have a suspicion that he’s not going to remember it all that well, nor will he clamor for repeat viewings like he did with the original. Splitting the groups up eliminates a good bit of the camaraderie, and the humor isn’t nearly as sharp this time around. It all takes off from there, but it lacks all of the warmth and depth of the first film. Finally, Kevin Hart returns as Snowball the rabbit, now with a superhero complex, who is drafted by a Shih Tzu named Daisy (Tiffany Haddish) to rescue a tiger cub from a cruel circus owner (Nick Kroll).
#The secret life of pets full
At the same time, Gidget must impersonate a cat to infiltrate a house full of near-feral felines to retrieve a toy that Max entrusted to her. This time, we follow them on three separate adventures: Max and Duke’s family take them on a trip to a farm, where they meet a gruff Welsh Sheepdog named Rooster (Harrison Ford, perfectly cast). Yes, it returns with its familiar, well-voiced cast of characters - anxious dog Max (Patton Oswalt, capably replacing Louis CK) his big, dopey friend Duke (Eric Stonestreet) the hilariously dry cat Chloe (Lake Bell, the best part of the film) and the high-strung Pomeranian Gidget (Jenny Slate). The Secret Life of Pets 2 is exactly why this is not always a good idea. They do this because it’s easy to work with a known, successful entity, and because even if it’s unasked for, it will often reap similar rewards. But this is Hollywood and if something does well, it’s a virtual guarantee that producers will try to get a little bit more blood from any successful property, no matter how big a stone it may be. In fact, it tied its ribbon fairly neatly at the end. It was not a film that was crying out for a sequel.
I enjoyed it, my son enjoyed it, audiences and critics, in general, enjoyed it.
It was a weird, silly, funny romp featuring a group of domestic animals who have an adventure both above and below the streets of New York City. If I had to list the films of 2016 that were unexpected pleasures to watch, there’s no question that The Secret Life of Pets would be there.
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