Secret Life of Pets 2

What happens with your pets when you’re not at home? Time to find out with the release of The Secret Life of Pets 2 on June 7, 2019. Starring Patton Oswalt, Eric Stonestreet, and Kevin Hart, this sequel to The Secret Life of Pets in 2016 is rated PG.

Max and Duke’s owner is now married with a child. While Max tries to constantly protect him from harm, he has significant anxiety right before a trip to a farm. He tries to adjust to the farm and to the tough sheepdog Rooster. Meanwhile, Gidget tries to become catlike enough in order to get Max’s favorite toy back from an apartment full of cats. Snowball teams up with a dog named Daisy to try to rescue Hu, a young tiger, from a circus where he is abused. Can all these characters sort things out?

The first thing to point out when it comes to this film is the voice acting. There are two newcomers to the series. Tiffany Haddish, the voice of Daisy, and Harrison Ford, the voice of Rooster. Haddish brings some good comedic relief that she previously demonstrated with her other animated movie role this year, The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part. She also makes her character cute, tough and likable. Harrison Ford is a classic movie actor that is very well admired. This is however, his first time in an animated film. He does a great job, applying his voice to the character and making him seem believable. Hopefully he will do more animated movies in the future. I will address the story now.

Although the story shows three different plots, they are all interwoven with each other nicely. It actually takes a while for one of the plots to connect to the other two, but once it does, it works really well. Max learns some things throughout the course of the film. Snowball has become less angry and more heroic since the events of the first movie. However, one problem with him is that there’s one scene where he basically does nothing, is completely useless, and nobody ever brings this up. That is a noticeable flaw for me. Additionally, it takes some time for any real excitement to happen. On the other hand, there is a redeeming quality in the movie’s humor, which is very funny. Speaking of Snowball, any scene with him I found hilarious. I think now would be a good time to elaborate more on these characters.

These characters retain such a likability and charm to them that they’re just as good as they were in the original. Even a brief appearance from a character like Pops can be a reason to see this film. Gidget is still her cute, likable self and is a joy to watch as she tries to act like a cat. Max and Duke are still entertaining, this time getting along better than they had before.

No matter how old you get, you don’t have to stop watching kids’ films and family films, you can still enjoy them. This is one of those movies which can entertain an adult or a teenager just as much as a child. Comparing the first and second movies, I do think that the first movie is better. The second movie still stands pretty well, and I highly recommend this film.