Max the terrier must cope with some major life changes when his owner gets married and has a baby. When the family takes a trip to the countryside, nervous Max has numerous run-ins with canine-intolerant cows, hostile foxes and a scary turkey. Luckily for Max, he soon catches a break when he meets Rooster, a gruff farm dog who tries to cure the lovable pooch of his neuroses.
The Secret Life of Pets 2 follows on from its predecessor with many returning characters and cast. One big difference is the removal of Louis C.K. from the main role of Max (likely due to the #MeToo controversies from last year), with Max now being voiced by Patton Oswalt. While there are certainly some difference in their voices, Oswalt does a great job of bringing the right energy to Max's character.
I enjoyed the trailer for this one, but I had to try lower my expectations, The first film had the same effect where I absolutely loved the trailer, but it only covered the first couple minutes of the film before drastically changing direction and tone. The same can be said for The Secret Life of Pets 2. The trailer again comes across like a serious of little funny skits, which we see at the start of the film, but the majority of the film itself is a departure from that, transitioning from comical, into an action adventure. This time around, the balance is a lot better.
The film has three different storylines going on simultaneously (Max, Snowball, and Gidget), which can make the film feel a little bit all over the place, but they do eventually start to intertwine towards the main climax of the film. There is a serious story, a comedic story, and a fantastical story, which is what helps the film feel more balanced. While the stories vary in length and pace, there is a great deal of creativity and comedic timing, which keeps it feeling fresh.
The animation style is great. Really fun proportions and shapes, with some beautifully rendered fur and movements. Illumination isn't really known for its brilliant plots. Everything is simply designed to appeal to kids, and they will overuse every franchise until it stops making money (remember when Minions were everywhere?), but we do actually get a reasonable story around Max's anxiety as he struggles with ensuring the safety of his human. It's a fear and anxiety that many people feel towards different people and things, though it could have had a better-developed conclusion; it is still heavily influenced by that "harden up" mentality brought on by generations of entrenched toxic masculinity.
Standout performances come from Jenny Slate's Gidget, who manages to bring in the vast majority of the laughs in the film, and Harrison Ford's Rooster (yes, it's a dog called Rooster...) whose performance grounds the film around all of the other fantastical events going on.
It's still not a brilliant film, but it's a step up from its predecessor. More importantly, it will easily occupy the little ones.