The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019)
Directed by Chris Renaud
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.
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3 films that influenced The Secret Life of Pets 2
What critics say influenced The Secret Life of Pets 2
Even though it poaches some themes and narrative structure from yet another Pixar classic (“Finding Nemo”), at least this time around the filmmakers demonstrate an essential understanding of the deeper elements that make that film work.
As in Toy Story 2 , this twist is quickly untwisted; Max becomes a surrogate parent to the tyke, mimicking the pivot from fear to protectiveness from Monsters, Inc. and the nervous-dad tics of Finding Nemo .
I checked because I thought the author of the screenplay might have been Dory, the forgetful fish from Finding Nemo.
Max’s over-parenting plight is reflective of storylines in Finding Nemo and Inside Out, and his connection with Rooster calls to mind the down-home connection between Lightning McQueen and Doc Hudson in Cars.
Max’s over-parenting plight is reflective of storylines in Finding Nemo and Inside Out, and his connection with Rooster calls to mind the down-home connection between Lightning McQueen and Doc Hudson in Cars.
Directed by Chris Renaud, who also had central creative roles in Doctor Seuss’ The Lorax (2012), the Despicable Me trilogy (2010, 2013, 2017), and its 2015 spin-off film Minions, the animation in The Secret Life of Pets franchise continues in a similar vein to his previous works at Illumination Entertainment.
As in the first movie, and Illumination’s “Minions” films, the colors are bright and candy-colored, the people and places are drawn with quirky flair, and everyone has a bit of an edge – animals included.
Director Chris Renaud and Brian Lynch continue to ride their “Minions” formula: slapstick mixed with fart jokes and doe eyes.
This week’s other new movie, Dark Phoenix, feels like a TV show in a bad way, but TSLOP2 feels like one in a good way, with a sitcom-structured plot (written by Hop and Minions scribe Brian Lynch) and a cast of characters that functions like a well-oiled machine.
He could just as easily be describing this latest factory issue from the ’toon technocrats of Illumination (Despicable Me, Minions), who make amusements that are as momentarily enticing and as intellectually deficient as a box of Timbits.
Director Brian Lynch, who co-directed the previous film and also helmed “Minions,” Illumination’s biggest hit to date, is highly competent and more than able to construct a movie to the studio’s specifications.