The Secret Life of Pets 2 – June 7th, 2019

WHAT’S IT ABOUT

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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MOVIESinMO REVIEW

The first Secret Life of Pets wasn’t that great, but it made a lot of money, so by Hollywood law, there has to be a sequel. Since they did everything interesting in the first film, they needed something new – a baby. In The Secret Life of Pets 2, the first five minutes is used to set up the relationship between Max and his growing family. It’s a cute introduction, but it’s filled with plot holes. When Max’s owner meets a guy, they fall in love, get married, and have a baby. Max and his friends don’t age. The baby gets bigger, starts talking, walking, and going to daycare, and once again, Max and all his friends (including the adults) seem to be the same age. This bothered me at the beginning, but I guess the writers were desperate to get this sequel started and didn’t want to waste time boring everyone with story development. Besides, who would question the presence of a baby as a plot device? Anyway, once you get past the first ten minutes, there are two other stories to keep track of. One involving the rabbit, Snowball as he has a superhero mission with a Shih Tzu named Daisy. The other one centered around Gidget, the white Pomeranian that’s in love with Max. The films main story takes place on a farm where Max and Duke spend time learning about farm animals and outdoor life. This may have been the main story, but it wasn’t the best. Watching Max deal with life issues wasn’t that great in the first feature, and this one just has more of the same with different scenery. All three stories are compelling enough to be there own separate movie and any other time that would have been fine. Alternatively, in Pets 2, they used an old movie narrative were multiple, and seemingly different stories ultimately come together in the end. So, on the plus side, The Secret Life of Pets 2 has enough moving parts to keep any kid entertained. The bad part – it may be a bit too busy for the average adult, but this franchise was never intended for adults. It’s a kids movie, and it does what it’s supposed to do, entertain while teaching valuable life lessons about facing your fears, family, friends, and growing up.

OUR RATING – A MEH 6

MEDIA

• Genre – Comedy
• Street date
• Digital – August 13^th 2019
• DVD/Blu-Ray – August 27^th 2019
• Video – 1080p
• Screen size – 1.85:1
• Sound – English Dolby Atmos, English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French Canadian (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles – English SDH, French, Spanish

Extras