Another animation that has been fired off the conveyor belt to capitalise on box-office bucks – is this sequel to 2016’s relatively well-received original.
Even though the script seemed like it had been cobbled together in five minutes on the back of a cigarette packet.
That’s because there really isn’t one. It’s just three extended short stories that come full circle at the end – with very little imagination put into it.
The colourful and intermittently zany action just about pulls it through – my five-year-old boy still enjoyed it even though he clearly acknowledged it wasn’t anything approaching Disney level – but it really just coasts on character goodwill from the first film set up.
After the owner of Jack Russell terrier (Patton Oswalt) gets married and has a young child, he and pals go through some major changes.
Story A) Max and best pal, shaggy Newfoundland mix Duke (Eric Stonestreet), go on holiday to a farm and Max gets taught some life lessons from Harrison Ford’s Welsh Sheepdog Rooster; B) white Pomeranian Gidget (Jenny Slate) tries to rescue Max’s favourite toy from a feral cat-infested apartment; and C) Kevin Hart’s rabbit Snowball goes all superhero to join Shih Tzu Daisy (Tiffany Haddish) in attempting to free a tiger from a circus.
Lazy, morbidly obese Grey Tabby cat Chloe (Lake Bell), doesn’t do much of anything – bar providing the odd humorous interlude.
All three wafer-thin stories then come together at the end to reach a rather stereotypical and wildly predicable ending.
To offset that, some of the pets are cute.
And that’s about it.
There’s no real secrets to this anymore. Short, colourful relief for younger children – with no ingenuity whatsoever.
It is what it is.
ESP Rating: 2.5/5
Gavin Miller
VOICE CAST: PATTON OSWALT, KEVIN HART, HARRISON FORD, ERIC STONESTREET, JENNY SLATE, TIFFANY HADDISH, LAKE BELL, BOBBY MOYNIHAN, HANNIBAL BURESS, ELLIE KEMPER & DANA CARVEY
RUNNING TIME: 1 HR 26 MINS
DIRECTORS: CHRIS RENAUD & JONATHAN DEL VAL
Visit www.showcasecinemas.co.uk for the latest up-to-date showtimes for movies at Showcase Cinema de Lux Peterborough. You can also join the chat on Twitter @showcasecinemas or on Facebook by searching for ‘Showcase Cinemas UK’.
Comments