There’s a certain thought pattern among critical circles
that children’s films basically exist to promote everything except themselves.
From tie-in merchandise to video games to character-specific spin-offs to TV
shows, once a studio knows that a given property has got the attention of kids,
they will milk it for all it’s worth. Illumination Entertainment is no stranger to
this, if the still-prevalent Minions are any indication, but their latest feature feels like
a plain-faced attempt at that kind of franchise enhancement. The way they go
about this, though, leaves a bit to be desired.
Comparing any modern animated film to the DisneyToon sequel
factory would usually serve as one of the gravest insults possible, but here,
it’s kind of unavoidable. The plot in this under-90-minute flick feels similar
to Atlantis: Milo’s Return, as if three smaller pilot episodes for a series
were stitched together to make a singular feature. The plots in this instance
involve Max and Duke getting into trouble on a farm, Gidget encountering the
apartment of a crazy cat lady, and ‘Captain’ Snowball saving an animal from a
travelling Russian circus.
The acting overall is fine, with Max this time around being
voiced by Patton Oswalt because having an admitted sex offender voicing
something that children cuddle up with would’ve sent off all kinds of red
flags, but it’s nothing all that noteworthy. Same for the animation, which
pretty much abandons the first film’s Merrie Melodies style for something a bit
more standard. I got more than a few Nut Job flashbacks while watching it,
although this is definitely less annoying to sit through. Even with the
presence of Kevin 'Why is he still here?' Hart.
It taps into familiar territory from the first film as far
as humour, sticking to the animal psychology behind how house pets behave.
However, that part ends up diminished in comparison to the frequent attempts at
kid crazy antics. I’d be disappointed by this if the attempts at crazy didn’t
pan out more times than not. Kung-fu bunny rabbits,
knife-throwing monkeys, a train chase sequence, not to mention the basic
weirdness of a tiger running around New York with all these house pets.
There’s some mild lip service to using the animals as
proxies for parents (something that gets spelled right the hell out at one
point, so deducted points on that one), but ultimately, this is just another
pleasant but harmless and inoffensive distraction. While the first film managed
to skate by on those grounds, if this series is going to be a recurring thing,
they’ll need to come up with something more for the next go-around. Or, more
preferably, they could just bite the bullet and make this into a TV show; I can
guarantee that the people who still watch cute animal videos on YouTube will be
into it. Hell, judging by the end credits, the filmmakers themselves seem all
too aware of that.
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