The Secret Life Of Pets 2 (2019) Dir: Chris Renaud
- Ridley Coote
- Aug 26
- 2 min read
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Chris Renaud's 2019 animated family adventure sequel wasn't exactly at the top of my to-watch list, but sometimes I can only manage a light, easy film, and this one seemed to be the easiest option at the time. I wasn't at all fussed or moved by the first film, but I wanted to try the sequel, just in case it had anything worthwhile in it. Either way, once more unto the breach I went.
The animation was fine, a little better than the prior film, but by no means did it impress me significantly. It was standard for big budget children's animations of recent years, which, I suppose can't exactly be a bad thing. I do wish films like this would go further to stand out from one another sometimes - otherwise, they end up looking a little formulaic.
In any case, that wasn't my biggest issue with the film, not by a long shot. The writing was very lazy, and relied quite heavily on jokes that have already been done a thousand times before. As such, the comedy was very weak, even compared to the first film, which hadn't amused me much either. I doubt even the most easily pleased children really cared about the comedy going on in this.
Absolutely nothing about the film grabbed or engaged me in any way. The story was not well conceived or executed. It felt clumsy, as much as anything else. There was some very light entertainment here and there, but nothing I would classify as substantial. After the disappointment of the first film, I had hoped there would at least be some incling of improvement on some level, but there really wasn't much of anything, in my opinion.
Even the voice acting performances all fell pretty flat. The returning cast members; being Patton Oswalt, Kevin Hart Eric Stonestreet, Jenny Slate, Tiffany Haddish, Lake Bell, and Ellie Kemper, all put in similar performances to those which they had done previously, which is to say, fairly unimpressive, but not overly offensive in quality. Of the new faces, only Harrison Ford really gave anything worthy of note, whereas Nick Kroll gave a pretty rotten display as one of the film's villains.
Overall, it will come as little surprise that I did not particularly like this. It was a very weak sequel to an already poor film. My apathy to these films has only increased the more I've thought about them, which is as good a sign as ever to stop. They provide only the smallest degree of entertainment value, and even that feels incredibly lazy from those behind it.
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