Robert_duder Review of The Secret Life of Pets 2

The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019)

Cute but falls short of the original

[7/10 · 10 June 2019]

I'm not sure what made the original so watchable, the cast is very good and the story was fun and how lifelike they make the pets seem. This all translates to the sequel very well. The cast is still great (Louis CK being replaced by Patton Oswalt is hardly noticeable) and Eric Stonestreet is not used enough in the sequel in my opinion so Duke fans might feel a little left out. Basically you get 2.5 stories all rolled into one movie and honestly any of those stories could have been fleshed out to make an entire movie and I think that's where SLOP2 falls short. It doesn't have one really good story and the characters don't get together enough until the very end and you have this trip to the farm which had potential for so many new characters (Rooster was a great addition and Harrison Ford did a terrific job!) Then you have the sub-story about Captain Snowball and the evil circus owner which easily could have been it's own movie. Then you have the sub-sub story of Gidget trying to retrieve Max's favorite toy from the cat-lady's house. All the stories eventually intertwine and each have their own ups and downs but you never feel really invested in any one of the storylines. Still the film is insatiably cute and the pets feel as real as they ever did. Chloe teaching Gidget how to be a cat was amazing. Other scenes felt a little forced to try to fit more of the original cast into it. Kevin Hart is terrific as Snowball and he really could have done his own movie I think. All in all kids will love it but I can see why it's not making the same splash as the original did. 7/10