RIOTUS

I really don’t know why we, as audiences, like movies about pets going on adventures, but they seem to be made constantly. I guess there’s something about seeing animals have an interiority of their own without us. That maybe there is something that everyone can’t hate and just accept the characters without any bias. And it could be that we’ve all seen so many animated animals do stuff that we all just accept seeing live-action animals do the same. Since we are in a place where old favorites have a harder time getting into mind space like many other genres, they sprinkle some R rated on it, and we have something new. Here we have Strays, a raunchy take on Homeward Bound-style pet adventure. Will Ferrell voices Reggie, an abused Border Terrier who doesn’t know he’s abused and is left in a city very far from home from his owner Doug (Will Forte); he meets Bug, voiced by Jamie Foxx. After Bug introduces Reggie to his other dog friends, Maggie (Isla Fisher) and Hunter (Randall Park), Reggie learns he was not treated well and wants to return home to Doug and enact revenge upon him.

The story is straightforward, with a lot of dog humor that might work very much for dog owners. Not only is the humor raunchy in terms of language but also a lot of gross-out dog humor. It had too much vomit, pee, and poop for my taste. Ferrell’s voice acting as Reggie is completely perfect as a super sweet dog that is too good for its own good. Foxx’s voice acting is also pitch perfect as a dog that loves being a stray and holds resentment toward humans. Some of the plot points actually reminded me of the Superpets movie from last year. The take on Bug is very much like that of Ace – the Bat hound in that movie. Fisher and Park are quite funny as their two supporting characters as well with their romantic subplot. The film has some solid jokes on how the dogs see humans and the things they can and can’t do, like a running joke about what chocolate is. I feel this movie was pretty good overall, but even then, I don’t know if this is something that would make a person leave the house over. Getting a Homeward Bound for adults wasn’t on my list of things I ever wanted, and while it’s fun at times, overall, it was ok. It’s probably really good to watch at home.

Score: C