This summer has seen a slew of movies that look like kids’ stuff but hide something more adult. Barbie used a plaything to deliver a powerful feminist manifesto. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles packed some post-teen intelligence. And now we have Strays, which is ‘adult’ in the less refined sense of the term. It’s a movie about cute animals with foul mouths. It may not be the most sophisticated premise, but it works to an amiable degree.
Reggie (voiced by Will Ferrell) is a sweet, naive border terrier who lives with Doug (Will Forte), a stoned, nihilistic bastard. Doug hates Reggie and keeps trying to abandon him in far-flung places. But Reggie, a heartbreaking idiot, always finds his way home. Eventually, Doug drives Reggie so far away that it seems impossible he’ll make it back.
That Reggie’s no quitter, though, and he enlists the help of a stray named Bug (Jamie Foxx), failed police dog Hunter (Randall Park) and forgotten family pet Maggie (Isla Fisher) to help him return to the man he loves. But once his new friends convince him that Doug is a jerk, his motivation turns to revenge – specifically, he wants to bite the penis off his abuser.
It’s fun to spend 90 minutes in this dog-eat-dick world.
Director Josh Greenbaum’s first movie was the absurdist triumph Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar. Strays shares many of that film’s qualities: it’s loosely assembled and teeters on the edge of messy, yet somehow emerges quite charming and sweet. Writer Dan Perrault keeps it simple, sticking to the episodic Homeward Bound template of animals travelling cross-country and meeting a variety of characters, both virtuous and villainous, along the way. His jokes tend toward the obvious – big dogs taking a dump on mean humans and 100 variations on the couch-humping gag – but they’re brisk and cheerful.
It also never pushes too hard with the ‘adult’ angle. It’s more a canine Superbad than a doggy Sausage Party. It’s not one of this summer’s strongest entries, but it’s fun to spend 90 minutes in this dog-eat-dick world.
In UK cinemas Aug 17 and US cinemas Aug 18.