I will also admit that there were a couple of moments that had me laughing out loud. I will say that, for the most part, those advance concerns really didn’t bother me in the finished product (apart from aforementioned call of bullshit). These are all the thoughts that entered my head before I even saw The Secret Life of Pets 2. With Max taking a trip down to Nuts Landing, there’s another conversation parents don’t want to have. Along similar lines, Gidget the Pomeranian (Jenny Slate) is madly in love with Max, and even fantasizes about having babies with him. For the kids, they’re just going to notice that Max’s voice is different now, and they’re going to ask their parents why, which could potentially lead to some very awkward conversations that I’m guessing parents take their kids to these movies specifically to avoid. It’s hilarious, and I’ve been a fan of both men’s work for basically my entire adult life, but this movie’s not for me. Little children don’t know who either Louis CK or Patton Oswalt are, nor really should they, because personal lives aside, both of these actors make their bones with very adult humor. Of course, none of this makes sense for the target audience of the film, i.e. Essentially, Illumination announced that it was figuratively and literally neutering itself.

Character-specific trailers started coming out, which featured Max with his new vocal cords and a hefty dose of “cone of shame” jokes. Those trepidations got worse when it was announced that the original voice of lead character Max, Louis CK, was being replaced by Patton Oswalt after Louis had his #MeToo moment. Suffice to say, I had some misgivings about a potential sequel. What began as an interesting premise – What do your pets do when you’re not home? – quickly turned into 90 minutes of one-note jokes, a completely nonsensical Toy Story ripoff, some serious fetishization of New York City, and an actual advertisement in-film for Illumination’s next movie, the ill-advised on every level Sing. I fully admit that I was not the biggest fan of The Secret Life of Pets when it came out a couple years ago.

Secret life of pets movie times