Similar to how Sausage Party and Ted appear as family movies but end up being extremely raunchy and coarse comedies, Strays takes the child-like concept of talking dogs and loads it up with sex jokes, drugs and constant swearing. What's really surprising about the film, however, is that it also features a metaphor for abusive relationships and leaving them, and it's a movie that tries to show that it has heart in a few emotional scenes. But the fact that it comes through the perspective of our furry friends makes it work just right.
After being abandoned by his cruel owner, a naive dog teams up with other strays who agree to join him in exacting revenge on his former owner. The film includes a wonderful cast in which the leading group of dogs are voiced by Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Isla Fisher and Randall Park, with Will Forte playing the dog-hating antagonist. These dogs are adorable, although their mouths could use exorcisms, and their mouths are synced to their dialogue pretty well. The voice actors and Forte all pull off their characters perfectly.
You can say that many comedies centring on friendship group, with this case focusing on a team of dogs, have all built a formula that they can choose to follow or to abandon. Strays unfortunately alines up with this formula to include a fight and separation between the main characters towards the third act, and it's super bothering to spend time on after you've seen it all before. Aside from the fact that it's just another fairly average popcorn comedy that you see once and forget, there's no other issues in this film other than some poor CGI work. The jokes are extremely frequent and always deliver chuckles, the few emotional scenes don't completely take the comedic aspect away, and it's a very entertaining comedy worth seeing. But remember, talking dogs doesn't mean a light family comedy you can take your kids to see... maybe if you're crazy.
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