Saw this earlier because there is understandably very little in the terms of new releases that are not horror related.
I guess Warner Bros sneaked this one out because they were probably wondering what else to do with. So I guess they figured why not release it when there is nothing else for kids in cinemas (and alongside Covid you can blame Disney in large part for that). There are no famous names involved here, very little in the way of humour that anyone over the age of 8 would enjoy and the film lacks any originality. The first film was amazingly 19 years ago and did at least raise a smile and the occasional chuckle. The sequel in 2010 was pretty terrible but still had a sprinkling of genuine celebrities in the voice cast. This lame effort has no redeeming features, not even a likeable human cast. It is admittedly a smaller scale (and smaller budget) production than the first two and technically the effects etc are ok, but I suspect it will kill the franchise. Not sure what the scriptwriters have been up to for the past decade but I think the script may have been written by a ten year old as it is that undemanding and joyless. There is very little in terms of plot apart from a wealthy but unhappy boy with a dog and and a poor girl with a cat saving the world from a rogue pet determined to set cats and dogs against each other to allow other pets to be adopted. Obviously the budget didn't even extend to a little bit of Hollywood stardust in the casting as I haven't heard of any of these actors. The poor cast were probably hoping this would be their big break into the big time but instead they are finding themselves in a film that will not feature highly in their resume's.
I suspect this franchise is about to go the way of Look Who's Talking or Stuart Little and quietly disappear after starting off strongly and floundering on badly scripted sequels and a lack of imagination.
I'm giving this five stars because there is absolutely nothing else out for youngsters and this is an ok watch for the undemanding 6-11 year old who will forget it relatively quickly. I admit I wasn't expecting a work of art and at 81 minutes it was mercifully short. Hopefully there won't be a 4th instalment.
