The shock factor of Strays, pitched as an R-rated Homeward Bound, may wear off quickly for anyone who has, or has ever had, a dog. Dogs pee. Dogs poop. Dogs have genitals. Dogs hump inanimate objects. Dogs vomit. Dogs sometimes eat their vomit. There’s always a welcome place for raunchy comedies, especially within a summer line-up of sanitised, franchise fare. But, much like the stubby little hero of this film – a border terrier named Reggie voiced by Will Ferrell – Strays doesn’t have the legs to go much further than repeatedly point out and depict canine bodily functions.
It’s a commendably old-school move, at least, to use live animal actors, with a touch of that early 2000s Beverly Hills Chihuahua-style CGI magic that makes their mouths move. The film, in that light, strives to parody the grand tradition of “dog movies”. Lost canine Reggie teams up with a pack of misfit dogs – Jamie Foxx’s Boston Terrier Bug, who’s all bark and no bite; Isla Fisher’s Australian Shepherd, an expert sniffer; and Randall Park’s Great Dane Hunter, a therapy dog with anxiety – to make the journey back home and to his owner, Doug (Will Forte). Along the way, they even bump into one of those cute Labradors who likes to wistfully narrate the lives of their owners, voiced by Josh Gad (who played that exact same part, for real, in the terrible A Dog’s Purpose).
