The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

As a kid, your mum could be a gourmet chef, but you probably still loved good old fashion simple spaghetti more than all the fancy food. Because for children, sometimes simple is much better, a lesson that would have made The Secret Life of Pets 2 much more memorable.

The Secret Life of Pets 2 follows Max (Patton Oswalt) the terrier, as he has to deal with his anxiety towards his owner’s newborn baby, Liam. When the family take a trip to a relative’s farm, Max goes crazy protecting the baby from this new, and his eyes, hostile environment. Then he meets the tough farm dog called Rooster (Harrison Ford), who helps him better deal with his anxiety and fear. But, can he finally let Liam go out to the world?

Back home, wannabe superhero bunny Snowball (Kevin Hart) rescues a circus tiger with the help of sassy Daisy (Tiffany Haddish), but that puts them in grave danger and Pomeranian Gidget (Jenny Slate) has to pretend to be a cat to retrieve Max’s most valued possession.

Having a subplot, or even more than one subplot, can work with proper allotted time to each and a steady focus to keep audiences interested. But, having three plots in an animation aimed at young children, with almost a dozen (granted – funny, furry, and cute) characters is a recipe for a mess.

The Secret Life of Pets 2 would have been much more memorable if it focused on Max’s struggle, because, out of the three plots, it was the one with the most potential for depth, emotion, and expansion. However, Max’s struggle had to share the focus with two other subplots and was therefore rushed and lacking any sense, especially once the family left for the farm and the two other subplots kicked into gear.

This issue caused huge damage to Max’s character development, and made it seem like one, not so huge, situation could change someone’s mindset from one extreme to the other.

Despite the messy plot, the characters are funny, cute, and lovable, and their lines are clever enough to lead you to laugh out loud on several occasions.

For the acting, Patton Oswalt was able to convey the anxious nature of his character and probably made the audience think of someone they know. Harrison Ford’s role was short, but the casting choice for him was perfect with his deep, wise-sounding voice.  Jenny Slate was somewhat outshone by the other cast members, and in comparison, her performance was mediocre. Tiffany Haddish’s voice performance was fun but limited due to the plot’s messy nature. Kevin Hart had the most memorable voice performance out of all the actors, not only because you can recognise his voice with just a few words, but also because he made his character insanely hilarious.

If you have really young kids they will enjoy the fluffy cute characters, and you will have a couple of laughs too, but the older the kids are, the more they won’t enjoy this feature.