Apparently the first trailer has been out for a decent while now (over five months), but the first time I heard about this joint was during the trailers for Oppenheimer. Hmm, I see a cute border terrier, and I hear Will Ferrell. Yay, it’s a mild-mannered comedy of some sort. I was, however, watching a 15-rated film at this time, so I probably should’ve known otherwise. The slow motion of the anthropomorphic pooch jumping through a sunny field was nonetheless endearing.
Less endearing when Doug, the owner of said pooch, directs an f-bomb straight in his direction. Okay, clearly not a movie for younger audiences. Especially when the trailer mentions that it’s been made by the guys who did 21 Jump Street. Can’t say I was a huge fan of that film, but I’m willing to give this one a go for the Ferrell-border terrier combo. The dramatic irony of Ferrell’s happy-go-lucky pooch when he describes the fun challenge of getting back to Doug’s abode after clearly being dropped off far away with the intention of abandonment is certainly endearing.
Then one day, the pooch gets dropped seriously far away, and it’s up to a gang of hardened dogens to teach him the ways of the real world. The CGI work when Will Ferrell’s pooch (still not sure what his name is yet) looks down despondently upon realising Doug’s betrayal is pretty cute. I’ve watched a few films when I was younger with talking dogs that I quite enjoyed, including Underdog and a preview screening of one of the live action Scooby-Do movies (I was also young enough to be under the impression that the CGI Scooby Doo was a real dog…ignorance is bliss).
Cue a slow-motion montage of the dogs messing around in the big city, before Ferrell’s declaration of the revenge he’s going to enact on Doug. I won’t go into the specific nature of that revenge, but the trailer’s there to watch on YouTube if you need the details. Now it goes through the casting, and I finally discover that the main pooch’s name is Reggie. Nice. Not on the same quality of naming as Mr Colin (the full title of my own noble, adorable and cushion-abusing gentleman of foggy London town), but good nonetheless. Cue some montages of the gang messing up the playground before they finally arrive at Doug’s. Then a funny trippy bit where they consume mushrooms and the visuals become similarly messed up. Strays has got potential, I’ll say that.