As talking animal movies go, Strays isn’t very innovative visually, and its premise that the kind of typical dog behavior that humans find funny or gross is for dogs a point of pride is difficult to sustain for 90 minutes, but it does manage to entertain through its voice cast’s enthusiasm. Though not a big Will Ferrell fan, I think he’s perfect as the scruffy leading mutt, Reggie, who is too much of a callow canine to realize his layabout owner, Doug (Will Forte), hates him. As Doug continually tries to abandon Reggie, the dog just keeps coming back until Doug gets truly serious and dumps him in the city where his sense of direction is useless. Still convinced that Doug loves him, Reggie hooks up with the stray Boston Terrier Bug (Jamie Foxx), who quickly disabuses him about the reality of human warmth. Reggie is of the opinion that “a dog’s purpose is to make humans happy,” while Bug’s more cynical take is that Reggie is just a codependent sap and the life of a stray is where it’s at. 

Suffice to say that both dogs have their attitudes adjusted as they hook up with two other dogs disappointed with their own lots in life: Hunter (Randall Park), a former police dog turned therapy pet in a nursing home, and Maggie (Isla Fisher), a collie who’s been replaced in the affections of her owner by a Pomeranian. Parodying The Incredible Journey, the movie has this quartet finding their way to Doug’s house, where Reggie, his mind turned around by Bug’s profane life’s lessons, plans to “bite Doug’s penis off.” Along the way they filch food from a county fair, get high on mushrooms, dodge birds of prey, land in the pound where they and other strays make a jail break, and hump a lot of furniture and garden ornaments for recreation. It’s a dog’s life, director Josh Greenbaum wants to say, and while the jokes don’t always land the depiction of how dogs really view the world is consistent—and sometimes revealing in new and strange ways. Pissing, of course, comes with its own set of rules (doing it on another dog is a sign of affection) and philosophical tenets, while dog shit is obviously valued highly by humans—Why would they always pick it up and put it in a bag if it were otherwise? Also, postal workers are the Devil’s spawn. 

It’s the interplay between Ferrell’s clueless puppyism and Foxx’s street-wise bluster that keeps the movie going, as if the two actors had transplanted a seasoned comedy routine wholesale into the characters. And while the movie earns its R-rating, it’s hardly surprising that Reggie and Bug essentially change places at the end, with the former embracing his newfound independence and the latter finding his own human to love. Some things never change, though if this were a movie about cats, all bets would be off. 

Now playing in Tokyo in dubbed and subtitled versions at Toho Cinemas Nihonbashi (050-6868-5060), Toho Cinemas Hibiya (050-6868-5068), Toho Cinemas Shinjuku (050-6868-5063), Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills (050-6868-5024).

Strays home page in Japanese

photo (c) Universal Studios