There’s a way of describing the plot of Strays which would give you entirely the wrong idea about who this live-action comedy is for. A lovable Border Terrier called Reggie (voiced, Babe-style, by Will Ferrell) is lost and trying to find his owner (Will Forte), who is many hundreds of miles away. Reggie teams up with a streetwise Boston Terrier called Bug (Jamie Foxx), who helps him on the long, perilous journey home, along with two other pooches, who help Reggie stand on his own four feet.
The cute companions find themselves impounded at one stage, and Hunter (Randall Park), the Great Dane who’s been a therapy dog, tries to reach between the bars of their cell to grab the keys on the wall opposite. Using his pink, jutting erection. Record scratch. What? Maggie (Isla Fisher), the Australian Shepherd in their crew, must sweet-talk him into maximum arousal. It doesn’t work. Hunter glumly apologises.
Cuddly, and for kids, this assuredly is not. It’s the crudest comedy of the year – roughly, Jackass for canines, with all the genitalia and poo-based punchlines that might imply. It’s also wildly uneven, and sometimes simply too gross for its own good, doubling down on the filthiest things dogs love doing. But when the laughs do land – with a kind of dazed idiocy – it finds a pretty entertaining sweet spot.
The first 10 minutes, involving Forte’s Doug, set the tone to boorish and aren’t the best. He’s abusive, foul-mouthed, and pleasures himself constantly. The deluded Reggie loves him anyway. It’s Doug who dumps his own pet in the big city and hopes to be rid of him for good. Reggie needs the wake-up call that his life has inherent value, human or no human.
