I think what ultimately hinders director Josh Greenbaum’s “Strays” is that it’s nothing that we’ve haven’t already seen before. While there is the more blunt explorations of the dog habits and a lot of gags involving humping on objects, and a ton of coarse language, “Strays” is basically just one of the many, many, many talking dog movies available to audiences. “Strays” is also hindered by the fact that there’s a deep sadness permeating under the surface of its story.
Abandoned on the mean city streets by his lowlife owner, Doug, a naive but lovable dog named Reggie falls in with a fast-talking, foul-mouthed Boston Terrier and his gang of strays. Determined to seek revenge, Reggie and his new canine pals embark on an epic adventure to get him home and make Doug pay for his dirty deed.
While Greebaum does aim a lot more for adult humor, and raunchy gags, “Strays” is a lot sadder, even when it aims for silly comedy. Even with hero Bug’s sense of cynicism toward every human, the sadness is bubbling beneath the surface which makes “Strays” feels more heartbreaking than funny. At the end of the day it’s still about an abused dog trying to make it back to his master who makes him suffer out of spite and some sense of delight. It takes a whole road trip for Reggie to realize that he’s been unfairly treated, and by the finale the movie has shed all of its pretenses to become a much more light hearted tale about man’s best friend.
To its credit the voice work by the cast is great, especially from Jamie Foxx who is hilarious as Bug, an angry stray who takes it upon himself to mentor hero Reggie and teach him about how nasty humans can be. The humor works a lot more than it doesn’t, with subversions of goofy tropes including the narrating dog. That said, “Strays” is never laugh out loud funny, or as outrageous as it advertises itself as. It’s mainly just an okay comedy that beats us over the head with its commentary about how great dogs are, and how nasty humans can be. I agree with the general message wholeheartedly, it just loses itself in repetition and tacked on sentimentality.
Along with a DVD Copy and Digital Copy, the “Unleashed Edition” includes the seven minutes Talk Like a Dog, a behind the scenes segment with Will Farrell, Jamie Foxx, Isla Fisher, and Randall Park as they record their dialogue and discuss their impressions of the project. The Ultimate Treat: Making Strays is a six minutes discussion with the director and cast as they continue to talk about the movie and their desire to go a very different direction when it came to talking dog movies. Poop, Booms, and Shrooms is a six minutes discussion of how three important scenes were filmed, the tricks that were used, and challenges that they had to deal with. Will Forte: Stray Actor is a six minutes interview with Will Forte who discusses the challenge of creating and portraying a character who we all have to love to hate.
Training to be Stray is a quick five minutes look behind the scenes at how the trainers go about their jobs to get the non-human actors to do the trick they need to do and hit their marks. A New Best Friend is a brief four minutes talk about working with the dogs, and how one of the dogs used in the film ended up with a new owner by the time the film ended shooting. Finally, there’s a Feature Length Commentary with Director/Producer Josh Greenbaum and Writer/Producer Dan Perrault, a raucous and lively track with both men who discuss the film’s origins, casting, the importance of having the voice cast record together, the challenges of having to shoot the movie at dog height, and so much more.