Oswalt is a fine replacement for Max, able to
connect with the character’s timidity, wonder
and blossoming courage. He is helped by a
gruff farm dog voiced by Harrison Ford, who
unfortunately muddies his first animated voice
role with some hyper-masculinity.
Ford’s alpha dog is pure action cool, ripping off
Max’s cone in disgust (not the best message for
kids in treatment), rejecting Max’s embarrassed
neurosis and being the cold, silent type. “The
first step in not being afraid, is acting like you’re
not afraid,” he advises.
Ford gets to play with his own he-man screen
persona, but we’re not sure this John Wayne
bit — or the whole dynamic of pampered city
folks versus tough country folks — is what we
need right now. Another drawback is the scary
elements: fearful wolves and an awful villain
with a whip and a cattle prod.
Even so, the majority of the film is carefully
constructed, switching from plot to plot to
plot while also incorporating old characters
— Dana Carvey’s elderly Basset hound and
Hannibal Buress as dachshund Buddy — in
an increasingly complex patchwork, fed by a
lively soundtrack that includes Stevie Wonder,
Jefferson Airplane, Coolio and ZZ Top.
As signs of how well engineered this movie
is, a cover of Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day” is used
at the end, a callback to the original song’s
appearance in the first film. It also opens with
“Empire State of Mind,” an echo of how the first
one opened with Taylor Swift’s “Welcome to
New York.”