There's something of a racket when it comes to animated theatrical children's movies. You have a successful movie, there are the inevitable sequels, milking the gags and the familiar characters until all the joy has been rotted out. Fortunately this, the second movie in the inevitable at-least-a-trilogy, hasn't reached that point. The characters are still fresh, and doing absurd things that in context make sense. A couple of new characters show up, like the human baby Liam, whose fragility causes Max the dog's anxiety, and Rooster, a confident Welsh sheepdog voiced by Harrison Ford. Also Gidget the Pomeranian becomes Queen of All Cats.

Because this is aimed at children -- or, more accurately, the parents of children -- there are some morals, and they are good ones.

I had a good time watching this. Once. I feel some sympathy for the parents whose kids will keep this on constant loop.

Max doesn't see the appeal of human babies until his owner Katie has a baby of her own. He finds himself falling for the kid to the point of being neurotically fearful for him. The family goes to the country where the dogs are mentored by the confident sheep dog Rooster. Max leaves his favorite toy Busy Bee in the care of Gidget who promptly loses it to the old lady's numerous cats. Snowball sees himself as a superhero ready to help the helpless. Daisy comes in looking for help with a tiger imprisoned in a circus.

The first one is fine for little kids. It's loud and it's brightly colored. The story gets too big and too outlandish. This one is a little better. I don't find myself getting quite as bored with the story. The scale of the story is pulled back to a more reasonable level. The circus is probably as outrageous as it can get without going over. The plot does split up into three stories which is a major drawback. This franchise succeeds more when the characters join up and gain more chemistry. The gang needs to stay together. This one takes a step up from competent entertainment for little kids to acceptable time for a family to spend together.

The freshness of apply anthropomorphic qualities to animals has worn off. For some reason, the tiger and wolves don't talk. The film has several things going on at one time. The new baby issue didn't amount to anything. Max visits a farm. And a group saves a tiger. It has fun moments for the kids, but it lacked adult appeal.