In the original Secret Life… Max (now voiced by Patton Oswalt following Louis C. K.’s fall from grace) was stressed out by the arrival of a new dog in the house. Here his owner gets married and has a child who he constantly worries about.

The plot feels a little like three separate tv shows pushed together. Across its 86 minutes we have Max and family visiting a family farm where farm dog Rooster (Harrison Ford) teaches him to let go a little. Snowball (Kevin Hart) the rabbit is dressed as a superhero trying to free a snow leopard from a circus (really!) and Gidget (Jenny Slate) is trying to learn how to be a cat so she can rescue a dog toy from a horde of cats.

Of course the stories merge toward the end but I think they probably would have been better served as their own episodes.

As with the original it is amiable enough with nothing that particularly stands above any of its animated competitors. Most importantly though, my children loved it, especially when a cat explores the noises it can make whilst on catnip.