Director: Josh Greenbaum

Featured voices: Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Will Forte, Ilsa Fisher, Randall Park

A coarse, sweary, canine-only version of ‘The Incredible Journey’ might sound like a mildly amusing idea for a short skit, but proves almost unbearably tedious over a ninety-minute stretch.

Reggie (voiced by Ferrell doing his wide-eyed innocent thing) is a naïve, endlessly cheerful terrier who loves his aggressive charmless slob of an owner, Doug (Forte), and thinks of Doug’s attempt to abandon him as elaborate games. When one of Doug’s girlfriends dumps him after Reggie fetches a pair of another woman’s panties to thedinner table, Doug swears to rid himself of Reggie for good. He drives him to a neighbouring city and leaves the helpless terrier in a scary deserted alley.

Frightened and alone, Reggie is befriended by streetwise foul-mouthed Boston Terrier Bug (Foxx), who promises to show him the ropes. Bug also introduces Reggie to his friends, the pretty, upbeat Australian Shepherd, Maggie (Fisher) and retirement home therapy dog Hunter (Park), a mild-mannered Great Dane.

When Bug clues Reggie in on what really happened with his owner, Reggie decides to take revenge on Doug and the quartet set off on a quest for revenge.

Cue much profanity and scatological humour, but zero in the way of wit or invention, leaving the estimable voice cast all at sea, as the dogs’ journey takes in the obligatory comedy drug trip and a run in with the cops. The third act inevitably gives way to cloying sentimentality, or exhibits ‘a lot of heart’ in the modern parlance.

Strays is out now

David Willoughby

Follow David on Twitter @DWill_Crackfilm