Strays | 2023 | R | – 6.7.10

Why is “Strays” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “pervasive language, crude and sexual content, and drug use.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes many scenes of a man masturbating and references to masturbating, two dogs having sex, three squirrels having sex, a dog’s erection while another dog makes suggestive remarks to him, dogs thrusting against inanimate objects, maltreatment of a dog by a human, dogs in scary situations, discussions of dog bites, a discussion of euthanasia, animal control tactics, a missing child, many arguments and over 130 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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When a man (Will Forte) leaves his dog (voiced by Will Ferrell) miles away from home and alone in an effort to get rid of him, the dog meets a group of other dogs (voiced by Jamie Foxx, Isla Fisher and Randall Park) that teach him how to be self-sufficient. Also with the voices of Brett Gelman, Rob Riggle, Josh Gad and Sofía Vergara. Directed by Josh Greenbaum. [Running Time: 1:33]

Strays SEX/NUDITY 6

 – A man masturbates in numerous scenes while watching a computer screen and we hear rhythmic movement and flesh slapping in a couple of scenes (we do not see nudity or any sex acts on the computer screen). A female dog talks to a male dog to help him have an erection in hopes of being able to reach the keys to a cage they are held in; we see a blurry pink image on the screen and later see it in focus (we see the dog’s erect penis).
► Two dogs are described as having “sex all the time,” and we see them behind a sculpture in a park as one dog thrusts behind the other. A dog thrusts against a bag of garbage to imply that he is crazy. Several dogs thrust against garden sculptures. Three squirrels sitting on a tree branch are shown thrusting into each other and when a dog crashes onto the branch, he apologizes for interrupting them. A dog thrusts against a sofa and remarks about the cushions and the fabric until a man tells him to stop.
► A young man asks a young woman and another young man if they want to “kiss a little” (we do not see any kissing). A dog walks along dark city sidewalks and another dog asks, “Ever been with an Afghan before?” (implied solicitation of sex). A reference is made by a dog to “sexual experimentation.” A dog talks about “dancing” on a man’s leg. A dog talks about having sex with a sofa and makes a kissing sound as he walks by the sofa in one scene. Two dogs flirt and another dog remarks about the male dog’s erection (we do not see anything). A dog remarks, “Birds don’t have genitals,” and he and other dogs wonder how birds procreate. Four dogs play, “Never have I ever,” and one dog says that he has never performed a particular sex act on a female dog; a female dog says that she has done so and that she was “experimenting.” Dogs discuss the differences between “doggie style” and “human style” sex.
► A dog drops a pair of underwear on the floor, a woman realizes that they are not hers, and she confronts her boyfriend and leaves.
► A man paints a nude of himself (we see his bare back, buttocks and legs). A man shaves his pubic hair in a few scenes and we see his bare buttocks and legs; in one hallucination scene we see a large pile of pubic hair. A man puts his hand in the waistband of his pants and scratches his crotch; he then withdraws his hand and smells his fingers.

Strays VIOLENCE/GORE 7

 – A man picks up a baseball bat and threatens a dog with it, he shoves the dog using the bat, another dog breaks down the man’s door and bites the bat, the man swings the bat braking his microwave, he kicks a hole in a wall, a candle ignites a piece of paper and the house is shown in flames; the man slips on the floor, hurts his back, a dog pushes him down and he hits his head on a lamp shattering it, a dog squats over his face (presumably to defecate on his face, and we see the man with goo on his face later), other dogs hold his legs apart and a fourth dog bites his crotch through his pants as the man screams (we see the man later with a large blood stain on his pants and then in the hospital when he is told that the doctors cannot reattach his genitals). Dogs find stuffed animals in a hole in a forest and play with them, tearing the stuffing out of them; when the dogs wake up later, they realize that the animals were alive, not stuffed, and we see clumps of fur splattered with blood, an exposed rib cage and a severed head and ears; the dogs are mortified, they vomit (we see goo with fur in it), they bury the carcasses and recite a tribute over the grave.
► Four dogs are snared, put in the back of an animal control van and taken to a shelter where they are locked in cages and one dog panics about what will happen to them. A dog talks about having a human girl once and that he bit her one day when she accidentally stepped on his paw; the dog was taken to a shelter (we see a hypodermic needle being prepared to euthanize the dog), but he managed to get away.
► A dog is snatched off the ground by a giant bird and carried way; another dog jumps off the ground and catches the other dog’s paw leaving them both to hang from the bird as it flies over trees, and they are dropped into a tree and tumble down bouncing off numerous branches before hitting the ground (we do not see injuries). Two dogs fight, snarling and snapping; one bites the bandana off the other’s neck and urinates on it.
► We hear that a girl scout has gone missing in a forest and dogs and humans search for her; we see her later with some scuffs on her face but otherwise unharmed. A man is shown being abusive and neglectful to his dog in several scenes, yelling at him and cursing at him; he shoves the dog in a few scenes and drives him to faraway places and leaves him to fend for himself in several scenes. A dog is goaded to run across an invisible fence line and when he is zapped, he falls to the ground immobilized.
► A man yells at his mother over the telephone. A man and a woman argue over his infidelities and the woman leaves ending their relationship. A dog accidentally tips over a pile of boxes causing a glass bong to fall and shatter on the floor; a man yells at the dog. A dog says that he is going to bite a human’s genitals off. Dogs tell another dog that his human has been neglectful by leaving him in a car with the windows barely open, not feeding him proper food, and only taking him out to the bathroom once a day. A dog describes his human as a cold-blooded serial killer and says that he has bodies buried in the backyard. A dog talks about helping dying humans (as a service dog). A dog says that she loves to dig and yells maniacally scaring other dogs in the area. A crude remark is made about neutering male dogs. Dogs talk about being hungry enough to eat feces; one dog says that he cannot eat squirrel feces because it goes right through him.
► Two large dogs approach a smaller dog and one takes his tennis ball; they threaten the small dog until they hear a voice coming from around the corner and see a shadow of a large dog on a wall, the dog comes around the corner to reveal that he is a much smaller dog, and so he acts crazy to intimidate the bigger dogs into leaving. Several dogs gather outside a restaurant and wait for scraps; a woman walks through the door and drops a whole pie on the ground and the dogs pick up the pieces. Several dogs drink beer from garbage bags outside a restaurant and seem to be getting inebriated; one says that he feels dizzy. Several dogs eat wild mushrooms and hallucinate.
► A dog is left in an alley in a city and tries to fetch a ball that is behind a gate that he cannot open; he climbs through an open window in a building and down a pile of crates to retrieve the ball but then cannot get back out. Dogs in a fairground panic and run away when fireworks are set off; they dodge people holding sparklers and dig a hole to climb under a fence and get out; one dog is stuck when his bandana becomes ensnared on the fence wire and other dogs come back to help him get free.
► Many dogs in a cage have bowel movements on the floor (we see many piles of feces in various shapes and sizes and one splattered on the wall) as a man enters the cage with a scooper and slips on some feces, falling into other piles (we see him later covered with feces). A dog walks alone through a dark alley in the rain and we see numerous used hypodermic needles on the ground. A man puts his hand in the waistband of his pants and scratches his crotch; he withdraws his hand and smells his fingers. A dog tells another dog that urinating on something makes it yours and we see the dogs urinating on things (one urinates on a lamp post on a street and we see the stream and a puddle). Four dogs stand in a circle and urinate on each other (we see urine streams). A dog says that humans need dogs for their feces and that humans use the feces to make chocolate. A dog wears a cone on his head through most of the movie. Four dogs urinate against a wall and we hear trickling. A dog vomits on the ground (we see some slime and goo) and another dog eats the vomit (he is starving).

Strays LANGUAGE 10

 – About 131 F-words and its derivatives (additional F-words and its derivatives are contained in a song’s lyrics at the end of the movie), 21 sexual references, 68 scatological terms, 46 anatomical terms, 19 mild obscenities, name-calling (loser, bad dog, tiny, crazy little dog, dumb, tragic, boring, bad man, scrappiest, Adolf, shep-[scatological term deleted], morons, wuss, failed police dog, cold-blooded serial killer, insane, nuts, sadistic, worst dog, cone boy, awful, weirder, stray, stupid), exclamations (epic, shut the [F-word deleted] up, let it go, whoa, anyways), 9 religious profanities (GD), 20 religious exclamations (e.g. oh my God, Jesus, oh God, paw to God, Holy mother flipping [scatological term deleted], Holy [F-word deleted], Holy [scatological term deleted]). | profanity glossary |

Strays SUBSTANCE USE

 – A man smokes marijuana from a bong in numerous scenes, and four dogs eat wild mushrooms that cause hallucinations. A man drinks beers in many scenes, a man drinks from a bottle of liquor while lying on a floor, and several dogs drink beer from garbage outside a restaurant and seem to be getting inebriated.

Strays DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Animal neglect, human-dog relationships, confrontation, toxic relationships, Adolf Hitler, fear of being alone.

Strays MESSAGE

 – Finding a family and someone to love you can change everything for the better.