Most documentaries are not really aimed at children. The film world seems to think they are only interested in animated movies about, frequently, talking pets. If a documentary is for families, on the other hand, there’s a good chance it involves wildlife.
But “Pets” (on Disney+) remixes all of that: It’s a documentary about the title subjects and their humans, aimed at and largely populated by children. Directed by Bryce Dallas Howard, it’s a sweet-tempered film that celebrates the animals we love and seems to have a secondary purpose, too: to convince viewers to support and even develop a love for animal rescue.
Howard accomplishes this by taking a kind of segmented approach. Adorable children give studio interviews about their own pets — their names, their characteristics, the ways they seem to understand the children’s emotions. These are interspersed with home videos, largely the kind of vertical ones you might catch on a social media feed: dogs doing tricks, cats smirking, pigs waddling around and so on. Then there’s a series of mini-documentaries about people who work with animals, especially rescues or otherwise traumatized creatures. Among those subjects are Sterling “TrapKing” Davis, a rapper who is a contagiously enthusiastic cat guy; Rodney Stotts, a master falconer who dedicates his work to both the birds and local children; and Shinobu Takahashi, who runs the no-kill shelter Dog Duca in Nagoya, Japan.
I don’t think anyone inclined to watch “Pets” really needs convincing that animals are cool and that we should like them. But this focus on rescuing those that are, for whatever reason, in harm’s way is rather lovely. And to Howard’s credit, the theme is integrated seamlessly into the celebration of life alongside animals, which might broaden the viewership but certainly will plant a seed of interest in youthful viewers.
What struck me about the movie was an influence I have not often considered when thinking about documentaries. The segmented structure and varied style in “Pets” felt familiar, and about halfway through I realized I was thinking of “Sesame Street,” on which generations of kids have been raised. That show also has its own varied style and structure, broken up by different types of filmmaking, like interviews with children, fun kid-on-the-street clips and short documentaries about ordinary things that are somehow fascinating, including observational footage from factories that make crayons or saxophones.
Kids are actually interested in the real world around them, the ordinary things they encounter, and curious about how everything works. Documentaries are good at feeding that curiosity, at giving children a peek into worlds they can’t necessarily access on their own. “Pets” is engineered to make a child not just want a pet if they don’t have one, but also want to find one that needs a home and some love. And in that way, “Pets” serves up both entertainment and something for its young audience to consider.
