In recent times there have been a surprising amount of documentaries and biopics on the subject of pornography. From Inside Deep Throat to The Notorious Bettie Page, throwing a camera in the face of a porn star in an attempt to make them seem like a “normal” person has failed more often times than it has succeeded – usually resulting in either sensationalism (well, it is pornography) or a paint-by-numbers retelling of the industry’s history.

This is where Pornstar Pets comes in. While it doesn’t shed any personal light on the people involved in the industry, it sure is a light, gleeful, absolutely adorable homage to the denizens of porno and the critters they love.

Director Margie Schnibbe (who has done art direction on some of my favorite porno flicks – boy, I feel creepy saying that.) collects 25 porn stars ranging from the famous (Ron Jeremy), the up-and-coming (a pre-Wicked Violet Blue looking as cute as a button, with just as many holes) and the near forgotten (Teri Weigel looks like a blow-up doll that’s been left out in the desert sun for too long), all willing to spill their guts about their animal obsessions.

In a short 52-minute running time, Pornstar Pets manages to expose a great deal of the stars’ own eccentricities when it concerns their pets. For example, there’s a particularly strange scene where Taylor Wayne cooks up a pile of shrimp … for her dogs. An obvious example of people with money pampering their animals beyond what’s needed, Wayne simmers the shrimp in hot sauce and spicy salsa before feeding it to her pet dogs, licking off the sauce before handing it over to her dogs.

While Taylor Wayne might seem harmlessly kooky, there are much odder pets on display, like Brittany Andrews’ homosexual eunuch cats that rape each other after heavy doses of catnip. Managing to fit in an atypical “crazy cat-lady” archetype, there’s Lena Ramon, who names off every single one of the 37 pets, including two giant Madagascar millipedes.

Even at their most unconventional, each actor seems joyous when speaking about their pets. While the subject is pretty slight, Pornstar Pets is fun and provides a ridiculous amount of “Awww” moments (A turtle eating strawberries? That just might be the cutest thing I’ve seen in my life). Think of it as Animal Planet After Dark.

Note: Though the film is unrated, there’s nothing pornographic in it. There’s a small amount of backside nudity and Sharon Mitchell manages to drop a few F-Bombs in her interview, but this isn’t even R-Rated material.

Presentation
Shot on video (By DIMP favorite John Gulager no less), Pornstar Pets is a no-frills, unremarkable presentation when it comes to both audio and video. That’s not to say that it’s bad, it’s just what you would expect from the material. Compared to the film’s pixilated bonus scenes, the video comes off decently overall.

Extras
Though entertaining, the audio commentary featuring Ron Jeremy and Natalie (Natalie being Jeremy’s roommate and veterinarian assistant) is pretty scattershot, as Ron splits between his hammy persona and questioning Natalie for information on what’s showing up onscreen – though he irritatingly falls back on “What’s this?” whenever an animal shows up onscreen. It’s random, fairly nonsensical at times, but an enjoyable listen.

Also included are 14 bonus scenes. These extended interviews seem to have been cut from the film, and are quite short. All of these are just as good as what can be found on the main feature, though the video quality is quite pixilated.

Finally, there is a picture gallery that runs two-and-a-half minutes, and a collection of weblinks to official websites for the pornstars featured in the film.

Overall
It’s not going to change your opinion of pornography whatever it is, but Pornstar Pets manages to charm simply because everything is better with puppies - and that’s a fact.