directed by Chris Renaud
written by Brian Lynch, Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio
From Illumination Studios, the people who brought us one highly entertaining, original film with Despicable Me and a string of cookie cutter follow-ups after that comes one of the biggest box-offices successes of 2016, The Secret Life of Pets a movie that purports to tell us viewers what our pets, be they dogs, cats, birds or fish, get up to when we leave them to go to work.
The "hero" pet of this film is Max (voiced by Louis CK) a Jack Russell terrier who adores and is adored by his owner Katie (Ellie Kemper), whose return from work he patiently awaits every day, until one day she brings home a new dog she rescued from the pound, the large, hairy mongrel, Duke (Eric Stonestreet). Max, whose happy little bubble is threatened, shows dislike towards Duke, who responds with aggression as he threatens Max point blank that he will get rid of him if he has to. Max responds by breaking various items belonging to Katie and threatening to frame Duke for it, which causes him, in turn to submit to Max. The conflict only escalates, however, and eventually the two dogs find themselves lost and surrounded by all manner of urban perils, including an army of stray cats, animal control hot on their tails, and later, an army of bitter, rejected pets led by a vengeful rabbit (Kevin Hart). Max's disappearance prompts his secret admirer Gidget (Jenny Slate) to lead a motley bunch of pets including three dogs, a cat, a hawk and a hamster, to find him. Ultimately, though two dogs who hate each other must learn to work together if they are to have any chance of getting home.
Basically, this movie is Pixar's Toy Story but with pets instead of toys. I'm surprised I didn't pick up on this from one of the later trailers, but sitting through the movie, I found the the similarities too glaring to ignore. The main character who is used to being the center of his beloved owner's attention, is displaced by a new object of affection, and this leads to conflict between them. The only difference is that here, Duke, the Buzz Lightyear analogue, is antagonistic to Max almost immediately, and does not harbor fanciful delusions of living a different life the way Buzz does. Basically Max and Duke are Woody and Buzz, but without any of the quirky charm of either of those characters. In fact, they're both downright unlikable.
None of the characters, in fact, is particularly memorable, save perhaps for Kevin Hart's Snowball, and maybe Albert Brooks' hawk Tiberius. Every other character is fairly disposable, and even worse, with few exceptions, none of the voice actors is even particularly funny.
In an era in which animated films can intelligently tackle such hot-button topics as racial intolerance, like Zootopia, or even child prostitution, like Spirited Away, a movie that rehashes a twenty-one year old animated film feels distinctly uninspired. This movie isn't even anywhere near as good as the first Despicable Me.
The good news, though, is that there's plenty of slapstick comedy, which I honestly enjoyed, the animation is topnotch, and the score by Alexandre Desplat is a snazzy, jazzy delight. I found it exceptional, in fact. It's been a while since I've heard a music score for an animated film this lively.
Overall, The Secret Life of Pets is a reasonably fun watch, especially for those with children, though, and it did get me to look forward to Illumination Studios' next offering, the musical Sing.
6.5/10
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