The Secret Life of Pets promises to show you what domesticated animals are really like when people aren’t around. In set-up, it’s a spiritual cousin to Toy Story. But here the mood is defined by a cursory depth and a far zanier mentality. The narrative structure is loose and free-form. Pets seems inspired by the cartoons of the 1940s & 50s from Tex Avery and Chuck Jones. Character development is minimized in exchange for the almighty gag. It’s a hodgepodge of routines but if you’re looking to laugh, it does the job.
The production is overflowing with a huge cadre of personalities, an odd assortment of mostly cats and dogs given life by celebrity voices. They’re an amusing variety of individuals. At first it’s unclear which animal will be the center of attention. There are so many. However we come to understand that Max (Louis C.K.) a Jack Russell Terrier, is the star. He’s a good natured doggie, but grows rather jealous when his owner (Ellie Kemper) adopts another pet in Duke (Eric Stonestreet), a big shaggy Newfoundland. The two dogs are soon thrust into an odyssey on the streets of New York. There they meet up with a cult that promotes “The Flushed Pets” movement. They want to overthrow the humans. Meanwhile Gidget (Jenny Slate), a Pomeranian, rounds up Max’s friends in an effort to find him. Pops (Dana Carvey) stands out as an elderly basset hound with paralyzed back legs. Tiberius (Albert Brooks), a menacing red-tailed hawk is an unexpected addition. There’s a tattooed pig (Michael Beattie), a parakeet (Tara Strong) and a guinea pig (Chris Renaud) as well. However none stand out as much as Snowball, a white rabbit voiced by Kevin Hart. His manic charisma stole every scene he was in. He is hilarious.
The Secret Life of Pets is largely a joy that beguiles almost as easily as it evaporates from the mind. That’s actually part of the script’s ephemeral appeal. The cartoon is brought to you by Illumination Entertainment, the highly successful film production company that brought you the Despicable Me movies. This flick wants to charm us with unfettered antics. There is a purity to that. You’d have to have the cold heart of a grinch to not at least chuckle at some of the random absurdities. At one point a bizarre hallucination sequence in a sausage factory involves a Busby Berkeley number of dancing wieners clad in hula skirts. As their heads are bitten off, they gleefully sing “We Go Together” from Grease. The eclectic soundtrack also includes selections from artists as disparate as Taylor Swift, System of a Down, Queen, Nappy Roots, Ringworm, Beastie Boys, Bill Withers, Andrew W.K. and N-Trance with their the 1995 remake of “Stayin’ Alive”. Sadly, a compilation of all this diverse music has not been released but you can download the selections individually I suppose. Humor targets run the gamut from behavioral shenanigans to poop jokes. And yes there are one too many of the latter. The Secret Life of Pets is a chaotic tornado of random bits & characters. There is very little sense to this. At times, I struggled to discern the focus of the story. And yet it pops up every now and then when it needs to make an appearance or simply make us laugh. I was entertained.
07-07-16
10 Responses
This movie sounds very funny, and a few people I know who saw it had a laugh with it.
It’s good fun.
Oh and thank you for being the first to post your thoughts Vinnie! Review has been up for almost 3 weeks. How odd that a review of the 3rd biggest hit of the summer failed to inspire any discussion.
I’m happy to be the first to comment on it. I would have thought more people would have commented by now.
This was a lot of fun. The bunny (Kevin Hart) was by far my favorite character. I thought all the other animals were good too, but the bunny made me laugh the most. The success of this doesn’t surprise me, it should be seen by many. It’s worth it. 3 1/2 stars.
In a summer where movies drop out of the Top 10 after 3 weeks, The Secret Life of Pets has shown remarkable staying power. Animated films seem to do that. Kung Fu Panda 3, Zootopia & Finding Dory were the same way.
I agree that the depth in The Secret Life of Pets is cursory and its mentality is zany. You’re right that character development is definitely minimal in favor of gags. I thought Kevin Hart was hilarious too. Even though I really enjoyed the movie I thought it was a bit too long and a bit too busy. I think the concept of pets goofing off when their owners are gone makes for a cute short, but it’s not enough to take up a whole movie without throwing other elements in there. And in doing so, they make the film’s focus kind of confusing like you say.
Maybe you’re right. Perhaps it was too long, but at 87 minutes if it was any shorter it wouldn’t even qualify as a feature length movie. Ha ha.
Very true. I realized that after posting this comment. Haha.
Thanks for review. My seven year old liked this better than ‘Finding Dory’. According to his friends, they all like it better too 🙂
I knew this movie would be huge but had no idea it would become the third biggest hit of the summer (after Civil War & Finding Dory). Wasn’t expecting that.