Directed by Chris Renaud and Yarrow Cheney
Starring Louis C.K., Kevin Hart, Jenny Slate
Released July 8th, 2016
Rated PG
Illumination Entertainment is the studio behind the Despicable Me and Minions films, as well as Hop and The Lorax. Their latest, The Secret Life of Pets, continues their run of enjoyable, if forgettable, family entertainment.
Rated PG for an excessive amount of bodily humor (excessive for me, maybe not for the younger set), the film doesn’t really focus on any kind of secret life these pets may have. Instead it’s an amalgamation of a lot of different movies you’ve seen, from Toy Story to Shaun the Sheep.
Louis C.K. voices Max (Hey, that’s my name!), a small dog who loves his owner Katie (Hey, that’s my wife’s name!). Katie shatters Max’s world when she brings home a new dog, Duke (Eric Stonestreet).
WILL MAX AND DUKE BE ABLE TO PUT ASIDE THEIR DOGGY DIFFERENCES AND BECOME BEST DOGGONE PALS? WILL THEY? ANSWER ME!
Of course you know the answer, but before they can go all Woody and Buzz we have a whole movie full of poop jokes, pee jokes, and handicap canine jokes (?!) to get through. Max and Duke get out of their apartment and wind up being picked up by animal control.
Not every animated film has to work for both adults and kids. It’s a good thing to have some kids films that are aimed directly at kids, and that is the case for these funny-if-forgettable Pets.
Soon they’re busted out by Snowball (Kevin Hart), a cuddly-looking bunny rabbit with a vicious, anarchist streak. Snowball believes Max and Duke are owner killers, and enlists them in his fight to destroy all humans. It’s evident Snowball is all talk, so Max and Duke go along with the cottontail while they try to find a way back home to Katie’s apartment,
Meanwhile a Pomeranian named Gidget (Jenny Slate) rounds up pals (including Hannibal Buress and Lake Bell) to bring Max (and Duke, by default) back home.
One of these pals is Tiberius, a hawk voiced by Albert Brooks. Tiberius’ character design is menacing, as is Brooks’ delivery, a far cry from Marlin, the worried father Brooks portrays in Pixar’s Finding Nemo/Dory films.
Louis C. K. is an odd choice to voice a character in a kid’s film, but he infuses Max with more character than Eric Stonestreet manages to bring to Duke. This is less of an issue with Mr. Stonestreet as it is his character Duke, or really any of the characters in The Secret Life of Pets. They simply aren’t memorable. This is the perfect example of a film for kids that they will forget a few hours after they see it.
Not every animated film has to work for both adults and kids. It’s a good thing to have some kids films that are aimed directly at kids, and that is the case for these funny-if-forgettable Pets.
There are many references to the Minions, including one of the dogs dressing up in a Minions costume for a party. These are fun gags, but they establish that the Minions are not real in this world, which seems like a wasted opportunity. Why not set Pets in the same universe as Minions, or even Hop? Why not have an Illumination Entertainment Shared Universe? Think outside the litter box!