The Secret Life of Pets

A Pet Story                             3/5


Animated
    Another solid animated movie this year

Standout!
     Jenny Slate as Gidget and Kevin Hart as Snowball

Trailer Sold
     This movie opened huge with the aid of a great marketing campaign

     
     

Rotten Tomatos 74%       Cinemascore: A-

The Secret Life of Pets is another solid addition to a year that has been dominated by animated films. It's premise is simple: What do our pets do when we're not around? While that question is answered in on a variety of occasions, but the true story is about Max (Louis C.K.) who is his owner, Kate's, favorite pet until she adopts another dog named Duke (Eric Stonestreet). After trying to get rid of one another, Max and Duke end up on the street trying to find their way home while the pets Max used to live with organize a search party, lead by Max's secret admirer Gidget (Jenny Slate), to find them.

First let me address the elephant in the room, if this plot and premise sounds a lot like Toy Story don't worry your right. This movie takes as much from Toy Story as the Force Awakens did from A New Hope, but as I mentioned in that review (and as I will mention here) a movie can borrow plots and ideas from each other as long as there is something new it brings to the table; I believe this aspect of Pets is redeemed with the characters. Snowball (Kevin Hart) and Gidget easily delivered the most laughs but I found myself behind most of the characters in this movie and loved watching them bounce off each other. The movie has a grasp on its boundaries and when to hit the right notes.

For the first half of Pets I found myself enjoying the movie more so then Dory, however a better movie this is not. Many of the character arcs in this movie are a little underdeveloped making for some convenient second act character changes. For example Duke in the beginning of the movie is a complete jerk to Max, even though Max hasn't really welcomed him, but by the second act it seems this mean spirited identity of his in completely dropped so the two can work together.

The Secret Life of Pets is everything the trailers promised, a fun adventure through the big apple starring our favorite animals at home. I was with this movie from opening credits and had a couple good laughs along the way. If your curious, it won't bite to check it out.