Review of The Secret Life of Pets (2016) by Maksim B — 06 Sep 2016

Cheerful, irresistibly cool and fluffy, The Secret Life of Pets is a fast-paced, wild ride into the world of pets and city animals. Highly entertaining for young audiences and less for older ones, this is another pleasing delivery from the creators of Despicable Me and Minions. Bolstered by a very simple, straightforward story, awesome characters and very talented voice cast, The Secret Life of Pets could easily be considered one of the 2016 animated surprises.

As its name suggests, the animation is about the secret and mysterious things pets do when their owners leave for work every day. Max (Lois C.K.) is a small dog who is one day confronted with the fact that he has to share the love of his owner with another, bigger dog, Duke (Eric Stonestreet). Naturally, this results in a serious tension leading to a wild adventure in one single day. Max and Duke get lost in the big city and it is up to their friends to save them, while they are being hunted by the Animal Control and a bunch of "renegade" city animals led by the hyper-aggressive rabbit Snowball (Kevin Hart). A wild ride that happens in the course of one single day, The Secret Life of Pets is so energetic and fast-paced that it is very hard to talk about character development or conveying any sort of family-friendly messages, values or emotions. The absence of an emotional load is compensated with fresh humour, wild chases and constantly changing dangers which pretty much resembles another similar animated delivery from earlier this year, Zootopia.

Just like with the other talking-animals animation, Chris Renaud & Yarrow Cheney's cartoon fails to reach the level of being an instant classic due to its incapability to connect on a multi-dimensional level with the audiences. It entertains and amuses, but it fails to touch and to provoke emotionally. This, however, is handsomely compensated by two major factors. The most important one is probably the fact that once again Illumination Entertainment have come with a cartoon starring truly original characters. Throughout the movie the audience will find itself really entertained with a huge amount of animals, apart from the leading Max and Duke. A tattooed pig called Tattoo, a pair of alligators, a pink cat, a heavy-metal loving puddle and above all a rabbit-psychopath called Snowbal will make you laugh wholeheartedly and enjoy the originality of the screenwriters.

In conclusion, The Secret Life of Pets may not be a new cartoon classic or even an Oscar contender for 2016's Best Animation award, but it offers a real entertainment despite some minor flaws in its story. Charming and with gorgeous characters, it will really make you wonder what do your pets do when you are not at home.