Movie Brief: The Secret Life of Pets

Home alone pets make for the funniest animated movie of the year!

If you’ve been on the fence about adopting a pet, watching the animated movie “The Secret Life of Pets” will have you heading to your local animal shelter to adopt your own frisky critter. Admittedly, I don’t typically put animated films on my radar, but there was something about this movie that was just too enticing to pass up.

Plot: Max (Louis C. K.) is a kind and cuddly dog who hates when his owner Katie (Ellie Kemper) leaves the house everyday. He has no clue where she goes, but Max dreads when she leaves. But soon he discovers something worse than Katie leaving when she brings home a big, obnoxious stray dog from the pound named Duke (Erik Stonestreet). Being an ‘only pet,’ Max is resistant to sharing his digs with a new dog and tries to prove to Katie that Max is more trouble than he is worth. When Duke realizes what Max is up to, he wages war and their shenanigans gets them both lost in New York City, eluding dog catchers as well as a band of runaway animals led by a renegade rabbit (Kevin Hart).

Engagement: The fat cat, the pretension poodle, the cute bunny—all the stereotypical notions of different pet “personalities” are dissed in this hilarious tale of adventure for animals living in an apartment building. The funniest is Snowball voiced by comedian Kevin Hart. He may look cute and vulnerable, but as the leader of abandoned and abused animals who live in the sewers, he’s anything but. Snowball and his cohorts, which include a tatted pig and hungry gator, encounter Max and Duke in the city. After their worlds collide, Max and Duke find themselves on the run and it’s a race against time for their friends to rescue them.

Style: The film is brilliant and cheery, with a tinge of realism. It’s an animation that kids will love watching—they will inevitably want a new pet, too—and adults will find hilariously charming, even if they’re not into animation.

Release: Friday, July 7th

Image source: Illumination Entertainment