The Secret Life of Pets

Score:  **** out of ***** (A-)

Directed by Chris Renaud and Yarrow Cheney
Starring Louis C.K., Eric Stonestreet, Kevin Hart, et. al.
Running time: 90 minutes
Rated PG

Long Story Short:  The studio that brought us the Minions now brings an even more irresistible subject to the screen: pets.  Simple yet focused, The Secret Life of Pets will likely be the most entertaining film you'll see all year.  A great voice cast led by Louis C.K., Kevin Hart and Jenny Slate bring the amusing animals to life, and all you have to do is settle in for the ride.  Highly recommended.


A terrier named Max (Louis C.K.) lives a contented life with his human companion Katie (Kemper) in Manhattan.  He is heartbroken each day when she leaves him for work... but soon turns to his fellow "abandoned" pets in the same apartment building.  When Katie returns home one day with a rescue dog named Duke (Stonestreet), however, Max feels his life has been turned on its head.  The two compete for top pet status with Katie, and during a walk one day with a careless petsitter, they get lost in the scary alleys of New York.  Max and Duke are saved from a life in the pound by Snowball, a little bunny, but their savior quickly becomes their tormentor.  Meanwhile, Gidget (Slate), a Pomeranian who has gazed adoringly at Max from the apartment next door, realizes he is missing and assembles the neighborhood pets for a rescue mission.  These pampered pets must summon their collective grit and wit in order to save their pals.

Like many other recent animated films, The Secret Life of Pets is voiced by an all-star cast that adds significantly to the fun.  Hilarious comedian Louis C.K. takes a break from his subtle comedy show to take on the lead role that is about as unsubtle as you can get: a pet dog.  C.K. voices the eagerness of Max when Katie is around, but his more sober sarcasm comes out to great effect when he is hanging out with the other pets.  Max's nemesis in the film, the feral bunny Snowball, is voiced even more entertainingly by Kevin Hart.  I'm a fan of his live-action work, and he clearly got the green light here to just go for it and it works brilliantly: he bounces seamlessly from streetwise gangsta to unhinged maniac to class clown and back again.  The third of the most impressive roles, though she may not be listed at the top, is Jenny Slate's Gidget.  Employing the same fun, breaking high-pitched voice (is there a special word for this?) as in her Zootopia role, Slate turns Gidget into the film's unlikely yet fascinating heroine.  The other voice actors are fun, too, with particular shout-outs for Lake Bell as rotund kitty Chloe and Bobby Moynihan as a pug named Mel.

While not as involved as a Pixar film, The Secret Life of Pets is near flawless pure entertainment.  This film will not leave you with a lot to chew on when the lights come back on, nor powerful moments of emotion, but if it's fun you want, that's exactly what you'll get.  The overall story itself is quite simple, too, but it is filled with enough Pixar-level clever winks that it holds attention easily (or mine, anyway).  Where the film really shines is pretty obvious: its capture of the pet mindset - again, with Pixar-level detail and wit - and release of that into an animated world whose rules can be bent to put all of it into action.  The introduction is basically what you've seen in the trailers, which is a great idea: remind the audience why they came, the snapshots of pets on their own at home, laughing at those gags one more time before moving to the new stuff/main story.  From there, the story gives just enough color to the characters among the high jinks to ground the humor, give it more punch, and prevent older members of the audience from wandering attention.  The varied type of humor involved also helps, from slapstick to observational, and just a dash of the more self-aware, cultural reference stuff that can be fun but wore itself out years ago in similar films.  Finally, great editing keeps things moving along - but not too quickly - so that the pace never ebbs and it all wraps up right on time.

***

It's been a sensational year for animated films so far in 2016, and The Secret Life of Pets continues that trend.  I had high expectations going into this one, having enjoyed the trailer and loving pets in general.  It was a set up for disappointment, but in fact the film surpassed my expectations.  Secret Life has the same elements that many others - which failed - had as well: a talented cast, beautiful effects/visuals, and a great premise.  But unlike so many others, this film wisely keeps it simple and focused, not trying to play to every possible tangential market/trend out there.  For that I give the filmmakers - directors, writers, etc. - a lot of credit, and even the studio for (presumably) trusting in them.  Oh, and a final bit, like a Pixar film, Secret Life also has a short film before it: produced by the same company, it's an amusing sketch involving the Minions.  I highly recommend this to all, though fair warning to parents of young children: if you don't have any pets, you will likely face great pressure to get one.  But why resist?  Pick a dog or a cat (or both) from a rescue shelter, and you won't regret it.



By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47006167