Directed by : Yarrow Cheney, Chris Renaud
Written by : Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio, Brian Lynch
Starring : Louis C.K., Eric Stonestreet, Jenny Slate, Kevin Hart, Lake Bell
Release Date : June 18, 2016
As a pet owner and someone who loves dogs, "The Secret Life Of Pets" seems to be specifically made for me to enjoy. The whole premise that pets are living a secret life when humans aren't watching isn't entirely a new concept, but it's always a welcome one. It can also be compared to how the toys in Pixar's "Toy Story" franchise have a secret life out of the sight of humans. It's a winning formula that this movie takes advantage of. The problem is that it's a little all over the place, and doesn't always get that winning formula right.
The scenes when the animals are acting like you expect animals to act; albeit in an exaggerated way, is when this movie shines through to it's vision. The scenes when the animals are breaking the suspension of disbelief; like when they are driving a vehicle, is when it really loses me. The movie flip flops between those two scenarios so much, that I found myself also flip flopping between being fully entertained to just being annoyed. It doesn't help that the story seems to just be a series of familiar plot tropes; whether it be dramatic or comedic, but then never really develops them properly. The movie just gives off a rushed or unfinished tale that left me somewhat unsatisfied with the whole experience.
Luckily the voice cast is great in this. The acting really brings the characters to life, and there are little visual touches that the animators do with them that are simply brilliant. For one example, I really enjoyed the supporting character of Tiberius; played by Albert Brooks, who has a running gag about being a predatory animal that the movie plays around with. Speaking of gags, the jokes in the movie in itself are generally hit or miss. Some jokes were able to go places that I wasn't expecting and completely won me over, and then there are some jokes that were just too cheaply obvious and just played to the lowest common denominator. Like I said already, I was either fully entertained or was just annoyed.
While it seems that "The Secret Life Of Pets" is content to just go for the easy laughs and entertain young kids, there are still some ambitious thematic scenes that teases us of something greater than what we ended up getting. This leads to the fact that while there are things I really enjoyed about this movie, the whole thing still felt like it didn't completely work for me.
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