(Review by my good friend/friend to the site, Bobby! Feel free to follow him on Twitter @BGross94 and subscribe to his YouTube channel, BreakTheWalls10).
The Secret Life of Pets is the sixth film released by Illumination Entertainment, a budding animation production company that will almost certainly have a second franchise under their umbrella after an incredible box-office performance last weekend. Unfortunately, the film itself is by-the-numbers and absolutely nothing special.
The animation looked great and the voice performances across the board are pretty solid. For the first few minutes of the movie I couldn’t help but laugh to myself that Louis C.K. was playing a dog, similar to how Lewis Black was a featured voice in Inside Out. Kevin Hart was Kevin Hart turned up to about one thousand and I found him to be incredibly annoying, although I wouldn’t consider myself to be one of those people who can’t stand him in any movies that he’s in.
My biggest complaint is that this movie doesn’t do anything that we haven’t seen before. Judging by the trailers, audiences were baited into thinking that the film would be about what pets do when their owners leave them home. Instead, The Secret Life of Pets becomes a poor replica of Toy Story – a new pet is brought home to the dismay of another pet, they don’t get along, they get lost from their home, and go on an adventure to find their way back while becoming friends in the process. Animated films use versions of this story all the time, but in this case it fell flat.
I was waiting for something to really hook me in to this movie, but it just never happened. I just didn’t care about the characters and there was only one scene that I actually thought was clever and original. I found myself chuckling at a few moments, but the movie just wasn’t laugh out loud funny and judging by the reactions or lack thereof of most of the people that were in the auditorium with me: they would agree too.
I don’t see much adult appeal to The Secret Life of Pets unless you’re a passionate pet-owner. The movie is unlike so many animations that children and adults could enjoy, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Illumination probably doesn’t care that this is definitely a movie for kids, considering it made over $100 million domestically in its opening weekend. But in a world where PIXAR and Dreamworks exist, it’s disappointing that this movie doesn’t do much to service adults as much as it does kids.
With all that being said The Secret Life of Pets isn’t a bad movie by any means. It’s an hour and a half of distraction that isn’t horrible enough to be offensive but not great enough to remember in a day or two. In some parts of the movie, I was really having a good time but in others it lost my interest and I was bored. It’s a completely serviceable animated film that just doesn’t reach its potential. Hopefully, the inevitable sequel releasing in a few years will be of better quality than its predecessor.
Rating: C+
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