The Secret life of Pets (2016)

The Secret life of Pets (2016)

5/10

Starring

Louis C.K.

Eric Stonestreet

Kevin Hart

Jenny Slate

Ellie Kemper

Directed by Chris Renaud and Yarrow Cheney

The Secret life of Pets is a 3D computer animated movie from the creators of Despicable Me and Minions (2015), Illumination Entertainment. Their previous movie franchise (Despicable Me) have been well received both critically and commercially and I have to say are great movies to get sucked into.

This new addition is no Minions, and although I found the movie OK-ISH it wasn’t funny enough for me, but the movie will appeal to children.

My biggest dislike in this movie is the whole Disney/Pixar Toy Story rip-off. It was like I was back in Andy’s room again watching his animals (not toys this time) have a life outside of him. Then the two leads in this movie rip-off Max and Duke, reminded me of the feud between Woody and Buzz Lightyear.

This movie is being played as an original story, but to me it is a shabby rip-off of a great movie franchise, Disney/Pixar Toy Story, and I expected better from Illumination Entertainment.

The movie starts with a short Minion movie, which for me was the height of the whole experience. It is not that The Secret Life of Pets is no good, but it is not great when you have to compare the movie with, Zootopia (2016) or Finding Dory (2016).

The movie’s theme, which is life after the owner’s head off to work, was the movie’s greatest barrier and halfway into it I wished the movie will take another turn from this story rip-off, but the writers and directors stuck to it.

This is a wonderful year for animations, but Disney has got this year covered. The Secret life of pets starts interesting, but the whole journey which started with a goodbye and ended with a welcome home, was not grand enough to make me want to see it again.

My low rating is basically because the whole planned excitement I felt seeing the thriller was not the same when seeing the movie, the characters were too ordinary (except for Snowball, the white rabbit). The voice casting though is what you will enjoy, from Kevin Hart to Jenny Slate, I kind of preferred the voice casting of the supporting cast to the main.

The movie’s plot is about a dog, Max and his owner’s love for one another. The owner came home one day with a surprise for Max a new dog, Duke.

Max allowed his jealousy to get the best of him and tried to get rid of Duke, but later succumb to blackmailing him to do his will.

His plans backfired and now both are lost in the streets of New York. Their collars got stolen by alley cats and they got captured by animal control.

The trip is not over yet because they get rescued by a crazy rabbit named Snowball who welcomes them to his hate pet owners club.

Now Max and Duke must find a way to get away from this new crowd and back to their owner.

Illumination may decide to make a sequel to this movie, since it is doing well in the box-office, and the story shouldn’t be had to get together, they can now go rip-off Toy Story 2.