The Secret Life of Pets should have been named "Pet Story," as it is about the same movie as the Pixar favorite: two characters with one owner, one being new to the owner's life, they fight, and go on an adventure of redemption. They end up forgiving each other, and the owner shares their time with each of the newfound friends. Seen this one before?
Louis C.K. and Eric Stonestreet play Max and Duke, respectively, and at first they do not get along. Max a small dog, wants nothing more than to play with his owner, and ponders what humans do five days a week (i.e. their jobs). That alone is interesting, and the gang of animals could have been a deeper look on how pets need more attention. Then his owner brings in Duke, a big dog, who wants to share the apartment, toys, food, and owner. Max says no, plot happens and they get loose, and now they need to find their way back to the tall apartment building in New York City.
Max has friends in and across the building, from cats to guinea pigs to other dogs. They get along, despite their species discrepancies, and band together, along with a bird and an old dog, and head out to rescue their friend. This is the best part of the movie, focusing little on character growth (I mean, how much depth can a near-sighted elderly canine have?), and the film flies through scenes with a penchant for well-staged slapstick and visual puns. And featuring animals, it failed to escape the feeling I was watching an updated Looney Tunes cartoon. That is a compliment, as there is a dearth of decent slapstick since the death of John Hughes' writing career. But the film's best joke is not explicit, and it is the only moment of subtlety or social commentary in the entire ninety minute movie: the unnamed people walking around in the busy streets of the city are on their phones.
Kevin Hart voices Snowball, a former magician's rabbit who was discarded when his owner abandoned the top hat. He lurks in the sewers along with alligators, turtles, cats, dogs, snakes- you name it, and the plot to kill humans for revenge. But Snowball's character is an old joke, where a tiny, loud-mouth, and ironically named individual is the leader of a deadly gang.
He is out to "get" Duke and Max, so there are three groups the film follows, and the idea and execution of an animal underground is pretty good. It is when the movie focuses on our leads that it bogs itself down. They two have little growth, no honest reason to dislike each other and it is obvious they will befriend each other by the time the credits roll. Oh, sorry, spoiler alert.
For example: at one point, they duo visit Duke's quondam owner, only to discover that he has past away. Heartbreaking, isn't it? Unfortunately, there is zero grace with how the situation is handled, and the entire sequence of visiting the old owner is just suddenly mentioned, then they find the owner has died, and then it is forgotten. It is like the filmmakers had a Pixar writer for one day, and shoehorned their idea into the plot last minute.
The trees are pleasantly orange and brown, implying it is fall but serving no point to the plot. Why is it fall then? Coming out in the dead of summer, maybe the leaf-color artist was not memoed the film's release date. The film is never boring, for long at least, but I still should not have noticed, then wondered about, the leaf color.
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