Another American Tail

Rating: 8/10 (11 September 2016)

I've had many parakeets in my younger life and boy, now I wish I had a nanny-cam back then.
The Secret Life of Pets was a cute, though not 100% original animation movie and even then, I found myself laughing out loud probably more than a dozen times. Not wanting to spoil the movie, but to state my favorite sight/sound-gag, think: TURTLES.
Thankfully, most of the jokes were for humans my size, but dang, were they old references. There's a point of gearing a cartoon to please both kids and adults, but this felt like it was written in the early 90s. Eh, still, it made for some great humor and laughs out of me.
Apparently, you don't know your pets take on human qualities when you're gone and these NYC apartment building pets know how to party during your work hours. But, there has to be a plot to stretch this from a cute 5- minute YouTube video on the premiseso two dogs go missing and their friends, rebels and more are out to find them.
While there is a TON of cool shots in this movie, sometimes a tad overly convoluted, the film is hardly original. I've seen ALL of this before and that said, I still had a great time. There were enough jokes, great animation and adventure to keep up the pace.
You can tell, even with the said old script, the animators loved making this film. The details were amazing at times and there was a ton of heart in the making of this. When, in the same year, the lazy and sad production of Norm of the North comes out, it's refreshing to get back to what makes animation greatagain.
***
Final thoughts: In prep for my favorite month of the year, October, in less than 20 days, I've been catching up on a ton of horror movies. Usually, I can wait and devote the entire month of October to horror, but I just too excited this year. With this, I just needed a break from the gore and glad I landed on this fun intermission.