A Complete Surprise, The Secret Life of Pets is Well-Animated and Fun for the Whole Family

Rating: 8/10 (30 July 2016)

In a lot of reviews, people mention how much expectations can play a part in how you view a movie. It's always best to go in with low expectations because the chances that high expectations will be met on every level is rare. It's really cool when something completely subverts those initial thoughts and gives you a much more enjoyable experience. Coincidentally, when I think of movies that were surprisingly good, I remember the first time I saw Despicable Me. I wasn't expecting much at all and it was really great. I thought the trailers for The Secret Life of Pets were interesting but they didn't show much about the plot and I wasn't sure about how good the movie would be. Having seen it now, I didn't have any reason to be worried, it's another solid movie from Illumination Entertainment and I wouldn't be surprised if it spawns a few sequels.
*Minor Spoilers Ahead* The movie is set in modern day New York. Max, who is a short haired terrier (Louis C.K.), lives with his owner Katie (Ellie Kemper). He loves her completely and shares how the have the perfect relationship, doing all sorts of fun things in the city. Max describes them as soulmates and the only downside is that of course she has to leave for work everyday. When their owners leave, their pets in Max's building get to hangout and let loose. Other pets in the immediate area include: Chloe (Lake Bell), Gidget (Jenny Slate), Mel (Bobby Moniyhan), and Buddy (Hannibal Buress). They all deal with their owners being away in their own different ways. But when Katie finally does arrive home on that day, she brings a different dog named Duke (Eric Stonestreet). Duke is a big dog (I don't know if they ever mention his breed) and clashes with Max immediately. Duke acts like he owns the place and Max is unwilling to share. This leads to them clashing from their first meeting and Max begins to come up with a plan to get rid of Duke.
I'll talk more about the story of The Secret Life of Pets later, I'll first touch on the animation. Some people have been critical of the Despicable Me movies for being lazy in this part. The humans of the story are animated in the same way as the Despicable Me movies but the design of the pets in this movie was impressive. It felt like most of the effort went into those pieces of the movie and it really helped elevate it. Each of the animals have a unique look that is fun to watch and combine that with their respective character quirks, you have a movie that's worth seeing just for that reason. The background design was also good and although the animators romanticize the city of New York a little bit, it is a kids movie so showing the seedy underbelly of the city would be understandably too dark.
Moving from character design to character development, some of the strongest and weakest parts are shown in the writing of this movie. On the positive side, the side characters are so much better than they need to be. Characters like Gidget, Tiberius, Snowball, Pops and Chloe are great and their scenes together are the best parts of the movie. It's rare that the supporting characters outshine the main ones so much but that's either a positive or a negative depending on how you see it. The downside I really didn't find Max or Duke likable or even interesting to watch. Even for a moving that's taking beats from Toy Story where Woody is a morally grey character, these guys are jerks and although you don't want to see them hurt, you don't really care that much if they get back to Katie.
The voice acting is pretty good, some parts are more memorable than others. Again, my favourite was Gidget voiced by Jenny Slate. I'm familiar with her from House of Lies but I didn't recognize her, she does a great job. I also really liked Albert Brooks as Tiberius. He's a veteran with all his work on Finding Nemo and Finding Dory but he's really doing something different and it was for the best. Kevin Hart is doing Kevin Hart but his energy and enthusiasm is contagious and it makes Snowball a better villain for it. I also really liked Dana Carvey as Pops. Louis C.K. and Eric Stonestreet are respectively decent in their parts, they aren't terribly memorable but they both do their jobs.
Much like several of Illumination's movies (except for Minions, I thought that was only okay) it might not be Pixar quality but it never really tries to be. This is a movie that aims just to be fun (I say that from the perspective that the plot of this movie borrows from so many other animated movies, it's not about the story) and it easily achieves that goal. I think this is a movie that kids will love and adults will find things to enjoy despite the fact it doesn't come in completely fresh and new.