Pure Enjoyment

Rating: 7/10 (9 July 2016)

As soon as I saw the first teaser trailer for this film, I knew that I would see it. I didn't care whether it would be good or not I was determined to see it and I can happily say the film delivered exactly what it promises.
Illumination Entertainment who were responsible for Despicable Me have again created a very entertaining piece of animation that will be tickling you through out the hour and half duration. Now you may think that this is basically Toy Story with pets, and you would be right it is, but the film is still new and exciting in its own way.
The Secret Life Of Pets follows the lives of various household pets from dogs to rabbits to birds to crocodiles when their owners are not home. We focus particularly on Max a Jack Russell Terrier who becomes ambushed by a new dog Duke who is to be his brother, but when the two don't get along to start, they will get lost in their home city, (which is meant to be NY) and work together to get home. Also pursuing them is their close friends and a maniac rabbit voiced by Kevin Hart.
To get straight to the point, the film is very enjoyable and entertaining and funny to be enjoyed by children and older audiences as well. The film is not a masterpiece like Inside Out or The LEGO Movie and doesn't have as much depth as Zootropolis, but it is a fun time at the cinema.
It starts of with a very nice establishing tracking shot of the animated city which is very pleasant to look at, and does frequently provide admirable views through out of the landscape. There is also sweetness to it in the relationships between the pets and their owners shown in two montages. All the voice actors also do a splendid job in their role and provide the perfect voices for their characters. With the jokes, there are proper funny jokes and not just plain slapstick, but their is a lot of that. I will say there were moments where the faces of the different characters just brought a smile to my face.
However there are still some flaws. There are too many characters that try all to have their moments, and after a while we kind of forget about them and they are just there. There are smaller stories going on in the film which don't quite meet the climax they are built up to be. Finally, the film does have potential in particular moments to give the film the emotion and depth needed but it doesn't quite flow that way.
I will say I probably would have enjoyed the film even more, but I surrounded by the most annoying people ever in a cinema. So to sum up it s very entertaining and funny, a good time at the cinema, but not a masterpiece in animated family films. 7.7/10