A Cute Kids Film With an Over Abundance of Characters

Rating: 6/10 (13 July 2016)

The Secret Life of Pets is directed by Yarrow Cheney and Chris Renaud and stars the voices of Louis C.K., Eric Stonestreet, Kevin Hart, Jenny Slate, and Albert Brooks. The story follows Max, a dog who loves his owner, Katie. They both get along very well, and live in a small apartment in New York City. However, Katie goes away every day (most likely to work), and Max has no idea where she goes. During this time of day, Max and all of his animal friends get together and have parties, or just have casual conversations. When Katie returns home with another dog named Duke, Max gets jealous, and his envy sends both him and Duke on a journey that gets them lost in the big city that they live in.
I wasn't too excited for this movie. The trailers looked decent, yes, but Illumination's last movie was Minions (2015), and we all know how great that was. Most of the voice actors working in this film are pretty good, so that was enough to drag me to the theater. I walked away just slightly surprised. The film doesn't bring anything new to the table, but it wasn't horrendous. I enjoyed some aspects of it, and didn't find myself wanting to leave the theater.
First and foremost; this movie directly, step by step, rips of the 1995 Pixar film, Toy Story. Nearly everything that happens in this movie happened in Toy Story, and even some elements of Toy Story 2, the 1999 sequel. At first I didn't really notice it, but once time went on, I started to realize it more and more. Each and every scene borrows something from Toy Story, and it really becomes noticeable after quite a while.
The best thing I can say about The Secret Life of Pets is the main characters. Despite there being way too many characters in the movie, the ones that were the most important were good. I liked Max and Duke, and their characters arcs throughout the film. I started out liking Snowball, the bunny voiced by Kevin Hart, however, as time went on, the character just started to get annoying. My favorite character was Gidget, the small white dog voiced by Jenny Slate. Her personality was very likable, and she was a very compelling character. Her friendship with Max, and her desire to rescue him really pushed the story along, and I enjoyed her character very much.
On the topic of characters, there was way too many. Max and Duke are the characters that the film really centered around, but the amount of supporting characters was just ridiculous. There were a few characters that were given more attention, like Gidget, and Snowball, but Tiberius, Chloe, Pops, Buddy, Mel, Tattoo, and Viper weren't, and that's just a short list compared to to rest of the characters. Many different characters could've been cut out of the film, and that probably would've improved it.
Most of the unnecessary characters are thrown in for attempts at slapstick comedy, and it doesn't always work. After awhile, the slapstick starts to get a bit annoying, and the movie really should just focus a bit more on the story. The attempts at humor throughout start to give the film a Tom and Jerry feel, as if you're just there to see small animals beat each other up with miscellaneous items or methods. The slapstick starts to get old pretty fast, and drags the film down by a lot actually.
Overall, kids will like The Secret Life of Pets, and adults will think it's a cute kids movie. I wouldn't pay much to see it ever again, if I ever did. It's a step by step rip off of Toy Story, except with animals, and I wouldn't pay more than matinée price if I were to see it.