Movie Review: The Secret Life of Pets

Things change in life, and if you don't fight the change, you could find happiness. A good friend of mine, Quade, talks about this at times and I find it is true. It is also the theme for this weeks movie review, The Secret Life of Pets.

The movie starts with Max (voiced by Louis C.K.) taking us through the story of how he met his owner and best friend, Katie (voiced by Ellie Kemper). It starts out with him as a puppy in a box with a sign that says "FREE" on it, when Katie comes along and picks him up. He says how they were both looking for a roommate, so they stayed together, and from then on they were inseparable from each other. As we watch the years pass by, he tells us how most people would see them as soulmates, meant to just be them forever. There is only one thing that makes him sad, and those are the times she has to leave him at home. When she does this, he just sits at the door, waiting for her to come home.

We move on to meet the other animals in the area, starting with Gidget (voiced by Jenny Slate), who lives in the apartment building next to Max's. Then we start seeing other owners leave their pets at home, with the next pet being a cat named Chloe (voiced by Lake Bell). We continue on to meet a pug named Mel (voiced by Bobby Moynihan), a little bird named Sweet Pea (voiced by Tara Strong), and a dachshund named Buddy (voiced by Hannibal Buress). We have fun seeing what they do when their humans leave, and this can all be seen in the trailer below. 

The story plot has followed the same theme as Toy Story by Pixar, in which we have a human with a favorite thing, in this case a dog, and this favorite is introduced to a new one, and jealousy comes between the two of them. Then an adventure happens that causes these two opposing forces to become friends and work together. Not a ground breaking theme, but a good way to reintroduce it to the next generation of kids. It is consistently funny, which makes it enjoyable for adults to watch, but it really is geared for the youngest of the crowd.

The voice acting was full of talent which creates a lot of chemistry on the screen. They matched the stereotype of the animals well, including Kevin Hart as the cute but evil bunny Snowball. My only complaint there is again, nothing stood out as groundbreaking. The actors did a great job, but I missed that standout performance that creates the buzz the next day.

Overall, the movie is a great family movie to watch especially for families with younger kids. It has a great theme that Illumination knew would hit well, but not something new like when it was first put out there. However, the characters were fun to watch, and for these reasons I would rate this movie 7.8/10.