I found a live chicken in my backyard once. I thought it a bizarre occurrence; wondered if I was still dreaming …”hmmm, there isn’t usually a chicken in my back yard…” Turns out, that might not have been a mistake. The thing was probably looking for the pet party.
It turns out our furry flatmates are, quite literally, party animals … at least according to The Secret Life of Pets. When we go away, these little bundles of hurl live full, rich lives of social anxiety and goal-oriented achievement. Seems a shame my cat can’t spell me at the office every so often, huh?
Now I kinda feel sorry for the animals whose owners never leave.
Max (voice of Louis C.K.) is displeased with new roomie Duke (Eric Stonestreet). It’s not just that the fluffy pony-sized stray dwarfs the rest of the apartment; the bread box-sized Max has had a pretty good solitary run with his owner. To clarify, the recently elated Max has become petulant, nursing his pet peeve and dreaming up petsmart ways to lose his new petco, while not-so-petite Pete fells the petunias. It isn’t long before both dogs are lost in the city, collarless, and chased by both animal control and a furious underground anti-human movement led by Snowball the bunny (Kevin Hart).
I’m not sure you can hate a movie where a Kevin Hart-voiced 
rabbit is the antagonist. Can you? There isn’t much to this story, but there doesn’t need to be. The Secret Life of Pets is about moments – like Max and Duke fantasizing in a hot dog factory, like a poodle into death metal, like a canary amusing himself by flipping on fan and TV and then pretending he’s racing with fighter jets through the Grand Canyon. Speaking of which, The Secret Life of Pets has the best 3D effects I’ve seen in over a year. After a stunning run above Central Park to start the film, Secret Life followed with several instances of very clever animation, more than once sending a 2D TV screen to the background while putting a 3D object in the foreground. That’s good stuff.
It’s unlikely this film will be a fam favorite for years to come; after all, this is the second film in a month to feature an animal driving a large vehicle, and the gimmick was handled better in the other one. Still, there will be kids who want to see this one again and again. Let them.
What our pets do when we’re away
Only they can really say
Kinda thought they’d hang alone
Maybe use the land-line phone
Some suggest they pal around
Finding friends on their homeground
Perhaps they have jobs on their own
Intenseley working to for the bone
From what I guess of that furry plan
Cannot say I am a fan
My cat arrives right through that door
And empties her day upon the floor
Rated PG, 87 Minutes
D: Yarrow Cheney, Chris Renaud
W: Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio & Brian Lynch
Genre: Reimagining reality
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Pet owners
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Landlords
