The Secret Life of Pets review

The Secret Life of Pets is a great example of the less you know about a film the more it surpasses expectations. Prior to seeing the film the only thing I knew about it was what I saw from the main trailer. It’s rather pedestrian stuff with lots of sight gags about what your pet might do when you’re not home. Having seen The Secret Life of Pets I can assert that they saved the best stuff for what is not in the preview. This is the most even handed and consistently paced Illumination Entertainment film yet that is a fun ride from beginning to end.

If you’re going to the film arrive early because there is a five minute short film starring the Minions. It’s short, funny and leaves you wanting more of the chatty yellow creatures.

The first four minutes of The Secret Life of Pets is essentially the above trailer. They’ve crammed all the good stuff into the first couple of minutes, I thought. In reality it’s exactly the opposite and the film hammers home the funny with absurd pairings, excellent vocal work, dazzling visuals and a surreal plot that will all but take you down the rabbit hole. Read no further if you don’t want spoilers…….

After The Secret Life of Pets introduces the main pet players we learn that the main human in the film has adopted another dog, Duke to keep Max company. Things don’t go so well between the two dogs and they end up outside of the apartment walking around the street. It’s here that the movie jumps into high gear-their dog tags get slashed off by a colony of feral cats and they get captured by animal control.

The animal control van stops in the middle of the street because they see a tiny rabbit, Snowball, voiced by Kevin Hart. Snowball is actually the leader of the rejected pet underground and is breaking some of his friends out of animal control. Once free from their cages the critters go underground where it’s a Mad Max style arena for abandoned pets.

Meanwhile the domesticated pets have realized that Max and Duke are missing and start to organize a search party, led by Gidget, voiced by Jenny Slate. Along the way they meet up with many more pets  who are enjoying their time away from humans.

The pacing in The Secret Life of Pets is incredibly fast and at times doesn’t give you enough time to appreciate the jokes. The biggest difference between The Secret Life of Pets and a Pixar film is that it doesn’t take a jab at your tear ducts. There are a couple deep scenes where the pets are in real peril. However, those scenes are quick and have a quick happy ending or an over-the-top funny ending.

The Secret Life of Pets is also a strong central PG rating. Ages 5 and up will laugh throughout and want to see it again. This is also a family film that adults will genuinely love. If, if that is they don’t mind a very fast paced film that delivers one liners, attitude and funny furries. This is the funny film that you’ve been waiting for this summer. Don’t tell the kids anything about it, just take them and you’ll all have a kick of a time.