Went to see the new kid’s flick cartoon The Secret Life of Pets by Illumination Entertainment who also bestow the Minions upon the world (and, in fact, this movie has a Minions short which was amusing). Secret Life of Pets had what I consider a terrible trailer but any time it played at the theaters, it got laughs which made me worry it was going to make a zillion dollars. Well, it’s not god-awful, it’s probably going to make a zillion dollars, and I’m lukewarm about that. This is s a reasonably decent movie with its fair share of smile-worthy moments and at least one serious WTF scene that I kind of appreciated.
The lead dog Max (played by Luise CK) loves his owner and is shocked when she brings home another dog. The old dog gets jealous of the new dog and starts to sabotage him and, through a series of wacky accidents and encounters, wind up outside the house. They have to rescue each other and find their way home (this movie shares not a little DNA with Toy Story). There are plenty of subplots and characters that add to the adventure like a gang of anti-human flushed animal activists led by a loco bunny (voiced by Kevin Hart). Meanwhile, the girl dog next door who is secretly (or not so secretly) in love with Max gets a group of local pets together to find him.
It’s all reasonably charming and fairly amusing. None of it rises or lowers to levels of greatness or unwatchability. It’s solidly a kids movie that may appeal marginally to adults. But no mistakes here… this isn’t on the level of Pixar at its best or Disney Animation… I kept thinking how much better Zootopia was, another movie about talking animals but one that has far greater ambitions than this flick.
Special credit needs to be given to that WTF scene I mentioned earlier. The two dogs find themselves in a hotdog factory and descend into a drug-trip haze where the wieners all dance show-tune style to We Go Together (from Grease) while the dogs actively eat them. It kind of comes out of nowhere, doesn’t feel like the rest of the movie, but was pretty fun.
Speaking of We Go Together, there’s a gob ton of pop songs in the movie such as the on-the-nose Welcome to New York (Taylor Swift) opening where the camera (in what is probably a great 3D moment) flies through the city, circles the Empire State Building, etc. I saw the movie in 2D but these shots and others were clearly meant for 3D so this one might be worth the up-charge.
Final special note to people who makes these movies: we don’t need to see a cat’s butthole when it walks away, tail high. I know that’s what we see in real-life, but you aren’t showing us the dog’s nuts so not sure why you need to get anatomically correct over a cat’s ass. Thank you.
Adults, your kids will probably like this movie. You might be amused by it. It’s low-ambition movie making aimed squarely at the kids. The kiddies will get more out of it and you may smile (or, hey, maybe you’ll think it’s a hoot).
Score: 72