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Blu-ray Review: “The Secret Life Of Pets” Is Terrific Family Fun

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A terrier named Max regularly invites his friends to hang out at his place while his owner is gone, but his quiet life is upended when said owner also takes in Duke, a stray mutt whom Max instantly dislikes.

While I thoroughly enjoyed “Despicable Me” and “Despicable Me 2,” I wasn’t too crazy about “Minions.” As far as animated films go, it did give you their backstory and the inevitable lead-up to “Despicable Me” and while it did have some laughs, I found that the little yellow subordinates work better in small doses, so hopefully we won’t have a “Minions 2” but rather a “Despicable Me 3.” Of course, this is Hollywood we’re talking about and because “Minions” made a gazillion dollars at the box office, it’s not a matter of IF we’ll see “Minions 2” any time soon, but rather when.

With “The Secret Life of Pets,” we are introduced to a bevy of pet characters, from dogs and cats and birds to bunnies and pigs and alligators, there is no shortage of critters on display here. The story begins with Max (Louis C.K.), a terrier who adores his owner Katie (Ellie Kemper) as she found him on the streets of New York as an abandoned puppy. He can never figure out why she has to leave their apartment in the morning and not return till evening but during the day, when all the pet owners are gone to work, we see each of the pets hanging out with each other and what they get up to when no human is around. At the end of the day, Max is taken aback when Katie arrives home with Duke (Eric Stonestreet), an adopted large mutt she says will be his new brother. Naturally, things don’t go well between the argumentative siblings and this leads to them fighting with each other in the park, getting lost, and then being forced into a gang of outsiders, led by a cuddly-looking but ferocious white rabbit called Snowball (Kevin Hart).

When Max and Duke’s best friends realize that the duo are missing, it is up to Gidget (Jenny Slate), a white Pomeranian who is head-over-heels in love with Max, to organize everyone and with the help of Tiberius (Albert Brooks), a wise old hawk who lives on the apartment roof, the gang set off to find their friends. Along the way, they enlist the help of a paralyzed elderly dog named Pops (Dana Carvey), to help them navigate the treacherous streets of New York. When Snowball tries to inaugurate Max and Duke into his gang through an initiation which involves being bitten by a viper, the two accidentally kill it and escape through the elaborate sewer systems underneath the city, only to wind up in Brooklyn. With Snowball and his gang in hot pursuit, it is up to Gidget and her friends to find them first and prevent pet Armageddon.

“The Secret Life of Pets” never panders to its younger audience, instead, it treats them, and the adults, with enough respect so that they never once feel like they’re being looked down upon like kids, allowing everyone the opportunity to join in and laugh at some genuinely funny moments. The animation is superb and composer Alexandre Desplat keeps the right amount of playful wonderment throughout the film’s score so that even in the movie’s occasional darker moments, it never becomes too frightening for the kiddies. The voice work is top-notch and the film will undoubtedly make a lot of money at the box office so be expecting Part 2 in the not too-distant future. This might just knock “Finding Dory” off the top spot and deservedly so, it’s fun for the entire family.

Available on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital HD Tuesday, December 6th

 
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James McDonald

Originally from Dublin, Ireland, James is a Movie Critic with 40 years of experience in the film industry as an Award-Winning Filmmaker. He is also a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association.