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The Secret Life of Pets (2016)

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The Secret Life of Pets is a made for kids animated comedy directed by Chris Renaud and Yarrow Cheney, and written by Brian Lynch, Cinco Paul, and Ken Daurio.  The film tells the story of what our pets are getting up to when left alone at home by their parent owners.  Hmmm…
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Max (voiced by Louis C.K.) is adored by his owner and loves her right back.  Hmmm…
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Unfortunately for Max, his owner adopts a newer, bigger, cuddlier dog called Duke (Eric Stonestreet) who threatens to steal the limelight entirely.  Hmmm…
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The two end up lost, fending for themselves in a scary city.  Hmmm…
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Eventually they come cross what appears to be an evil gang of animals, hidden away from the rest of the world.  Hmmm…
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Eventually they see past their earlier grievances and form a team, becoming good friends in the process.  Hmmmmmm…
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The Secret Life of Pets is an unoriginal 90 minutes of cute animals relentlessly moving from one slapstick scenario to the next without any real care put in to the bits in between.  I couldn’t name one character walking out of the cinema, and that’s because you’re really not bothered about them or the plot.  The character decision making and story are really incoherent, and it's all just a vehicle for a cat to fall off a table and a dog to run in to a wall.  The voice acting’s good (Mel Brooks a personal highlight) and I did laugh at bits, but although it will keep the kids entertained for the duration it’s pretty unmemorable and unremarkable.  When you have films such as Zootropolis (2016) showing that kid’s films can be challenging as well as extremely entertaining, why lower your standards?

I would advise you watch the trailer for The Secret Life of Pets (as that is essentially the film's opening 10 minutes anyway, and its best bit by a mile), and then go and pre-order Zootropolis.

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  1. Sara Simone8 May 2017 at 13:43

    This type of pets movie is what kids love. Thats what made toy story such a great success.

    ReplyDelete

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