Pixar has made a decent living – and some awfully good films – by imagining the various unseen lives of toys, fish, insects, automobiles and rats. Oddly, they've never got around to picturing what domesticated companion animals might get up when their human chums aren't around. And now, they've been beaten to the punch by the folks behind Despicable Me.
A quintessentially New York picture – worthy, indeed, of a spot in same subset as Do the Right Thing or Taxi Driver – The Secret Life of Pets concerns the Big Apple's apartment dwellers, as exemplified by a Jack Russell named Max (Louis CK). By day, Max and his pampered animal chums – including Chloe (Lake Bell) the big-bottomed cat, Mel (Bobby Moynihan) the dim-witted pug, and Buddy (Hannibal Buress) the dachshund – hang out, waiting patiently for their human cohabitants to return.
As excited as Max is to see his cherished Katie (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt's Ellie Kemper) cross the threshold, he is rather less thrilled to see Duke (Modern Family's Eric Stonestreet), a new adopted canine "brother" of Snuffleupagus dimensions.
Max and Duke’s subsequent bickering at the park leads to their capture by dog wardens, leading to their rescue by radical animal separatists, as led by a psychotic rabbit named Snowball (Kevin Hart at his most maniacal).
Meanwhile, back at home, a princessy Pom named Gidget (Jenny Slate) cuts a deal with a hawk (Albert Brooks), so that she might rescue Max, for whom she harbours unrequited feelings.
Given all the incredible comic talent attached, one can’t help but feel that the script’s zingers ought to be a little more tart than they are. Still, any one of the properly adorbs main characters could easily sustain their own spin-off movie or series; the action is faultlessly breakneck; and the animation – as one might expect from Illumination, the House of Minion – is lively and Skittle- hued.
A late montage featuring animals reuniting with their humans is unexpectedly moving when it could easily have been perfunctory. Expect a sequel. A welcome sequel. And toys. Also welcome.
