The Secret Life of Pets arrived in 2016 with a tagline that doubles as a thesis: “Ever wonder what your pets do when you’re not home?” Chris Renaud directs, and the film answers its own question for 86 minutes before running out of road.
Trailer, via Illumination.
Max, Duke, and a New York Apartment
The setup is small and clean. Max, a Jack Russell Terrier voiced by Louis C.K., lives with his owner Katie in a New York City apartment. When she leaves, he socializes with the building’s other pets: Chloe the tabby cat (Lake Bell), Mel the pug (Bobby Moynihan), Buddy the dachshund (Hannibal Buress), and Sweet Pea the budgerigar. Then Katie adopts Duke, a Newfoundland voiced by Eric Stonestreet, and Max’s envy curdles fast.
The film’s best material lives in that first act. Renaud, working from a script by Brian Lynch, Cinco Paul, and Ken Daurio, treats the secret life as a comic premise rather than a puzzle. The pets have routines, hierarchies, and grudges. That is enough.
Then the plot arrives, and it is a lot of plot.
Snowball and the Flushed Pets
Duke tries to abandon Max in an alley. Cats led by Ozone, a cockney-accented Sphynx voiced by Steve Coogan, strip their collars and leave them for animal control. Duke fears the pound will kill him. The pair is rescued by Snowball, a rabbit voiced by Kevin Hart who leads “the Flushed Pets,” a gang of drain-dwelling animals who hate humans because their owners abandoned them.
Max and Duke claim they killed their owners. The Flushed Pets invite them in. Before a viper bite can prove their loyalty, Snowball learns they are domesticated. They escape to a ferry bound for Brooklyn, and the viper dies in the process. Snowball vows revenge.
Hart is the film’s engine. He plays Snowball as a small animal with a large grudge, and the performance gives the back half a pulse the script does not always earn.
Gidget’s Rescue Party
Meanwhile, Gidget, a white Pomeranian voiced by Jenny Slate, is in love with Max. She recruits Tiberius, a red-tailed hawk voiced by Albert Brooks, to track him down. Tiberius brings back Ozone. Gidget pressures him into talking, then enlists Mel, Buddy, Chloe, guinea pig Norman (Renaud), and Sweet Pea. On the way they meet Pops, an old Basset Hound voiced by Dana Carvey, who helps them search.
This is where the film’s structure starts to show its seams. Two rescue parties, one villain, one ferry, one viper, and a pound subplot all compete for the same 86 minutes. Every thread gets a scene. None gets enough.
The voice cast is the film’s strongest asset. Ellie Kemper plays Katie with warmth. Kevin Hart, Jenny Slate, and Albert Brooks each land their lines. Louis C.K. plays Max as a straight man, which is the right call and also the least interesting one.
What the Numbers Say
The Secret Life of Pets premiered at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival on June 16, 2016, and opened in the United States on July 8. It grossed $886 million worldwide, making it the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2016 and the year’s most profitable release. A sequel followed on June 7, 2019, with Patton Oswalt taking over Max from Louis C.K.
That commercial record is the part worth weighing. A film this loose, this crowded, this willing to trade its own premise for a chase, still became the year’s most profitable release. The pets-doing-human-things idea was strong enough to carry a franchise on its own.
The film’s weakness is not ambition. It is discipline. The first act promises a comedy of domestic observation, and the second act delivers a gangland revenge plot with a drain, a viper, and a ferry. Those are different movies, and The Secret Life of Pets never decides which one it wants to be.
KEY FACTS
- Release: July 8, 2016 (US)
- Premiere: June 16, 2016, Annecy International Animated Film Festival
- Runtime: 86 minutes
- Worldwide gross: $886 million
- Metacritic: 61/100
- Sequel: June 7, 2019
SCHEDULE
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| June 16, 2016 | Annecy International Animated Film Festival premiere |
| July 8, 2016 | US theatrical release |
| June 7, 2019 | The Secret Life of Pets 2 released |
The Secret Life of Pets is a film with a great premise, a good cast, and a plot that keeps interrupting. It earns its audience honestly in the first act and spends the rest trying to win them back. Score: 6.1 of 10.
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