Review: The Secret Life of Pets (2016)

My ratingIMDbRotten Tomatoes
CriticsAudienceCriticsAudience
6/1061/1006.8/1074%67%
Numbers obtained from IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes on July 24, 2016.

When I saw the trailer for The Secret Life of Pets, I hoped that would be a more unique and different story. However, after watching the it, I can say that is a mixture of Toy Story (1995) with Oliver & Company (1988), which disappointed me a little. Not that I do not like these two movies. On the contrary: I’ve seen them so many times that I don’t think they need to be copied.

In The Secret Life of Pets, we meet Max (Louis C. K.), a pet dog who does not understand why his owner leaves the house every day. One night she returns with Duke (Eric Stonestreet), a new adopted dog. Max is jealous of Duke and wants him to leave the apartment. As you can see, it’s basically Woody’s relationship with Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story. A series of events causes both of them to end up walking around New York, and that is where the similarities with Oliver & Company increase.

If the story did not surprise me much, the cast, on the other hand, is great, especially Snowball, voiced by Kevin Hart. Snowball has the look of an innocent bunny but is actually the “villain” of the story and spends much of the movie chasing Max and Duke. The voice of Kevin Hart is so different from what one would expect from the voice of a bunny that makes almost everything he says funny.

There are several other interesting characters and the soundtrack also draws attention, full of famous songs, both current and older. However, I still prefer Oliver & Company’s soundtrack, with Billy Joel singing Why Should I Worry?, one of my favorite songs from Disney movies.

In short, The Secret Life of Pets could have been much more interesting if, in fact, they had shown for longer period what animals do when they are alone at home. Toy Story and Oliver & Company are much better.

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