But when he gets a new roommate in the big, shaggy, bullying form of Duke (Eric Stonestreet), Max’s enjoyably insular world is turned inside out and upside down. The film focuses on Max (voiced by Louis C.K), a dog who loves his owner with a rare brand of loyalty and affection. Like its Illumination Studios stablemate, Minions, The Secret Life Of Pets is designed as a lots-of-noise-and-action thigh-slapper for the kids, with a few nods to the grown-ups accompanying them, rather than a bundle of adult-friendly riches. In a completely out of nowhere extra plot, hyperactive bunny Snowball (Kevin Hart) gets pulled into a mission to save a snow tiger cub.The world appropriately looked on in wonder when it was revealed what our toys were doing when we weren’t looking in Toy Story and its sequels, so why not repeat the formula with our pets? Thankfully, The Secret Life Of Pets isn’t nearly as soulless and mercenary as that sentence might suggest, but it also doesn’t come within a cat’s whisker of even getting close to the brilliance of Pixar’s keystone franchise. Back at home, Gidget (Jenny Slate) has lost Max’s favourite toy and has to, for complicated reasons, learn to pass as a cat to retrieve it.
A holiday to a farm makes him panic constantly about the child’s safety, but he’s given some lessons in letting go by a gruff old hound (Harrison Ford, surprisingly making his animation debut). Max, the highly strung Jack Russell (now voiced by Patton Oswalt instead of Louis C.K.) is stressed by the arrival of a human baby in his family. It opts for a bit of a hotchpotch structure, jumbling together a few stories that are individually fun, even if they don’t knit together very cleanly. The inevitable sequel – the first made over $875 million worldwide – scrabbles around a bit to find something new to explore. It was a good set-up, mined for a lot of strong visual gags, but it was a joke that stretched its potential even over 90 minutes. The first Secret Life… film was a cute, prettily designed comedy about what animals get up to when their owners are out.
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