Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
The quiet life of a terrier named Max is upended when his owner takes in Duke, a stray whom Max instantly dislikes.
The Secret Life of Pets has a charming premise about what pets do when their owners leave, but it largely wastes it by devolving into a fairly generic buddy-comedy road trip through New York City. The plot borrows heavily from Toy Story's structure without matching its emotional depth. The voice cast is solid and energetic, with Louis C.K., Eric Stonestreet, and Kevin Hart delivering likable performances. The animation is colorful and polished, capturing NYC with decent flair but nothing cinematographically groundbreaking. As an Illumination production it is technically competent but visually safe. Novelty is low — the anthropomorphized-pet concept felt fresh in marketing but the execution is formulaic, and the film offers little that distinguishes it from countless animated buddy films. The ending resolves predictably and ties things up too neatly without any real emotional payoff earned through the story.