Friday, July 15, 2016

Film: The Secret Life of Pets








GENRE: Animated Comedy
RATING: PG for action and some rude humour
RUNTIME: 1 hour and 27 minutes
STARRING: Louie CK (Louie, Invention of Lying, American Hustle)
Eric Stonestreet (Modern Family), Kevin Hart (Central Intelligence)
DIRECTORS: Chris Renaud (Despicable Me, The Lorax)
Yarrow Cheney (newcomer)
WRITERS: Cinco Paul & Ken Daurio (Despicable Me)
Brian Lynch (Hop, Minions)
PLOT: A loyal dog gets a new roommate. They dislike each other, get caught by animal control and try to get back home.   

FULL DISCLOSURE: I trusted the folks behind Despicable Me.

STORY STUFF: The story was not that great. The ‘trying to find your way back home’ plotline just didn’t do it for me. I did enjoy the initial owners leaving and their pets do awesome things, but this was already shown in the trailer, so no surprises there. There was cuteness all around but not many big laughs to be had.

ACTING STUFF: I did enjoy having Louie CK be the voice of the protagonist, Max. He has a great voice for the character and also embodies New York in general. But it is Jenny Slate (Zootopia, SNL) who steals the show as Gidget, a sweet furball with a crush on Max. Hart plays Snowball the rabbit but just ends up yelling too much; he is way too over the top in this role.

ARTISTIC STUFF: I loved the animation of New York. I love New York in general so I love seeing the sights and sounds of the city. The thing that bothered me most about this film is that many of the scenes were just chaotic for chaotic sake. Car chases and cat attacks were just too busy for me to care what was going on. These people should watch some more Pixar to see how to do it properly.   

VERDICT: Two and a half stars out of five
SEE IT IF: You’re a dog (or cat) person I guess.
UPCOMING REVIEWS: Ghostbusters

No comments: