From the very first trailer, we knew The Secret Life of Pets would be a must see for us at Barking Mad About Films. The animation of the pets just had so many mannerisms of not only Pepper but Hooch, her cat brother as well.
The storyline is simple enough, playing like Toy Story, but with pets. Now to really get the most of this film, you will I would say need to be or have been a pet owner to get the most from it.
The film starts showing us the life of Max, a terrier, (voiced by Louis C.K.) who is living a wonderful life with his owner, Katie (voiced by Ellie Kemper)
The beginning is the highlight of the film for us, as we see so many dog mannerisms that I see in Pepper. We all hope our dogs are really thinking what Max is, about how they are so lucky and just how much love they have for us, all because we share some time with them.
We also get to see most of Max’s friends; Chloe (Lake Bell) an obese cat, who thinks nothing of her owners; Gidget (Jenny Slate) a Pomeranian who loves Max; Buddy (Hannibal Buress) a dachshund; Mel (Bobby Moynihan) a pug; and Sweet Pea, a tweeting budgie.
It is during this opening sequence, we see what our pets get up to whilst we are gone, from Max waiting at the door for Katie’s return to Buddy getting a massage from the food processor. This sequence does feature a lot that you may have seen in the trailer, including our
This sequence does feature a lot that you may have seen in the trailer, including our favourite moment of a heavy metal music loving Poodle, who has a Chihuahua rocking friend.
After such a fantastic start, we then meet Duke, (voiced by Eric Stonestreet) a huge shaggy rescue dog, who is re-homed with Katie and Max.
Max is immediately threatened by Duke, feeling he will lose his 100% love and attention from Katie. The two start to fight over everything from the food allocations to the sleeping arrangements.
They continue to squabble whilst out on a walk with a dog walking service, which leads to them getting away from the group and getting lost.
It is here the story takes place, as we now will follow Max and Duke’s desperate attempts to get back home, whilst also having to learn how to get along, and of course in true buddy movie style, eventually become best pals.
The journey will see them face a gang of stray cats, led by Ozone, a sphinx cat (voiced by Steve Coogan) and the gang of abandoned pets, living in the sewers, including a heavily tattooed pig called Tattoo; Snakes; Lizards; a Crocodile and their leader, a very fluffy rabbit called Snowball (Kevin Hart)
Escaping the abandoned pets who hate domesticated animals, they escape and we learn the sad story of how Duke was found to be abandoned.
During this Gidget, has got the other pets to help find Max, including Norman, A Guinea Pig; a hawk called Tiberius (Voiced by Albert Brooks) and Pops (Dana Carvey) an elderly paralyzed basset hound.
During the journey, we see a dog house party (bonus points here for Peanut, a Chihuahua that looks BMAF Pepper) and a fantastic dream sequence for Max and Duke at a sausage factory.
The film ends with a fantastic montage of all the pets, happy and loved to the tune of lovely day by Bill Withers, that will have you leaving the film on a high. It really is not a secret to say we loved The Secret Life of Pets, and had the exceptional
It really is not a secret to say we loved The Secret Life of Pets, and had the exceptional ‘Zootropolis’ not been released this year, it would likely have been our animated film of the year!
Get it from Amazon here:
We would love to hear what you thought of the Secret Life of Pets? Did you have a favourite pet? What are your favourite animated films of this year?
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