The Secret life of Pets: Review

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by BlazeHeartPanther

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Well, this was a long time coming, but might as well get it over with. I went and saw Secret Life of Pets a couple weeks ago and let me say, it was a good film, cute for the most part, not really much else to say, but you wanna hear me talk about it, so lets begin

Story: Stop me if you have heard this one before. When the humans are away, the animals will play. Yea, sounds an awful lot like Toy Story, even the main character has to deal with a similar situation when it comes to his owner Kate adopting a new dog for Max to play with called Duke. The two don't end up getting along and find themselves lost in New York City where they meet up with Snowball and his crew of "Flushed Pets" on their way to getting back home. What the movie lacks in originality, it makes up for in creative situation involving the animals and the different scenarios they get themselves into. Their is even a part in the film that tells us about Duke's past and why he came to end up living with Max and Kate. I wont spoil it, but lets say it does help explaining things.

Characters: Their are so many characters in this movie. Max (Louis C.K.) is the main character who thinks he has it all until a new dog shows up in his life to cause trouble. Duke (Eric Stonestreet, Cameron Tucker from Modern Family) is the new dog in the house who starts causing trouble when he is threatened by Max and tries to get him in trouble. Snowball (Kevin Hart, Ride Along, About last Night) who is the leader of the "Flushed Pets" who was abandoned by his magician owner and has decided to take matters into his own paws to destroy the human race. Gidget (Jenny Slate, Assistant Mayor Bellwether in Zootopia) is the love interest of Max who doesn't realize it, she leads her and Max's friends to help find them. Tiberius (Albert Brooks, Marlin from Finding Nemo/Dory) who, at first tried to eat Gidget, ends up helping in the search for Max. Their isn't any character in this movie that stands out as more diverse in their character portrayals, but we do see some character building in Max and Duke, even if it is not all that deep, and their are some characters I do like for the most part. Gidget being one, alongside Tiberius and Snowball. Snowball being number one for the fact of how outrageous he can be and Kevin Hart actually did a good job with this character. Tiberius along with Albert voicing him was a match made in heaven, and Gidgets personality must have transferred over from when Jenny was voicing Bellwether, cause both can be pretty sadistic XD

Animation: For the most part, the animation is pretty much what you'd expect from an Illumination production. The human characters look pretty similar to the Despicable Me design with a bit of the Lorax character designs for good measure. but what really shines through is the animal animations on how realistic they are. everything from how the animals behave when their owners come home to how they interact with their surroundings. Another thing that should be given credit to is the look of the City. New York is it's own character with the many different views of the city from camera fly trough's to characters looking up at it. so much more better then the New York City in Norm of the North.

Music: If their is one thing that surprised me about this film is its musical score composed by the ever impressive Academy Award Winning composer Alexandre Desplat (Grand Budapest Hotel, the Imitation Game, Rise of the Guardians) He gave the film this jazzy 1960's American feel that really compliments the film immensely. In a day in age where their is nothing but pop culture music throughout a film of its kind (It did use Despicable Me 2's Happy for a few seconds) its nice to hear something original for a change.

My final verdict on this film would have to be a 7 out of 10. It may not be Illuminations best Animated Film yet, but it does provide a pleasant diversion until their next film Sing comes out during the Christmas holidays

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