MOVIE GOES TO THE DOGS
Tale might seem familiar
The Secret Life of Pets is being heavily marketed as “from the humans behind Despicable Me,” and it shows. Disney/Pixar may be busy plumbing emotional and maritime depths with tales like Inside Out and Finding Dory, but Illumination Entertainment is content to make plain old cartoons.
There’s even a Minions short before the main feature to get you in the mood. Its message: Don’t expect more, and you won’t be disappointed. The story revolves around Max, voiced by Louis C.K., heading a cast that includes such comic stalwarts as Kevin Hart, Albert Brooks, Lake Bell, Dana Carvey, Bobby Moynihan and Steve Coogan. Max is a terrier in thrall to his owner, Katie. But the dynamic changes when Katie brings home Duke (Eric Stonestreet), a mutt who resembles a Seth Rogen/Chewbacca crossbreed.
Max and Duke take their quarrels outside when the dog walker collects them, then end up separated from their human minders in midtown Manhattan. What follows is a madcap rampage through New York’s streets, alleyways and sewers. A quintet of writers and directors (those humans behind Despicable Me) finds a way to shoehorn in not just the usual pantheon of pets (cats, guinea pigs, budgies, bunnies, etc.) but such exotic fare as a hawk (Brooks), and lizards from gecko to crocodile size.
There may also have been a magpie among the filmmakers, judging from the way the screenplay collects and adds shiny scenes from other movies. Hart’s cute bunny is straight outta Python; a stroll through a construction site lifts gags from golden-age Looney Tunes shorts (themselves swiped from earlier silent comedies); and a dream sequence in a sausage factory seems to have been staged by Busby Berkeley.
The film also steals Miss Piggy’s PO’d paroxysms; the famous final line from Some Like It Hot; John Travolta’s strut from Saturday Night Fever; and from whatever movie invented the slow-motion flying-through-the-air shot. It’s random, but the film ultimately survives on a combination of sheer velocity and occasional novelty. (I like that Bell’s character tells Max bluntly that, being his good friend but also a cat, she doesn’t really care about him.)
There’s a romantic subplot tacked on ( because why not?), as Gidget the Pomeranian (Jenny Slate) professes her undying and unrequited love for Max, and rallies the rest of the animals to help save him. Max and Duke are being hunted by animal control and also by a gang of feral pets led by Snowball the bunny (Hart) and his sidekick, a heavily tattooed pig who looks like he’s spent time in a Russian prison.
If there is a quintessential scene in the movie, it’s the one in which the animals are running amok across one of the city’s bridges. As they scamper across the top of a car, the parents in the front seat let loose with a wail of terror, while the kids in the back cheer mightily.
Those reactions suggest the separation in how adults and their young charges may view this latest animated bauble. It’s gorgeous to behold but you soon realize that, for all the fun, this is merely a new dog performing old tricks.