The Secret Life of Pets (2016)

There is something almost reassuringly predictable about the summer animated film, and The Secret Life of Pets, released in July 2016 by Illumination and Universal Pictures, fits that mould with a comfortable ease. The premise is the sort that writes itself: what do our dogs, cats, rabbits, and assorted household creatures actually get up to when we shut the front door and head off to work? It is a question that has crossed the mind of virtually every pet owner, and as a hook for a family comedy it has a natural, almost irresistible appeal. Set against the organised chaos of New York City, the film follows Max, a terrier whose settled domestic routine is thrown into turmoil when his owner brings home a large, boisterous stray named Duke. What unfolds from that friction is the kind of buddy-comedy-cum-adventure that Illumination had, by 2016, become rather adept at producing.

The studio behind the film, Illumination (co-producing with Universal Pictures), had by this point carved out a reliable, if polished but unremarkable, corner of the animation market. The director, Chris Renaud, had already established himself as one of the studio's key creative voices, having helmed Despicable Me and its sequel Despicable Me 2, both of which helped define Illumination's house style: bright, kinetic, broad in its comedy, and engineered for maximum crowd-pleasing efficiency. The Secret Life of Pets represents Renaud working with an original property rather than an adaptation, which gave the production a degree of freedom, though as with much of Illumination's output, the emphasis remained firmly on pace and spectacle rather than narrative weight. The film was written by Brian Lynch, Cinco Paul, and Ken Daurio, and clocks in at a brisk 86 minutes, a runtime that makes few demands on restless young viewers.

The voice cast assembled here is a strong one, at least on paper. Louis C.K. leads as Max, with Eric Stonestreet as the lumbering Duke. Kevin Hart brings his customary high-energy delivery to the role of Snowball, a white rabbit with a considerable chip on his shoulder, while Jenny Slate and Ellie Kemper round out the ensemble. Albert Brooks, not listed in the top billing but present nonetheless, provides a drier, more melancholic counterpoint to some of the broader comedy. It is the sort of cast that a family film in 2016 could reasonably feel confident about, mixing well-known names with performers who had genuine comedy instincts. Whether the material gives them all enough to work with is, of course, a different matter entirely. For a comparison point on how Renaud handles a rather different kind of family story, it is worth checking out what I made of The Lorax, another of his films, and indeed how the 2016 animated landscape looked elsewhere with Trolls, another family film from that same year.

The Secret Life of Pets (2016) is exactly what it promises: a brightly coloured, energetically paced diversion aimed squarely at children and the parents supervising them. Illumination's animation sparkles with detail (the bustling streets of Manhattan, the expressive fur textures, the chaotic energy of a city seen from paw-height) all rendered with the studio's signature polish. The voice cast delivers reliably: Louis C.K. (in earlier releases), Jenny Slate, Kevin Hart, and a scene-stealing Albert Brooks as a melancholic basset hound all bring warmth and comic timing to their roles. There are genuine laughs here, particularly in the opening montage of pets' secret lives (cats pounding on keyboards, dogs barking at passing squirrels) and the film moves quickly enough to hold younger attention spans. But beneath the glossy surface lies a thin, derivative plot that borrows heavily from Toy Story without capturing its emotional depth. The central conflict unfolds with predictable beats and manufactured peril. The villainous "Flushed Pets" gang feels underdeveloped, their menace undercut by inconsistent tone shifts between slapstick and mild tension. By the second act, the film settles into a familiar rhythm of chase sequences and narrow escapes that, while competently executed, rarely surprise or resonate. A perfectly serviceable family film that succeeds as background entertainment but offers little lasting impression. It's funny in stretches, visually appealing, and harmless enough for a Saturday morning watch. But like a forgotten squeaky toy under the sofa, it's easily overlooked once the credits roll.

That squeaky toy metaphor has been rattling around in my head since the credits rolled, and I think it lands precisely right. There is nothing here that would put you off the film entirely, and if you have got children under ten who need something to occupy a rainy afternoon, you could do considerably worse. But I kept finding myself wishing Renaud and his writers had pushed a little harder into the genuine comic and emotional possibilities of the premise, which is, when you think about it, genuinely rich territory. The Illumination gloss is real and the laughs are there, but the whole thing evaporates almost as quickly as it arrives. Harmless, watchable, and gone.

Rating: ★★★  | Year: 2016  | Watched: 2026-04-06

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Trailer

▶ Watch the official trailer for The Secret Life of Pets (2016) on YouTube

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Chris Renaud: Despicable Me (2010) · The Lorax (2012) · Despicable Me 2 (2013) · Despicable Me 4 (2024)
More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
More family: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Wonder (2017) · Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anastasia (1997)
More comedy: The Eagle (1925) · The General (1926) · Americana (2023) · The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)