Any plot is mostly secondary, and Pets wisely follows in the footsteps of Illumination’s equally manic Despicable Me films by keeping the focus on the action and the jokes, volleying them at escalated speeds to keep the pace quick and the inevitable story beats quicker. Their mutual contempt and jealousy eventually leads to them being separated from their dogwalker and sent on an adventure into the sewers, streets, and rivers of New York, as they try to find their way home and learn a little more about each other along the way. That is, until Katie comes home with Duke ( Eric Stonestreet), a hulking Newfoundland who threatens to upend their perfect ecosystem, in which Katie’s attention belongs to Max and Max alone.
(Just in case you can’t work out the city in which the film takes place, Taylor Swift’s “Welcome to New York” accompanies the opening credits.) Max lives a perfect life, with he and his neighboring animal friends enjoying pampered lives in their high-rise during the day, waiting eagerly for their owners to return home at night. A story that owes more than a little to the first Toy Story, Pets follows Max ( Louis C.K.), a spoiled terrier who gets to live with his person Katie ( Ellie Kemper) in a charming New York City studio apartment. That said, for a film designed to spawn ancilliary products and sequels, Pets is not entirely without its charms. It’s even accompanied beforehand by a brief Minions short film, in case you forgot about those godless creatures and needed a reminder of their constant, if sometimes invisible, presence in your own life. There’s some ad placement, from GoPro’s Hero 4 camera to YouTube to other upcoming movies from Universal. As one sits at watches it, you can practically see the sassy memes involving adorable dogs and over-it cats materializing on your cousin’s Facebook timeline.
Illumination, Universal’s animation arm, has unleashed a movie bound for the same kind of viral appeal. The Secret Life of Pets feels especially manufactured, even by the pretty low standards of modern movies aimed at “families,” but specifically their six-to-10-year-old children.
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