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The Secret Life of Pets
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Universal Pictures Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (25th January 2017). |
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The Film
 From Illumination Studios, the company that brought us Despicable Me and those utterly annoying minions, The Secret Life of Pets is as enjoyable a piece of contemporary animation this reviewer has experienced as a grownup since the original Toy Story. Jack Russell Terrier Max (voiced by comedian Louis C.K.) has enjoyed the ideal owner/pet relationship with Katie (voiced by The Office's Ellie Kemper) since he was one of a litter of free puppies. Spending his days in a Manhattan apartment building – after a morning jaunt to a Central Park dog park with a lackadaisical dog walker – Max socializes with the buildings other pets who party like fratboys when their owners leave for work: among them, pining neighbor Pomeranian Gidget (voiced by Joshy's Jenny Slate), lazy tabby cat Chloe (voiced by Man Up's Lake Bell), pug Mel (voiced by Saturday Night Live's Bobby Moynihan), dachshund Buddy (voiced by Neighbors' Hannibal Burress), and guinea pig Norman (voiced by The Lorax's Chris Renaud, who also served as co-director) who has been wandering the building's air conditioning vents looking for his owner's bedroom. Max's world is turned upside down however when Katie adopts hulking, shaggy mutt Duke (voiced by Modern Family's Eric Stonestreet). Max is not welcoming to the new pet but Duke has no plans to go back to the pound and stakes his claim on Max's bed and food dish. Taking advantage of Duke's fear of the pound, Max blackmails Duke with the threat of blaming him for damage to the apartment (the new dog's behavior being an unknown quantity). During the walk in the park, Duke snaps their leashes and spirits Max away to an unfamiliar part of town to leave him to be picked up by the dog catchers but they both run afoul of a gang of alley cats lead by Sphinx Cat Ozone (voiced by Philomena's Steve Coogan) who steals their collars. They are caught by the dog catchers but soon rescued by a gang of subterranean-living "flushed pets" lead by magician's rabbit Snowball (voiced by comedian Kevin Hart) in the act of springing a captured buddy. Snowball and his crew lead Max and Duke down to their sewer lair under the impression that they loathe humans just as much and have killed their owners. Just before they are about to be inducted into the "The Flushed Pets" – by the bite of a one-fanged viper, they are exposed by one of the alley cats and barely escape with their lives. Finding themselves in Brooklyn, Max and Duke must work together to evade the dogcatchers and get home with a vengeful Snowball and the gang on their tails. Meanwhile, Gidget had rallied the buildings pets – lead by paraplegic basset hound Pops (voiced by Wayne's World's Dana Carvey) and assisted by repentant predator hawk Tiberius (voiced by Broadcast News's Albert Brooks) – to rescue Max and Duke.
Video
Universal's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen transfer is dazzling, with some nice detail in the animated animal fur, rolling waves of water, surprising touches in the "art direction" of the "Flushed Pets" lair, and character movement. The film probably looks probably looks even more spectacular in 4K and 3D – unfortunately not together as per the UHD Blu-ray spec, and the title is available in both formats, but the 4K edition's combo Blu-ray is the 2D edition while the 3D combo's companion Blu-ray is also the 2D version. 
Audio
The principal audio track is a powerhouse English Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 track that is awash from the beginning in metropolitan sounds (and the booming of Taylor Swift's one likable song "Welcome to New York"). The sound design throughout is fun as cars rush by the sidewalk, people and objects crash aside as Duke and Max give chase, and the rippling water of the river makes appearances in the back of the sound design even before the sewer scenes and the watery climax. Also included are Spanish (Latin) Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 and French Dolby Digital 5.1 dubs along with an English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 track. Optional English SDH, French, and Spanish tracks are also provided. 
Extras
Exclusive to the Blu-ray side of the package are the two featurettes: "How to Make an Animated Film" (4:13) looks at the collaborative team while "Anatomy of a Scene" (4:46) looks at all of the input that goes into each frame of the film from lighting, shading, color, and fur/hair movement before the 3D compositing.  The rest of the extras are included on both the Blu-ray and DVD copies. "The Humans that Brought You Pets" (8:43) features input from behind the scenes crew with producers Chris Meledandri (Ice Age) and Janet Healy (Shark Tale), co-directors Renaud and Yarrow Cheney (the upcoming How the Grinch Stole Christmas remake), and writer Brian Lynch (Minions) discuss the "rich emotional lives" into which they invested their own pets growing up as the inspiration for the film's concept. In "Animals Can Talk: Meet the Actors" (3:47), Hart, Bell, Moynihan, Stonestreet, and Slate discuss the attraction of voice work (Bell had played a voice actress in her directorial debut In A World...). In "All About the Pets" (6:26), animal trainer Molly O'Neill (Water for Elephants) introduces Hart and Stonestreet to some real cuddly creatures (including a sphinx cat which has the most ear wax of the cat species). "Hairstylist to the Dogs" (3:41) is not about the design and animation of the characters' fur. Instead, it features Stonestreet and pet hairstylist to the stars Jess Rona offering actual tips on celebrity pet hairstyling. The rest of the featurettes are disposable and probably of more entertainment value to younger audiences with "The Best of Snowball" (1:15) a montage of the character's memorable moments, the "Hot Dog Sing-Along" (1:12) version of the scene in the film, a lyric video for “Lovely Day” (2:23), three Fandango: Brian the Minion on Pets shorts, and "GoPro: The Secret Life of Pets" (2:04) which shows how real GoPro video of skydiving, bungee jumping, and skateboarding served as templates for the movement of the animal characters in certain scenes. Not even worth consideration for those of us who loathe the Minions are a trio of Minion mini-movies and a "The Making of the Mini-Movies" featurette (7:23). A trailer for Illumination's Sing is also included.
Overall
Illumination Studios make up for foisting the Minions upon us with this fun family adventure. 
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