So important is Illumnation’s animated output to Universal Pictures’ slate that, with DreamWorks Animation now also part of the Universal empire, Illumination boss Chris Meladandri is to creatively oversee both firms’ animated output. Not bad, considering Illumination is under a decade old. Sold off the back of some legitimately excellent, charming trailers, The Secret Life Of Pets poses the question as to what our pets do when we head off to work. It sets this up excellently too, with directors Chris Renaud and Yarrow Cheney presenting us with a wonderful, glittering, stylised New York City, backed by a superb, charming Alexandre Desplat score (I really can’t praise the score enough). The centre of the story is a Jack Russell mutt by the name of Max, voiced by Louis C K, who has loved his life so far with his owner, Katie (Ellie Kemper). The terrific opening quickly answers the film’s key question though in about five minutes flat, as we’re taken around an apartment block and see assorted creatures behaving amusingly once the front door is shut. The problem is that, well, that’s that. And there’s still about 80 minutes to fill. Thus, The Secret Life Of Pets goes and raids the cupboard of stock family movie plot devices, as it goes about an animal-centric take on Toy Story. Not that it setles firmly on one plot, instead throwing in assorted story strands, without doing much with any of them. Thus, Katie gets another dog to live with Max, then there’s some dog catchers, then there’s a sausage factory, then there’s some gangster animals. Turns out that the life of pets isn’t that secret at all, as we’ve seen it in lots and lots of other movies. The problem, ultimately, with The Secret Life Of Pets is that it’ll do. And that, for me, is increasingly the issue with Illumination output as a whole. It creates wonderful characters, excellent comedy, and some quite lovely animation. All of that is very hard to do, I fully accept that. Yet it’s never, for me, managed to tell a strong, three-act story. It still hasn’t here (lest you think this is some miserable grown-up having a moan, my kids never really got into this one either, which really surprised me), and moreover, I can’t help thinking there’s as much interesting plot in the really good Minion Mowers short that precedes The Secret Life Of Pets as there is in the main feature. The trailers are excellent because the trailers are the first ten minutes of the film. As for the rest? Whilst The Secret Life Of Pets has moments, it’s a competent, often-beautiful, animated production. But – and the film positively invites the comparison – I can’t help thinking that were it made by Disney or Pixar, it’d all still be in development, as they tried to crack a better story. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
