The Secret Life of Pets

Plot

A Jack Russell Terrier named Max lives with his owner Katie in a New York City apartment. While she is away, he socializes with other pets in the building: tabby cat Chloe, pug Mel, dachshund Buddy, and budgerigar Sweet Pea. One day, Katie adopts the Newfoundland Duke, making Max envious. Enraged by Max's attitude, Duke tries to abandon Max in an alley, but they are both attacked by cats led by the cockney accented Sphynx cat Ozone who removes their collars and leaves them to be caught by animal control. Duke fears that he will be killed if he goes back to the pound.

Max and Duke are rescued by a rabbit named Snowball whom is the leader of "the Flushed Pets", a gang of drain-dwelling animals who hate humans because their owners abandoned them. After Max and Duke pretend to hate humans by saying they "killed" their owners, the Flushed Pets invite them to join. Before they can prove their loyalty through a viper bite, Snowball learns that Max and Duke are domesticated. With their cover blown, Max and Duke escape the drains and board a ferry to Brooklyn, inadvertently terminating the viper in the process. Snowball vows revenge and leads the Flushed Pets after them.

Meanwhile, Gidget, a white Pomeranian who is in love with Max, discovers that he is missing and decides to find him, recruiting red-tailed hawk Tiberius to find Max. He returns with Ozone, whom Gidget coerces into telling what he knows about the dogs. They then enlist Mel, Buddy, Chloe, guinea pig Norman and Sweet Pea. On the way, they meet Pops, an old Basset Hound who helps Gidget and the pets find Max. Gidget and her team later encounter Snowball, who vows to kill them as well, and Norman is captured as the rest of Gidget's team escapes the drain.

In the meantime, Duke tells Max about his previous owner Fred, who adopted him as a puppy and loved spending time with him. One day, Duke got lost and was caught by animal control, but Fred never came to claim him. They visit Fred's house nearby, confident he will still love Duke and take him back, but they learn from the resident cat Reginald that Fred passed away. Heartbroken, Duke accuses Max of attempting to get rid of him and barks at the new homeowners who have just returned to the house and called Animal Control. The handlers catch Max, but Duke interferes long enough for Max to escape and ends up being recaptured instead.

While trying to rescue Duke, Max is attacked by Snowball who tries to kill him. However, when his gang is captured, Snowball has to work together with Max to save them. They drive a bus into the animal control van on the Brooklyn Bridge, stopping traffic. The Flushed Pets encircle Max intending to harm him, unaware of Max's new partnership with Snowball, but they are saved by Gidget and her team. The van plummets into the East River as Max tries to free Duke, Snowball decides to jump into the river to give them the keys to Duke's cage and escape the van.

Voice cast

Louis C.K. as Max, a Jack Russell Terrier dog.

Eric Stonestreet as Duke, a shaggy, brown Newfoundland dog who becomes Max's adoptive brother

Kevin Hart as Snowball, a white rabbit

Jenny Slate as Gidget, a Pomeranian dog

Ellie Kemper as Katie, Max and Duke's owner

Lake Bell as Chloe, a fat and apathetic grey tabby cat

Dana Carvey as Pops, an elderly Basset Hound who is paralyzed in his back legs

Hannibal Buress as Buddy, a laid-back miniature dachshund

Bobby Moynihan as Mel, a hyperactive pug

Tara Strong as Sweetpea, a green and yellow budgie parakeet

Steve Coogan as Ozone, a Cockney-accented Sphynx cat

Coogan also voices Reginald, a Himalayan cat residing in Brooklyn

Albert Brooks as Tiberius, a curmudgeonly red-tailed hawk

Chris Renaud as Norman, a guinea pig who keeps getting lost trying to find his long-lost owner

Michael Beattie as Tattoo, a slow-witted tattooed pig who is one of the Flushed Pets

Sandra Echeverría as Maria, a character from the La Pasión de la Pasión telenovela that Gidget watches

Production

Chris Renaud first became involved with the project in 2012, while he was still working on Despicable Me 2. At that time, Illumination Entertainment's CEO Chris Meledandri pitched him an idea on a film about what pets do when their caretakers are away. Although Renaud found the premise interesting, he and his team did not know what form the story would take, with them at one point considering making it a murder mystery, before deciding to make something "that was a bit more relatable". Additional characters were created by author Simon Rich while main character design and production design is provided by Eric Guillon.

The team used Jean-Jacques Sempé as an influence in designing the environment and attention was specifically paid to keep the designs "very vertically oriented". In keeping with the tradition of old Warner Bros. cartoons, the owners' faces are only occasionally seen. The home of the Flushed Pets was created to "hint at the darker side" of pet ownership "without, hopefully, getting too heavy", as well as to explore "this whole mythology in New York of the world that's unseen", while still maintaining the pet theme. The animation was created entirely in France by Illumination Mac Guff.

Music

The original score for the film was composed by Alexandre Desplat. The soundtrack was released on July 1, 2016, by Back Lot Music.

Release

Theatrical

The film was originally scheduled to be released on February 12, 2016, but was pushed back to July 8. It was released in 2D, 3D, RealD 3D, 4DX, and IMAX 3D using DMR. The Secret Life of Pets premiered at the 2016 Annecy International Animated Film Festival on June 16 and was screened at VidCon. A Despicable Me short film, entitled Mower Minions, was attached to the film's theatrical release.

Home media

The Secret Life of Pets was released on Digital HD on November 22, 2016, and on Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, Ultra HD Blu-ray, and DVD on December 6. In addition to the short film Mower Minions which was released theatrically with the feature film, the releases also include two short films: Norman Television and Weenie. The film was the sixth best-selling title of 2016 by making a revenue of $69.7 million from home media sales with 3.6 million units sold.

Reception

Box office

The Secret Life of Pets grossed $369.1 million in Canada and the U.S. and $516.9 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $886 million against a production budget of $75 million. Its international takings helped push Universal Pictures [International] past $1 billion for the tenth consecutive year and aided Illumination Entertainment to pass the $4 billion mark for the first time since 2010.

It is the fifth-highest-grossing original worldwide film of all time (behind Avatar, Zootopia, The Lion King, and Finding Nemo), the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2016, and the 18th-highest-grossing animated film of all time. Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $374.6 million when factoring together all expenses and revenues for the film, making it the most profitable release of 2016.

In Canada and the United States, the film was projected to gross around $70 million in its opening weekend with some predictions going as high as $100 million. It received the widest release for an animated film as well as for a PG-rated film (breaking Shrek Forever After's record) and the seventh-widest of all time overall across 4,370 theaters, the widest release since The Dark Knight Rises. It made $5.3 million from Thursday night previews in 3,009 theaters which is the second-biggest of all time for Illumination behind only Minions ($6.2 million), and the third biggest of all time for an animated film behind Finding Dory ($9.2 million) and Minions. This was followed by a record-breaking $38.5 million opening day gross (including previews), the biggest for an original film. In its opening weekend, it exceeded expectations and grossed $104.4 million, finishing first at the box office. Its debut is the sixth-biggest for an animated film, the sixth highest weekend debut in July, and the fourth-biggest opening weekend for Universal Pictures. It also set the record for the largest opening for an original animated film, eclipsing the $90.4 million debut of Inside Out.

In its second weekend, the film made $50.8 million (-51.3%) while maintaining the top spot, despite facing stiff competition with newcomer Ghostbusters. Although it slipped into second place when overtaken by Star Trek Beyond in its third weekend, it was still able to fend off the two other new releases—Lights Out and Ice Age: Collision Course—by earning another $29.6 million. It passed $300 million on its twenty-sixth day—the same day it crossed $400 million worldwide—becoming the seventh film of 2016, the seventh Universal Pictures film (the first for the year), and the twelfth animated film overall to reach the benchmark.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 70% based on 240 reviews with an average rating of 6.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Fast-paced, funny, and blessed with a talented voice cast, The Secret Life of Pets offers a beautifully animated, cheerfully undemanding family-friendly diversion." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 61 out of 100 based on 39 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it a 85% overall positive score and a 93% "definite recommend".

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film three out of four stars and called it "an animated fluffball—a sort of Toy Story with pets does everything to drive you crazy and ends up being totally irresistible." Scott Tobias, writing for NPR, characterized the film's concept as "Toy Story but with house pets," highlighting the film's "thinly distinguished characters" and "gloppy sentimentality". Steven Rea of The Philadelphia Inquirer gave the film three out of four stars and said "In much the same way that the smash Zootopia demonstrated that creatures of different culture and class and species are better off when they come together, The Secret Life of Pets is a testament to teamwork and friendship and fixing the rifts that divide us. Let the fur—and the warm, fuzzy feelings—fly."

Some critics disliked the film's similarities to Toy Story. Matthew Parkinson of The Escapist compared the plots of both films and wrote that "The Secret Life of Pets feels like one of those hour-long ripoffs you'd see on a children's television network." Ethan Anderton of the website /Film criticized the film's characterization, and noted that the relationship between Max and Duke was akin to "Woody and Buzz Lightyear all over again."

Sequels

A sequel, The Secret Life of Pets 2—with Renaud, producers Meledandri and Janet Healy, and writer Brian Lynch returning—was released on June 7, 2019. C.K. was replaced by Patton Oswalt.

In an interview on the podcast The Gary and Kenny Show, Meledandri stated that a third film is in development.