The Secret Life Of Pets gives us a comic look at what a group of New York pets get up to once their owners leave the house each morning. Central to the plot is a Terrier named Max who has a great life with his owner Katie (Ellie Kemper) but his world is turned upside down when Katie brings home another dog Duke (Eric Stonestreet) who quickly takes over. While out with their dog walker one day Duke tricks Max and leads him away planning on abandoning him in the city however they are attached by a gang of alley cats and subsequently caught by Animal Control however while on the way to the pound the van is attacked by a rabbit called Snowball (Kevin Hart) who frees them on the basis that they come to work for him. Duke and Max manage to escape however they end up on a boat to Brooklyn and so begins their adventure to find a way home while being chased by the crazy Snowball and his gang but luckily Sam’s friends are also on the case lead by Pomeranian Gidget (Jenny Slate) who is crazy about Max despite him being oblivious to this fact.

Brought to screen by the same studio that gave us The Minions so you know it’s going to look fantastic and it doesn’t let you down in that sense. The voice acting is really good however Kevin Hart is so over the top as the crazy rabbit, which makes the bunny in Monty Python and The Holy Grail look tame, and he causes so much carnage at times yet at no point is there ever a policeman or police car seen which seemed a little silly. Maybe that’s what the filmmakers were going for and if so then mission accomplished but for me it detracted from the film as it dominated the other aspects of the movie and you really need to let any semblance of brain activity behind to look past the weak plot. Also, given the talent behind the voice works I was expecting more actual comedy in the script and there seems to be a lack of clever, witty one liners that I kept waiting for.

Even taking the movie at face value as a kids film it’s still just okay and nowhere near as good as the recently released Zootopia, your kids will, without doubt, enjoy it as a fun, comic, action romp but there not much for me to recommend for adults unless you’re a real dog lover then you might get a laugh out of hearing them talk through some of their thought processes behind their everyday mannerisms. It left like a bit of a let-down as the premise was there for a great film and my expectations were high, perhaps the inevitable sequel will address this.

DJ Speaks Rating: 4.5 Out Of 10