Our furry best friends control the digs when we leave the house, in Illumination Productions newest animated feature “The Secret Life of Pets”. Taking place in a Manhattan apartment building, Max’s (Louis CK) life as a favorite pet is turned upside down, when his owner brings home a sloppy mongrel named Duke (Eric Stonestreet), a stray mutt who Max instantly dislikes. Along their daily enounters, Max regularly invites his friends to hang out at his place while his owner is gone, creating an interesting look into the world of these animals. Max and Duke have to put their quarrels behind when they find out that an adorable white bunny named Snowball (Kevin Hart) is building an army of lost pets determined to take revenge on their abandoning former owners. The duo team up with their friends to stop Snowball and return home to their warm and comfy surroundings. The movie also stars Steve Coogan, Ellie Kemper, Jenny Slate, and Dana Carvey among a backdrop of A-list comedians. “The Secret Life of Pets” is directed by Chris Renaud and Yarrow Cheney, and is rated PG for action sequences and rude humor.

Illumination Productions has always kind of had noticeable holes to their feature films, and “Pets” sticks with that theme. It’s not a terrible movie by any means, in fact, I quite enjoyed it. My problem with it comes in its noticeable comparison with a Pixar movie, while stealing more than just the obvious plot structure to it. To anyone who hasn’t noticed, this movie is quite similar in themes to “Toy Story”, and at first I was hoping for just a trailer that kind of hinted at it. The problem is that for most of the 85 minute sit, this movie borrows and borrows, instead of ever finding a voice of its own. There are some great ideas, most notably in the gang of forgotten animals led by Kevin Hart’s Snowball character. The problem is that the movie doesn’t do enough to explore such original themes, and would instead rather focus on the goofy side of things. It’s obvious to me that kids are the intended audience here, but I feel like any value that this movie has with adults is based primarily on the comparisons to their own pets. There are some decent laughs, and thankfully not everything is used in the infamous two minute trailer. What was cool to me with the movie is that for a faint second Illumination tries to explain to us how humans are always so oblivious to animals and their loud conversations. There’s a scene where Max is talking to his owner, only for the camera to turn it around from the owner’s point of view and have her only hear barking. This is a genius concept and really sets the rules for the kind of world we are privy to in the movie.

The animation is also once again brightly elegant and surroundingly beautiful. For a very ambitious decision for the setting of New York City, the movie has its hands full on detail alone, but it never stumbles. The foreground buildings almost present a kind of 3D atmosphere during the long shots of landscape among the many office buildings and billboards. I mentioned the attention to detail within the film’s creativity, and boy do they hit it out of the park. Most of the very same building structures and signs are exactly alike to that of their real life inspirations. It was very cool to see signs of “Saturday Night Live” and NBC Studios in the imaginative world of these lovable housemates. For the animal designs, the movie nails the precision of fur patterns, as well as movements for all of the many different kinds of dogs and cats, while leaving enough room visually to poke fun at their definitive traits. This really does wonders in presenting their personalities before we have really even had a chance to have a five minute scene with them.

On the subject of characters and voice work, we do have a very strong A-list cast led by some of the very best comedic actors today. My problem is with a movie that struggles to even hit an hour-and-a-half you really start to feel the lack of need for some of these characters who are nothing more than accomodating supporting staff. There’s never any time to get to hear their side of things, and even for a kids movie the idea of everyone in this big apartment complex having an animal was a little hard to believe. Kevin Hart is someone who is getting some negative reviews from other critics, but I found him the very pulse of this movie. I’m not the biggest Hart enthusiast, but his voice literally begs to be presented as an animated character, with so much energy in his voice patterns. The very design of Snowball goes so hand-in-hand with Hart’s vocal abilities, and it makes for one of my favorite antagonists of the year. Louis CK is partially monotonous in his delivery, but we feel the real sadness for a dog who is having his spot taken from him. I could’ve used more emotional range chances for his character, but the movie feels rushed during the points when it needs to slow down and feel such sadness. Jenny Slate is a very welcome addition, and makes up greatly for the lack of female animals within the movie. In Gidget, we feel Slate’s yearning for the love of Max, while serving as a protector for her object of love. Even more enjoyable; she kicks some ass literally, and I couldn’t imagine this story without her.

“The Secret Life of Pets” struggles to really define its existence because it borrows too much, as well as never slows down to really tell its own story. The film does have gorgeous animation, as well a great imagination when it comes to our own furry best friends, but it didn’t hit me in the heart like other animated gems this year like “Zootopia” or “Finding Dory”. Either way, the laughs are aplenty during this well-groomed 85 minute distraction that is full of visual sight gags.

6/10