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Posted 7/6/2016

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Have you ever asked yourself what your pets do whenever you are not home? This movie aims to tell you all about that secret life. The movie follows a particular dog named Max (Louis CK) who is owned by Katie (Ellie Kemper). Max’s life is completely turned upside down when Katie decides to bring another rescue dog home, Duke (Eric Stonestreet). Max then has to fight to retain his top dog status or he believes he will lose Katie. Of course, he’s completely wrong in believing this but as a children's movie logic, it totally makes sense. Max is friends with pretty much every animal or pet in the building he lives in, Chloe (Lake Bell) the cat upstairs who cares pretty much only about herself. You have Buddy a wiener dog who has skills in climbing buildings which you later see, and Mel (Bobby Moynihan) a pug who isn't winning any science fairs anytime soon. Also, we have a tiny bird who didn't talk at all but was there, and Gidget (Jenny Slate) who was the ball of puff in another building who had a crush on our hero. Max is determined to get a handle on Duke, so he creates a plan to break everything in the house when Katie isn't home and Duke gets all the blame. So Duke having no way to fight this comes under the heel of Max. When Max and Duke go walking with their dog-walker,  Duke comes up with a plan and decides to try to leave Max in an abandoned alley. Some stray cats show up which in the animal world  are basically the town’s scoundrels. The cats break the collars and the dogs are now ownerless pets. Of course at this exact time animal handlers come and take the dogs to the pound. While on the way to the pound, a sadistic and crazy bunny by the name of Snowball (Kevin Hart) breaks them out. Snowball has the belief that domesticated animals are the worst, and humans are just out to hurt/abuse/neglect animals. Snowball used to be a magician's rabbit before his owner threw him out and after that, he harbored a grudge towards them. Gidget at the same time then gathers all of the pets into a squad to go save Max, because of her love for him. Leading them on quite an adventure that spans a single day.

            I believe the writing in the movie was pretty solid for a family film. Most if not all characters had some pretty good character development. They all had their quirks to make them stand out, and help you remember them. Unfortunately, when you have so many characters in a film, it does make it harder to give screen time to more characters. It seemed that Max, Duke, Gidget, and Snowball were the real heroes in the film, with taking in most of the screen time. I absolutely loved Snowball, Kevin Hart’s voice fit the sadistic character perfectly and made for some very hilarious scenarios. I loved how much he would reference his dead homies (RIP Ricki). I feel like they will possibly do a spin-off for him in the future. Another huge win for the film was the score, the score had this nice upbeat jazz feel to it throughout the movie. Alexander Desplat was the composer of the film who is credited with scoring over one-hundred and sixty films, and I believe this was another one of his greats. The story of the film also has some strange turns particularly the sausage factory bit, that part get gets a little odd, to say the least. We also have a scene where Snowball is driving a bus with Max, we never have any idea how he stole the bus or got into it. Regardless of that, the animation throughout the film was also very stellar. All the characters had great designs that mimic their real-life counterparts, and the city was also beautifully constructed. I am always amazed by how good the animation looks. The city was very much alive and beautiful.

            So, in conclusion, the film albeit a bit wacky and a little illogical but in the end  was a solid family film, my biggest gripe with the film was that it was pretty predictable. That also might be my fault for seeing so many different family films over my days. The major motif of the film is that no matter what, whether you are a pet or a human you should always care about each other, and try to help each other. No matter if they are a dog, a cat, a gerbil, or a crazy bunny. Doesn’t matter if they are domesticated or not, everyone needs love. I did laugh quite a lot throughout the film, but only because It was predictable, I can't give it a perfect score. This summer movie is perfect for the whole family, and if you have already seen Finding Dory ( C’mon we waited ten years for that sequel). I highly recommend you check this out when it comes out on July 8th.