The Secret Life of Pets

Directed by Chris Renaud, The Secret Life of Pets follows a pair of lost dogs (Louis C.K.’s Max and Eric Stonestreet’s Duke) as they encounter adventures and oddball characters on their perilous journey back home. Filmmaker Renaud, armed with Brian Lynch, Cinco Paul, and Ken Daurio’s screenplay, delivers an aggressively juvenile comedy that alienates the viewer virtually from the word go, as the picture’s been suffused with a frenetic and wildly over-the-top feel that perpetually prevents one from connecting to the material or characters – which is a shame, certainly, given that the movie does boast eye-popping animation and a series of agreeable voice performances. (C.K.’s affable work as the central character is matched by such talented periphery players as Bobby Moynihan, Steve Coogan, and Albert Brooks, to be sure.) And although Renaud has peppered the proceedings with a very small handful of admittedly compelling sequences, including (and especially) a fun daydream interlude wherein Max and Duke imagine themselves in a land of sentient sausages, The Secret Life of Pets progresses into a mostly tedious (and frequently interminable) midsection and second half that contains exceedingly little of value or interest – which, despite the presence of a sweet and heartfelt closing montage (of which the picture sure could’ve used more), does confirm the movie’s place as a bottom-of-the-barrel endeavor that fares much, much worse than most contemporary animated fare.

* out of ****