Aside from a brief glimpse at the mischievous pets at the start of the film during a “montage”, the pets themselves don’t really do anything significant through the film. The issues with Secret Life Of Pets stem from its characters and an uneven pace throughout.

Building an army of animals to destroy pet owners, it’s an absolutely bonkers plot line and with Kevin Hart at the helm playing…well…himself, most of the laughs come from him as he mixes quick wit and a sinister edge with the cute, button eyed bunny he plays. Predictably, Max and Duke don’t get on and during a fight are seperated from their owner and together with a ragtag group of dysfunctional pets, wind up in a plot to stop adorably cute bunny Snowball (Kevin Hart). Its story follows Max, a dog who’s perfect life with his owner is turned upside down when she brings home a large, shaggy mutt called Duke who begins taking over the house. Its still a good film though, but if you’ve seen the trailer you’ve pretty much seen the best laughs the film has to offer. It leaves the rest of the film struggling to keep up with the frenetic pace the film sets in its opening and consequently never quite achieves the same standard.

Under its shiny CGI hood however, is a fundamentally flawed story that shows all of its best bits in the opening fifteen minutes. As an animation, you can’t fault The Secret Life Of Pets for its iconic characters, bright colours and delivering a fun-packed film with some laughs thrown in.

Secret life of pets movie characters