The broad machinations of Snowball (Hart), a bunny with delusions of grandeur are easily the best part of the film, even if they remain painfully underdeveloped. Frankly focusing on the story's tagged-on villains might have paid more dividends.
Potato Head fashion a new body out of a tortilla now we have elderly Basset Hound, Pops (Carvey) hobbling through construction sites with stalwart confidence. They jet here, they jet there but when faced with any obstacles they just seem to rush it. Part of the reason for this is none of the side characters actually solve any problems. They're not really useful to the plot, nor do they succeed in being the Toy Story (1995)-inspired resilient and diverse gaggle the movie hopes they are. The rest of Max's friends are barely worth mentioning as they're mostly utilized to push the buttons and pull the levers on some uninspired comedic set-pieces. The first to notice they're missing is a lovestruck Pomeranian named Gidget (Slate) who recruits the rest of Max's friends among others to recover them from the vast streets of New York City. They, of course don't get along and after a series of confrontations find themselves lost. Things change drastically and suddenly with the arrival of Duke (Stonestreet) a large, shaggy Newfoundland whose introduced as a "new brother" to Max's chagrin. The story begins with a happy Jack Russell Terrier named Max (C.K.) who lives with his owner Katie (Kemper) in a surprisingly roomy Manhattan apartment. As it stands, the film is rushed, bulky and is chalked full of nonsensical choices that cripples any verdant ideas that could have been. The problem with The Secret Lives of Pets stems from its complete inability to marry story, character and concept into a discernible package.
As a rudimentary children's film, you certainly can do worse. It's colorful, it's fun at times, provides a positive message about acceptance and provides a clever enough high concept to keep the kids on their keesters for 80 minutes.
I start this review by first acknowledging there's nothing wrong with this film from a family-oriented entertainment point of view.
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