The Secret Life of Pets

The premise in Chris Renaud’s 2016 animation pays out hardest in the first ten minutes, which show what the animals do the moment the door shuts. Once Max and Duke are loose on the street it settles into a familiar lost pair chase and stops mining the idea it opened with. Snowball is written as a cute rabbit running a revenge gang, but the tone never darkens to match, so the violence is flattened and no threat is built. The crowd scenes move dozens of animals at once while the camera stays on Max, so most of the background jokes go past unseen. All of the animation was produced in France, on a budget of 75 million dollars, well under what rival studio features cost at the time. It opened in North America on 104.4 million dollars, the biggest opening an animated film outside a series or an existing brand had managed to that point, beating the 90.4 million of Inside Out. Screenings carried a Minions short in front of the feature. A good fit if you are there for the observational opening and do not mind the film sliding into a shape you already know. Not for you if you expect the premise to be worked through to the end.