Review of the cartoon "The Secret Life of Pets. Review of the cartoon "The Secret Life of Pets Life of Pets heroes names
In a skyscraper in the center of New York, not only people live, but also their pets.
In the absence of the owners, they are busy with a wide variety of activities. So, Spitz Gidget (Jenny Slate) spends time watching soap operas, sleek cat Chloe (Lake Bell) feasts on delicious meals out of the owner's refrigerator, the resourceful dachshund Buddy (Hannibal Buress) uses a mixer as a massager, the cheerful pug Mel (Bobby Moynahan) defends his territory by barking squirrels at the window, and even the staid poodle Starchy turns out to be a passionate fan of rock music and arranges incendiary parties all over the area. At first sight their life is boring and monotonous, but this is not at all the case because each of them has favorite owners.
The everyday life of the protagonist of the terrier named Max (Louis C.K.) consists of waiting for his beloved mistress Ketty, with whom he is selflessly "in love". But one fine day his measured life collapses: a compassionate girl brings home a huge and shaggy dog Duke (Eric Stonestreet). Katty is sincerely sure that the dogs will definitely make friends, but Max does not share her enthusiasm. Duke is rough and doesn't shine good manners, all Max's attempts to "put him in his place" end in failure.
However, Max is not one of those who are used to just giving up. With the help of blackmail, he forces Duke to submit to himself. But this ingenious idea turns into a disaster: during a walk, Duke breaks the leash and lures Max into the trash, and at the same time he falls into his own trap.
Stray cats remove the collars from Max and Duke, without which the stray animal capture service mistakes them for street dogs.
In this situation, Duke shows his true "face" for the first time, he is scared and depressed, there is not a trace of his self-confidence left.
But the "brothers" do not get into the shelter.
The car is taken over by a gang of cute but crazy rabbit Snowball (Kevin Hart). He and his the team is obsessed with the idea of revenge on people, who treated them cruelly, and gladly accept recruits into their ranks. But Max and Duke are alien to their way of thinking. Fraudulently, they escape from Snowball and take the ferry, without knowing it, to Brooklyn.
And in a house in Manhattan, life goes on as usual. No one notices the absence of Max and Duke. Only little Gidget, having suspected something was wrong, persuades her four-legged neighbors to go in search of their missing friends. This motley company will plunge into the world big city, find friends, avoid the machinations of Snowball and return home before the arrival of the owners.
Film Facts
Illumination is known worldwide for its cartoons Despicable Me, Despicable Me 2 and Minions.
The idea of the cartoon secret life pets” is very unusual and interesting: everyone is curious to know what pets are doing in the absence of their owners.
The plot is simple, quite predictable, but this is its main charm, because the target audience is children. Here such topics as friendship and mutual understanding, mutual assistance and devotion, the victory of good over evil are raised, it is shown how important love and care is for all pets without exception.
The humor is kind and cheerful, without jokes "below the belt", which makes the cartoon accessible for the whole family to watch.
The characters are recognizable and each is in its place.
A bright picture is the main advantage of this cartoon. Attention to detail, carefully drawn characters and a true transfer of the atmosphere of New York streets will not leave anyone indifferent.
Video: The Secret Life of Pets - watch the trailer
Oct 23, 2016 Irina
Another project of the Illumination Entertainment studio, which gave children the cartoons "Despicable Me" and "Minions", the new animated comedy "The Secret Life of Pets" has already shown excellent results at the box office. Not yet released on the screen in many markets, including in the CIS countries, the picture has already collected as much as 595 million dollars. This is with a budget of about 8 times less - 75 million. Not surprisingly, it has already been decided to shoot the second part, which will presumably be released in 2018.
Main character Terrier Max
Most critics agreed that the new cartoon is very reminiscent of our favorite "Toy Story". "It's like they were filming Toy Story, but instead of toy cowboys and astrorangers, pets are involved here: cats, dogs, budgie, a hamster, "critics write. And we are in solidarity with our colleagues. So, the plot. Terrier Max leads a comfortable life in Manhattan: he lives with his lonely and very busy mistress and most of the time is left to himself. However, like all of his neighbors: a snow-white orange Spitz Gidget (this is a girl who is in love with Max and then initiates a rescue operation to find him), Mel the pug, Buddy the dachshund, Chloe the mongrel cat, Peas the parrot and a hamster with an unknown name lost in the labyrinths of New York apartments.
Frame from the cartoon "The Secret Life of Pets"
When the owners leave, the pets arrange such parties and friendly gatherings that it becomes a shame for the boring life of the owners, full of work. In general, everything is not bad with Max, and only when the hostess drags a new tenant into the apartment - a huge, shaggy dog Duke (the scriptwriters list him as a mongrel, but he looks like either a French shepherd dog - briar, or a representative of the Hungarian dog breeds: commander or bullets ), things will change for the worse. The competition for the attention of the mistress becomes so intense that as a result of the battles, both end up on the street as stray dogs.
Trailer for The Secret Life of Pets
If we hadn't seen Pixar's Toy Story before, The Secret Life of Pets could be considered a good work - it's a fun, hooligan, childish humor, beautifully animated film. In addition, the music is good in it, and the views of New York are generally beautiful (a film with such love for this city that the children's audience will definitely want to live in the Big Apple years later). True, if Pixar can take a high dramatic note - take at least one moment from "Toy Story" when the plastic astronaut realizes that he is not an astronaut at all, but just a toy, then in "The Secret Life of Pets" there is only a hint of heartbreaking moments. For example, one of the important scenes where the homeless Duke talks about the former owner came out rather restrained - where the kids were supposed to sob together with pity, this does not happen
On the other hand, in the cartoon we see a much more piercing theme - the theme of abandoned animals. Social issues don't sneak into cartoons that often, and here in the Brooklyn slums there's even an entire gang. former pets: this is the evil rabbit Snowball, who escaped from the magician and became the leader of the thugs, his companion is the unfortunate pig that was tortured in the tattoo parlor, trying to get tattoos on it, and many others. This part of the picture is especially interesting and resembles an attempt to create a gangster movie for children. At least interesting.
Frame from the cartoon "The Secret Life of Pets"
The hooligan intonation of the picture "The Secret Life of Pets" will surely please teenagers very much - there are forbidden parties, and heavy metal, and jokes on YouTube, but it may alarm parents who want to protect their children from the adult world for as long as possible, where crime bosses live, vagabonds and helpless citizens (we are talking about a paralyzed basset).
However, the film has enough friendship, humor and morality to make it a good movie for the whole family. Kids need to unwind a little before heading back to school, and The Secret Life of Pets does just that. And don't miss the surprise - a short film about minions that comes at the beginning of the picture.
After the incredible box office success of the two parts Despicable Me and Minions, which brought in a total of $ 2.7 billion to Illumination Entertainment, it would be strange for the creators (Chris Reno and Christopher Meledandri) not to try their luck and invest in the development of the original animation project. After all, the audience, as a rule, loves everything new. You don't have to look far: Disney's Zootopia, one of the most inventive cartoons of the last few years, is raking in big bucks and getting rave reviews as it's the fourth installment in the now-defunct franchise." glacial period” fails miserably at the American box office, being trampled by critics (11% of positive reviews on the opinion aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes with an average rating of 3.9 points out of 10 possible). Like it or not, you won't be fed up with minions alone. Actually, this is how cute and fluffy animals of all stripes came to replace the yellow-skinned minions of "evil", from dogs and cats to rabbits and guinea pigs. Too easy? No matter how!
The quiet measured life of a dog named Max changes dramatically after his owner Katie brings home another dog, a furry Newfoundland (diver) Duke. Between four-legged pets, a serious struggle is unleashed for the right to be called the pet of their owner. Max uses all his ingenuity to get rid of the annoying guest as soon as possible, and Duke, using brute force, tries to intimidate him. Fascinated by the ensuing confrontation, Max and Duke foolishly lose their collars during an everyday walk, after which they fall into the hands of catchers stray dogs. They are rescued by the rabbit Snowball, who leads a detachment of abandoned animals that are not lucky with their owners. Max and Duke will have to learn how to work as a team if they want to return home safe and sound. Meanwhile, Max's disappearance becomes known to his friends, who decide to organize a rescue operation.
Frame from the cartoon "The Secret Life of Pets"
Despite the plot torn from an overabundance of genre clichés, The Secret Life of Pets turned out to be a very exciting and colorful animated film, which, like Minions and Despicable Me, gives the audience new colorful and, most importantly, motley characters. This is certainly a bright and lively spectacle, not devoid of a sense of style. The authors of the project did a great job on the design of the picture, which is emphasized in almost every frame. The New York high-rise building impresses with its detail (not to mention the Big Apple itself), and the drawing of the cartoon characters is brought to almost perfection. Juicy animation, coupled with a visual range rich in content, allows you to enjoy every minute of the action happening on the screen. Regardless of what frills sometimes manages to give out the literally bursting at the seams script of "The Secret Life ...".
Frame from the cartoon "The Secret Life of Pets"
The dynamic narrative, which boils down to five-minute runs up and down, violates the integrity of the perception of the cartoon. At a certain point in the plot, our attention is suddenly switched from a crazy chase through the city suburbs and sewers to the personal drama of one of the main acting characters of the tape. That is, before the viewer had time to take a breath after a long action scene, he was immediately slipped a tragedy with all the consequences. The situation is similar with the ridiculous romantic line sewn into the main story of Max and his Spitz neighbor Gidget. Moreover, the creators do not see the need to delve into the so-called sentimental segments, devoting the lion's share of screen time to demonstrating the strong visual qualities of the picture. An animated blockbuster, after all. This flickering out of the blue results in a somewhat crumpled finale, from the lovingness of which, nevertheless, the soul becomes warmer.
Frame from the cartoon "The Secret Life of Pets"
Not shy about The Secret Life of Pets and open borrowing. The journey of Max and Duke is a typical buddy trip (“buddy movie”), the task of which is to bring together the characters who do not like each other. Zachin is reminiscent of the first Toy Story, in which Buzz and Woody, also then rivals, found themselves far from home and were looking for a way to get back, while trying to improve their relationship. So to call the new cartoon by Illumination Entertainment completely original is unlikely to succeed.
Frame from the cartoon "The Secret Life of Pets"
With what, with what, and with the characters in the "Secret Life ..." complete order. As they say, for all tastes and colors. Here you have a sociopathic rabbit, and a charming Spitz girl who knows a lot about martial arts, and a hawk with manic inclinations, and a handsome poodle who secretly listens to hard rock! Each of the characters is unique in its own way, and those comical situations that they find themselves in during the development of the plot give them even more charm. No wonder such famous American comedians as Louis C.K., Eric Stonestreet, Kevin Hart, Jenny Slate, Albert Brooks and Ellie Kemper took part in the voice acting of the picture. Witty gags pour from the screen like a river, but, as in the case of "Minions" (by the way, before the sessions of "The Secret Life of Pets" a short cartoon featuring these yellow-faced pranksters is shown), there is a certain redundancy. Motley humor is, of course, good. Especially when intoxicating sounds are played in the background. musical compositions Oscar-winning Alexandre Depla (“The Grand Budapest Hotel”). But in everything you need to know the measure.
Frame from the cartoon "The Secret Life of Pets"
And no matter how labored the script of the cartoon may seem, replete with all sorts of genre clichés, bright characters, rich visuals and excellent animation do their job. “The Secret Life of Pets” cannot be called the second “Zootopia” of this year, since it did not make any innovative breakthrough, unlike the work of the Walt Disney studio. Otherwise, this is an easy and non-committal summer movie that will appeal not only to children, but also to adults.
A cartoon can easily be rated from "6" to "0+", according to the level of humor and the simplicity of the plot. Our kind, naive children will endure everything. "Best Animated Premiere" of the year came out as an inflated bubble. This is a picture from the category of those where all the best was in the trailer.
However, the cartoon showed an impressive box office and as a commercial product was one hundred percent successful. Secrets are of interest to everyone, almost everyone has pets - that's the answer. rare person will not want to know what the pet is doing in his absence. They caught the viewer for a childhood dream.
All normal people talking to their pets. This is impossible to resist, which is why we domesticated them - to talk and care, not to be alone and receive fidelity and affection in return. And what is their answer - that's where the scope for imagination!
Soviet children have long been aware of what pets do, using the example of Kesha's parrot: he was looking for a better life, suffered from boredom and tried to raise a collective farm. No one is looking for a better life here - they already feed well here, but the evil envious forces that did not get the master's love want to ruin the lives of pets.
"The Secret Life of Pets" takes place, unfortunately, anywhere but at home. The animals stayed at home for about five minutes - this is the most interesting thing, the rest of the time they traveled around the city and under the city in search of a way home.
Unfortunately, it is also impossible to call the characters charismatic and bright. Is that the cat Chloe, the thug Duke and the hawk Tiberius (no more, no less). The main character Max, who looks like a Jack Russell Terrier, does not evoke emotions - he is flat.
The main characters, Max and Duke, did not share the owner, or rather, Max did not like that Katie's owner brought home another foundling. Foundling Duke was also not satisfied with the supporting role, and on a daytime walk he tried to get rid of a competitor.
From this moment on, the street misadventures of forced brothers begin, where in a day they go through all the sewers of New York, rob a sausage factory and save their skins as best they can. Actually, that's the whole story. A personal confrontation turns into a fight against a common enemy - Snowball the rabbit and his gang. Snowball is the leader of the abandoned women, for whom there were no owners, who live in the sewers and hate people fiercely. In appearance, Snowball is a pure angel, for contrast, but this does not make it any funnier, it only causes bewilderment.
A good local joke - in the original, Snowball is voiced by an African-American comedic actor with a fierce brutal appearance.
In the cartoon, there are two dozen characters playing on the field at the same time, not counting two more - minor tattered cats and other extras. That's a lot! A poodle is a fan of SOAD, a glutton Chloe, a basset Pops is a "dog in law", a stupid pug Mel, a glamorous blonde - Spitz Gidget, also stupid, a dachshund, a guinea pig Norman who lost his apartment, and also a turtle, a bird, a fish ...
Surprisingly, there was no Pekingese, Doberman, german shepherd and a number of other recognizable profiles.
What else interesting could the filmmakers tell us. Everyone remembers the joke that pets look like their owners. Here the foundling Max lives in the loft of a kind lonely girl Kathy. There is obviously a third person here, but Katie brought in Duke - perhaps as a harbinger of the second person, for symmetry.
A hard rock lover, the royal poodle lives in a Victorian-style apartment with some bore. The heavy cat Chloe, who steals food from the refrigerator, lives with a kind lonely aunt, the bird lives with a tattooed jock.
A blonde Spitz is having lunch at the table with her owners, a childless couple. The hawk Tiberius belongs to a dandelion grandfather whose tastes betray a former scout. The lame and blind-sighted "authority" Pops lives with a man who looks like a modest teacher. Obviously, these contrasts should also cause laughter. Alas.
In the end, friendship and love won out, and even Snowball the rabbit had a happy fate. But what happened to the lizard, boar, bulldog and tattered cats, history is silent.
The cartoon contains far from a new moral: we are responsible for those we have tamed. Leading four-legged friend home, make sure that no one in the family has allergies and everyone agrees on their characters.
"The Secret Life of Pets" best story on the stated topic. Much more interesting were "Volt" and even "Parrot Kesha". The long-term series "Tom and Jerry" was shot exhaustively on this topic.
After watching, be ready to go to the pet store with your child.
August is full of premieres - and finally, the cartoon from Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures "The Secret Life of Pets" has reached our screens. We are looking for interesting facts about him.
Have you ever wondered what your pets do when you leave home? So the filmmakers, themselves big fans of cats and dogs, decided to look for an answer to this question. What came out of it - look at the movies, and we will tell you what to pay close attention to.
1.
Let us not hear the original voices of the voice acting, but it is interesting to know that well-known and beloved actors had a hand in the creation of the cartoon (or rather, the voice). Comedy cartoon - the same company of comedians. Louis C.K. speaks for Max, the protagonist, Duke is voiced by Modern Family's Eric Stonestreet, and Snowball goes crazy with Kevin Hart.
2.
Before the film, you will see a short film with your favorite heroes - minions: "Minions against the lawn."
3.
Minions will appear in the cartoon more than once. An attentive viewer will see a postcard with them on the refrigerator in Max's house, Mal the pug will come dressed as a minion to the party, and we won't tell you about one more time - see for yourself. Just a hint - they will appear in the scene with guinea pig Norman.
4.
The filmmakers made Easter eggs not only for past, but also for future projects. So during the chase scene on the bus, you can see the poster of the cartoon "The Path to Glory" - about animals that are casting in the voice show.
5.
The song Leonard the poodle puts on after his owner leaves is "Bounce" by System of a Down.
6.
The guys from the animal control service have a very interesting license plate - Gotcha 2. What happened to Gotcha 1, we, apparently, will never know. But let's guess...
7.
The music for the film was written by Oscar-winning Alexandre Desplat. The filmmakers were delighted with his work: “We worked with Alexander for the first time and were amazed by the energy and style that his music was saturated with, — speaks Chris Meledandri, founder of Illumination Entertainment. - IN she guessed shades of Gershwin's style ( American jazz composer and pianist of the early 20th century author ), but at the same time it was a full cinematic soundtrack. The result is great orchestral music with some jazzy elements. This is one of the most majestic soundtracks I have ever heard, it made me look at the picture in a completely different way. ”.
8.
In the cartoon, the creators compared New York to the Emerald City of Oz, only not made of emeralds. but from concrete.
9.
Real dogs came to the premiere of the film in New York - the prototypes of the main characters.
10.
Max Chris Meledandri was inspired by his own wire-haired fox terrier.
11.
At the end of the film, Meledandri talks about the significance of The Secret Life of Pets for the studio as a whole and for each of the specialists individually: Pets play a huge role in our lives, probably because they love us unconditionally and wholeheartedly. We live in an imperfect world that changes at the speed of light. We get a lot negative emotions- at school, at work, on the Internet. We hide behind avatars, secretly hoping to be loved for who we really are. However, no matter how difficult life may seem to you, relationships with pets remain simple to the limit: we are adored. This simplicity will resonate in the heart of any person, regardless of age and nationality, and will explain why smaller brothers play so important role in the culture of our civilization".
