The Secret Life of Pets 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Review
Brad Sturdivant
November 25th, 2016
Since I became a father, I’ve ended up watching a lot more non-Pixar animated movies than I ever thought I would. There are many reasons why Pixar is so great and every other animated studio pales in comparison, but one of the biggest reasons is that Pixar doesn’t rely on the cuteness of their characters to drive the movie along. That’s probably my biggest complaint with THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS since it feels like they drew some really cute animals and then decided to build a movie around them, rather than taking the time to develop a story anyone would care about. If you remember, Illumination did the exact same thing with MINIONS the year before.
Even the name “The Secret Life of Pets” is misleading because this isn’t a story about about what animals do while the owners are away, this is actually a movie about spoiled dogs that end up on the “street” and have to find their way back to their nice homes. So don’t let the title fool you; we’ve seen similar stories before in movies like ARISTOCATS, LADY AND THE TRAMP or even 101 DALMATIANS. The idea here is that Max (C.K.) butts heads with his new “roommate”, Duke (Stonestreet) and while on a walk, the two get lost and end up with Snowball in an underground group of pets intent on resisting society and fighting back at the humans that discarded them. That forces Max’s friends to go on a search for him and hopefully, bring him back safely before his owner gets home.
Story wise, this is pretty predictable and even nonsensical at times, so it’s up to the voice actors to carry the movie at times. In this regard, THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS is a mixed bag. Louis C.K. and Eric Stonestreet are the two leads and although they were both efficient, neither of them stole the show or provided much in terms of comedy. However, when they met up with Snowball, things changed because Kevin Hart nailed every line. He was solely responsible for every laugh and his voice was perfect in a cute, slightly demented little bunny. It was obvious to me that the entire movie would have been better if Snowball and Duke had been switched because Max and Snowball playing off each other would have given us more opportunities for humor. But alas, it wasn’t meant to be.
THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS does have the cute animals and some physical humor that should entertain the kids for eighty minutes, but the rest of us might find it a little hard to get through. My three year-old and two year-old were able to sit through this from start to finish, which is the low bar I set for animated movies. However, as the credits rolled, my youngest looked up at me and said “let’s watch Finding Dory again next week”. So even he knows Illumination has a long way to go before they can really compete with Pixar.
4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY REVIEW
Video: Once again, animated movies in 4K offer very little in terms of upgrade over the Blu-ray. The added clarity and color range will at times enhance the picture to give a near-3D effect, but it’s not consistent and the depth is something you really have to look for. I noticed it in the apartment scenes as well as they scenes when anyone is running through the city. On the Blu-ray, I did notice a color inconsistency in the white backgrounds that I found odd and that wasn’t in the 4K version. I’m not sure what that was, but it was cleaned up on the 4K.
Audio: The Dolby Atmos track sounds wonderful and I was surprised by how much the film actually utilized the extra channels.
There are no 4K exclusive features included on the 4K disc, but it does include a copy of the Blu-ray.
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