‘The Secret Life of Pets’ is an animation created by Illumination and distributed by Universal Studio under the instruction of director Chris Renaud. This is an adventure with a hint of comedy animation that earned a total of more than 800 million dollars up till now. And with all the factors sated above. The animation is considered a successful one.
The movie is about Max, a Jack Russell Terrier who was adopted by his owner Katie in Manhattan, New York. Both were having a good life and Max was having a lot of neighbor pets as friends. Until one day, Katie brought home Duke, a Newfoundland from the pound; and things started to take a dark turn. Max’s jealousy leads to the mistreatment of Duke and started to build up Duke’s anger. One day, Duke cannot take it anymore and he decided to trap him in a dumpster, so he can be Katie only pet. But this accidentally disturbed a society of stray cat and Max, as well as Duke, has their collar cut. Because of this, they were caught by animal control. But later on, they were rescued by Snowball, a bunny, who is also the leader of the pet society who was abandoned by their owners. After many misunderstandings, Max and Duke were chased by Snowball and his friends around the city. Meanwhile, Gidget, a white Pomeranian, who has a big crush on Max found out that Max and Duke got lost and she decided to assemble a team with other pets in the building to find Max. She managed to recruit an unexpected friend which is Tiberius, a red-tailed hawk. Both teams embarked on a journey, and in the end, Gidget managed to save Max, but Duke still trapped in the animal control vans and great danger. This is a crucial scene because this is when Snowball has a change of heart and decides to save both Duke and Max. A misunderstanding was solved by another misunderstanding. In the end, all the pets return home to their normal life with a little change that Snowball is finally adopted again.
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The script of the animation was tightly structure. Since this is an adventurous and comedy film, every element needs to be connected as a story and from there lead to funny aspect. For example, when Max and Duke got in the sewer to meet the Viper. How did they get to the Viper? They got separated because Duke dragged Max to the alley way, they got their collar cut off, so they were mistaken as stray dog and got taken away. They got unintentionally rescued by Snowball and that is how they got to the sewer. And not coincidently, Viper know Pops, Gidget helper in finding Max. Therefore, all element in the plot was connected very well.
The main theme music used for the film was ‘Welcome to New York’ by Taylor Swift. The song fit in the film very well since the plot originates in New York City. The upbeat melody match nicely with the adventurous element of the film and the brightness of the comedy factor. The director was successful in picking the originated theme song (OST) because OST is the soul of most movie as there are a lot of time people remember movies from OST.
‘The Secret Life of Pets’ is successful in creating a change in the audience mindset. First, is about the creation of characters. The first image of an antagonist is a bad man or a very ugly pet. But in this case, it was a was an adorable and sometimes silly bunny. This creates a surprise and humor the audience with the thinking ‘Is this a bad guy?’. Meanwhile, Tiberius, a scary-looking red-tailed hawk, turns out to be just an old lonely pet who is friendly. The basic conception of the image of how the character should be like lead to many surprise moments in the movies and from there created many rising scenes. For instance, when Gidget comes inside the cage to meat Tiberius and removes his eyepatch, for sure many will think that she will be eaten by Tiberius. But Gidget, with her strong personality, but also a kind heart managed to tame him. Gidget is also a part of the character twist. When we see a little white Pomeranian, the first image is she must be like a princess that might get lost and Max is the hero to save her. But the role was flipped, Gidget is the heroine and Max is the prince in distress.
The choice of color in the animation is mostly bright color to characterize that this is a kid comedy but also full of exciting adventures. Throughout the movie, many rising action scenes make the audience start gasping and hoping nothing bad will happen. But in the end, they all turn into something laughable. For example, when Max was about to get marked by a viper; Max and Duke manage to kill the viper, and in a laughable way. The viper was killed by not one, not two, but three incidents at the same time. The first time was a falling ceiling, the second time was a bigger block, and the third time it starts to burn. This was a clever used of film making because the repetition created a laughing impact on the audience.
The angel of the camera is also cleverly used. When Tiberius imagines he would befriend with Gidget and fly everywhere with her, there was a scene where Tiberius dive from the sky to the water. The angel switch from sideways on the sky to looking down to the water with a diagonal angle to demonstrate the depth of the scene makes the animation livelier.
This is a great comedy animation as they have many comedy elements. One of the iconic scenes is when Gidget group goes to meet with Pops, a Basset Hound; Chole, who is Max's best friend trip over plates and falls over on foods, drinks and at the end covered in chips. The whole process was recorded and went viral on the Internet. This scene even though not related to the main plot of the movie, but still, leave a deep impact on the audience because this is close to reality where people enjoy watching funny videos of their pets. Or again with the repetition of tragedy with the viper in the sewer.
In conclusion, the director of this film was successful in creating a funny yet thrilling animation with iconic comedy scenes such as Chloe viral videos, the viper triple tragedy, or Snowball personality himself. Yet the thrilling adventure is also including with Max and Duke adventure from the sewer to across the bridge, or in the sausage company. The movie also used a wide range of filming method to create impact such as repetition to create symbolism or deep angel to create a state of depth in motion pictures, as well as the choice of appropriate color that fits with the theme of the movie. Overall, this is a good work of art and the director was successful in creating this piece.
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