In New York City, a Jack Rusell terrier named Max lives with his loving owner, Katie. In addition, he is also friends with a plump cat named Chloe, a white Pomeranian named Gidget, a guinea pig named Norman, and others.

One day, though, Katie leaves the apartment and tells Max that she is going to surprise him. When she comes back, Max finds that she adopted a big Newfoundland named Duke.

Resistant to having a new “brother,” Max is unkind to Duke and will do anything to get rid of him. Of course, this angers Duke to the point where he takes Max’s bed and blanket and makes Max sleep on the floor.

When Max and Duke go to an alley, they meet some unfriendly stray cats who try to hurt them. Even worse, they are both captured by animal control and put inside their truck.

A white rabbit named Snowball sees them. But he is hesitant to rescue them since he can tell they have an owner based on their scent. Duke and Max lie, though, claiming that they “killed their owners.” Regardless of what he smelled, Snowball frees them.

Then he leads them into a sewer, where they find out that he leads a group of animals who hate humans because they were abandoned by them. He has them explain in a lot of specific details how they “killed their owners.” After that, he brings out a viper to mark them.

But then some other animals come to rescue them and reveal that they indeed have owners. Shocked and angry, Snowball now wants the viper to kill them.

Duke and Max escape from him and the other creatures, even falling from a huge height into more sewer water. This eventually leads them into the East River.

However, they killed the viper. This leaves Snowball and the other abandoned animals very sad. He decides to go after them as a form of revenge.

Meanwhile, Gidget finds out that Max is missing. So, she goes to a hawk named Tiberius, who almost eats her because of his bird of prey instinct. That infuriates Gidget. But the two reconcile, and Tiberius aids her into looking for Max.

Aside from them, the other animal friends from Max’s apartment join the mission. But Snowball discovers this, and wants to kill them, as well.

Sometime later, Duke reveals to Max that he once had an owner called Fred. Fred adopted him as a puppy and enjoyed spending time with him.

But one day, Duke got separated from Fred. And Fred never found him.

Max is willing to help Duke find Fred. So, they go all the way to Fred’s home—only to learn that he no longer lives there. He died a while ago.

Now a family of three resides at that home. When their cat tries to protect it, Duke barks at him. Shortly after, animal control returns and captures both him and Max.

Can they escape, though, and return to Katie?

I was surprised with how much this film kept my attention. A big perk was how funny it was. I laughed many times throughout it.

As usual, the character development was strong. But what made the animals more believable was how they expressed desires that real ones do.

For example, Max would say that he wants to play and would get upset if Katie stepped out for even a minute. But when the animals “spoke words,” they would come out as their natural sounds to the humans.

Katie, Max, Duke, Gidget, and even Norman were pretty likable. Gidget was even in love with Max. I also admired the actress cast for her: Jenny Slate. She had the perfect voice to provide for her.

Duke and Max struggled to get along. But they also learned to accept each other, making them feel more credible.

Snowball was mostly unlikable. But he was goodhearted at times.

Although this is a cartoon, I had mixed feelings about the character designs. They were funky and distorted in a somewhat awkward way. Some of the designs felt physically pointier rather than naturally rounder. But artistic styles should be unique per cartoon.

The pacing was quick. Not one moment lagged. There were also numerous twists and turns.

Overall, I enjoyed The Secret Life of Pets. It was a fantastic watch with humor, action, and fun for people of all ages.

I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.