The Secret Life of Pets is an animated film made by the people who created the Despicable Me and Minions movies.  There was a brief Minions short at the start of the screening.

Max (Louis CK) is a terrier in NYC, who was adopted by Katie (Ellie Kemper) at a very young age. He grows up, and they do everything together, except she disappears every day for work. Max, of course, doesn’t understand this, and patiently waits for her return. Meanwhile, after their owners leave for the day, the pets in his apartment building come over, and hang out together, until their owners return.

It’s an idyllic life, until, one day, she brings home Duke (Eric Stonestreet), a huge shaggy dog that she rescued from a shelter, at the last minute. Max hatches a plan to implicate Duke being dangerous enough that Katie must give him up. It involves destroying vases and such in the house, but that plan is interrupted by the dog walker, who takes them to a park, along with Max’s pals. Duke tricks Max, and the next thing you know, they’re on the loose, and get into a tussle with alley cats. They are captured by Animal Control, but are rescued by Snowball (Kevin Hart), a bunny who’s saving a friend from the same van Max and Duke are trapped in. They get away, but it’s all downhill from there.

Back at home, the other dogs talk with Gidget (Jenny Slate), the girl dog next door, as it were. They come to realize that Max is gone, and organize a rescue party.

There are a lot of parallels here to the original Toy Story movie. There is enough fresh material to keep it amusing and entertaining. The kids in the theater and their moms were definitely enjoying the film more than I was, but I understand that this movie was meant them instead of a broader audience. I did spy several kids running around with stuffed animal versions of the characters, which was a little surprising, considering the film only just recently opened. I can recommend this film, but only for a young audience.

They do dance around the idea that many of the predators you see eat some of the other animals here, but they avoid the reality of it.