Secret Life of Pets Leaves You 'Warm, Fuzzy'

It's as though Universal Pictures rounded up all the hilarious people in the world and packed them into one animated flick. Louis CK, Eric Stonestreet, Kevin Hart, Ellie Kemper, Bobby Moynihan, Hannibal Buress, Dana Carvey, and Jenny Slate star in The Secret Life of Pets, which, as you probably guessed, is all about the trouble pets get into while their owners are away. Here's what critics are saying:

• "With all of the comedic stars, the film has a fair share of LOL moments," writes Maricar Estrella at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "And while you won't find any revelatory insight into the mind of your pet, parents and children alike will fall for this fun, fast-paced furry tale." It's "cute, charming, and a little hyper—just like a new puppy."
• "The Secret Life of Pets is a testament to teamwork and friendship and fixing the rifts that divide us," writes Steven Rea at the Philadelphia Inquirer. There's "a crazy plotline involving an underground gang of revolutionaries called the Flushed Pets, led by a white rabbit with a bitter view of humankind," but viewers will still get those "warm, fuzzy feelings."

• "The animated action is bouncy and frenetic, and if the story becomes a little too busy, it moves quickly and makes room for a barrage of jokes and even some character development," writes AO Scott at the New York Times. There's no "emotional richness or visual inventiveness" but Hart's "adorably fuzzy, implacable little rabbit … steals the movie, of course, and helps it ascend to a level of anarchic delight."
• Justin Chang isn't wagging his tail at this one, however. It's "a glorified hairball pulled together from the strands of better, more appealing movies and then noisily coughed up and disgorged at a multiplex near you," he writes at the Los Angeles Times. It's "an infernally busy and overextended chase sequence crammed with desperately unfunny comic patter and noisy, pointless action."

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