'The Secret Life of Pets' Reveals There Indeed is a Plot. . . Even if We've Seen It Before

My interest level in The Secret Life of Pets has been a bouncy neon ball thrown in an enclosed four corner room. Back before there was even a synopsis, the voice cast of very funny people like Louis C.K., Kevin Hart, Jenny Slate, Lake Bell, Ellie Kemper, Hannibal Buress, Albert Brooks, and Steve Coogan made the feature very enticing. Then the first teaser trailer was cute but played as a collection of slight grinning inducing sketches rather reveal any kind of movie. A focused and appealing plot is crucial for an animated feature, because the lesser works can often devolve into a collage of pop culture infused gags. The latest trailer gives us a plot, even if it isn't the most original family adventure with the loyal dogs needing to find a way home. There will be a wide collection of colourful characters and an attempt of a subplot with Kevin Hart's Snowball having some rejected pet army and Max's friends rushing across the city to rescue him. Again not ground breaking stuff but I smiled a lot more with this trailer. You add this with Zootopia, Finding Dory, Kubo and the Two String, and Moana and it could be a pretty fantastic year for animation (this is ignoring smaller studio movies like The Little Prince and I'm sure many that aren't even on my radar yet).