Surprisingly disappointing. It starts well enough, if heavily indebted to TOY STORY/’95, with the idea of showing what happens at home while master is away, but pets in for toys. And if its bright digital animation looks a generation & a half behind the curve (note the dry doggie noses & lack of detail in hair & water effects), further weakened by iffy character design (who approved the animal teeth?), a general level of adorableness still comes thru in the interdependence & misunderstandings of owners & pets. But once the story leaves home for a wild adventure in the city (even with some pleasingly painterly cityscape backgrounds), the wilder-is-better plotting never comes into focus or adds up. It’s just one darn set piece after another, as busy & unpleasant as that Richard Scarry picture book you had to read to a niece twenty-five times, with rock bottom coming in an over-produced hot dog musicale.* Three shorts come on the DVD, two linked to the feature (and no better), plus a hilarious (and decidedly rude) MINIONS Lawn Service item. Something about those verbally-challenged pill-shaped creatures brings out the best from the Illumination animators.
DOUBLE-BILL: *That hot dog number is quite put in the shade by SAUSAGE PARTY, out the same year and also featuring less than state-of-the-art digital works. Not for the kiddies, it’s one of the more subversive mainstream pics of the past few years. (From Seth Rogen . . . but you don’t have to look at him.)
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