The Secret Life of Pets

Look, you can’t blame a studio for taking notice when something is working and wanting to replicate their own success. Sequels wouldn’t get greenlit unless someone, somewhere, wanted them. It makes perfect fiscal sense for upstart animation studio Illumination to follow up on their blockbusters Minions, The Secret Life of Pets, and Sing. But, god, did they have to announce them all at once like that?

You probably know that The Secret Life of Pets was produced by Illumination Entertainment, the animation studio behind Despicable Me and Minions. But did you know the Minions make several hidden cameos in Secret Life of Pets? It’s true; look for them in the fridge at Max’s house and on the bedside table of the guinea pig’s owner. That’s just one of the despicable facts featured in the newest episode of You Think You Know Movies!

Since the introduction of the Best Animated Feature Oscar at the 74th Academy Awards in 2002, we’ve seen a steady exponential increase in animated movies over the years. Pixar, and, by extent, Disney, has usually dominated the competition, with eight wins out of ten nominations, followed by DreamWorks and Disney’s animation studio. This year, we have a record 27 movies eligible for the award, and while the Academy can pick only five to nominate, for now it’s anyone’s game.

We’re halfway through a summer of cinematic animation domination: Finding Dory is Pixar’s highest-grossing film, The Secret Life of Pets now holds the record for biggest opening weekend for an original film ever, and a fifth Ice Age film opens later this week. So now is the perfect time to unveil a list of the 20 best vocal performances in feature animation ever. (One caveat: Though some of the films mentioned here may boast more than one great performance, we restricted ourselves to just one performer from any given film.) With that in mind, let the countdown begin with...

How much does the new Ghostbusters need to make if it wants to be a bonafide, genuine hit? The opening weekend for director Paul Feig’s reboot of the beloved franchise raises more questions than answers and the second and third weekend will ultimately prove more telling. However, here’s what we can say right now: it opened with solid numbers in second place behind last week’s massive champion, The Secret Life of Pets.

It took a movie about adorable talking dogs and cats to dethrone the movie about the adorable talking fish. The Secret Life of Pets dominated the box office this weekend, making it the third 2016 family movie about chatty animals to make a huge splash. If this concept wasn’t as old as the animation medium itself, we could call this a trend.

There’s nothing new or marvel about cute cuddly talking animals; they’ve been the center of animated feature films since the earliest days of animation. But in ‘The Secret Life of Pets,’ the age old shtick still works.

When Illumination Entertainment announced the basic premise for their upcoming The Secret Life of Pets — an animated adventure-comedy about the shenanigans our furry pals get into while we’re away at work for the day — it sure sounded an awful lot like Toy Story...

Talking dogs and cats have been a staple of animation since the medium’s earliest days, but The Secret Life of Pets trailer actually presents a fairly fresh take on this trope. The talking animals here are ordinary house pets, alone all day while their humans are at work, and we get to see how they pass the time.

I woke this morning to a variety of recaps of the new episode of Louie. My Twitter feed was full of references to some kind of amazing poop joke that Louis C.K. makes on the show this week. Who better, then, to star in a children’s film? They love poop jokes almost as much as they love fart jokes!