The "Secret" In The Secret Life Of Pets

Like my prior review of the rebooted Ghostbusters, this is another commentary in which I share my thoughts on a movie I have not seen. Again I must say that this film looks like it might not be good. I say this because the "secret" is obviously (easy to discern from the trailers) that the pets lives are anthropomorphized. Anthropomorphism being "the attribution of human traits, emotions, and intentions to non-human entities".

That the pets are mini-humans with fur is SO predictable. In that it's been done many many times before. And, with a documentary-sounding title like The Secret Life of Pets, I was thinking that MAYBE the filmmakers were going to try something else.

Which isn't to say that that I'm writing this movie off already. I am willing to give it a chance, despite it following the same old formula of animals being anthropomorphized in cartoons. Or in live action movies where the main characters are animals (I'm thinking the Incredible Journey remake in which the animals were given voices, whereas in the original film they did not speak).

I definitely plan on picking up the film soundtrack CD, however, given that it is by one of my favorite composers, Alexandre Desplat.

I didn't mention the Theodore Shapiro score for Ghostbusters in my prior commentary because I'm not sure I'm going to buy it. I'll wait until I see the movie, and then I might pick it up used later. Also, I heard that Elmer Bernstein's Ghostbusters Theme is NOT featured.

DSB #48

On The Ghostbusters All Female Cast Reboot

My issue with the movie is not that the cast is all female, it's that the movie is a reboot. Given the fact that a few of the original cast members have cameos - and they are playing different characters - says to me the filmmakers went out of their way to shit on fans of the original movie.

With original cast members playing different characters - the filmmakers are saying definitively that the original movies never happened. A better course of action, IMO, would have been to write a new story and somehow link it to the original movies. One of the new Ghostbusters could have been the daughter, niece, whatever of one of the original Ghostbusters.

I'm sure they could have found a way to do the new movie and not say the original ones never happened - if they had wanted to. On the other hand (I suspect) that this reboot steals a lot from the original movie. And, therefore, if the reboot had been linked to the original movies (this movie existed in the same universe)... well, that would have been a lot of "history repeating itself".

Guess the writers weren't smart enough to come up with a new story. I should note, however, that I haven't seen the movie... yet. I am willing to give it a chance. Which isn't to say that I'm going to PAY to see it. Hypothetically speaking, that is... I actually haven't been to a movie theater in quite a long time. I'm saying that IF I paid to see movies in the theater I'd wait for some reviews first.

I'm thinking that this movie could turn out to be a huge dud. I mean, if all this reboot has to offer is that it rewrites the original (and does a mediocre to bad job of it) then it might not do so well at the box office.

DSB #47