This animation film explores what happens when we close the front door and leave our dogs, cats and canaries* to their own devices. The answer is that our pets act a lot like us, with their own quarrels*, indulgences*, love affairs, music tastes and desire to do what they please at all times — although a dog is a dog and will still run after a stick if you throw one in its direction.

    Set in a dream version of modern-day Manhattan, the story focuses on a little terrier, Max (Louis C.K.), whose pitch-perfect, apartment-bound lifestyle is upended* when his owner comes home with a big floppy rescue named Duke (Eric Stonestreet) and forces them to become housemates.

    Unable to accept the fact that he’s not the only loved one in town, Max soon finds himself stranded* alongside Duke in the Big Apple, where they’re pursued by dogcatchers and cross paths with an underground resistance* known as the Flushed Pets, whose goal is to make all animals undomesticated for good.

    Their leader, Snowball (Kevin Hart), is the most psychotic* little wabbit* to ever bite a carrot, and when he finds out Max is not the stray* he says he is, Snowball brings the ruckus* down hard.

    Director Chris Renaud dishes out some decent gags during the opening reels, especially when introducing us to the other pets in Max’s building, including a lazy house cat (Lake Bell), a warm-hearted pug dog (Bobby Moynihan) and a fluffy Pomeranian (Jenny Slate) who has the hots for* our hero. Much of the humor comes from the fact that these animals have human characteristics while remaining lovely animals, even if not all of them aim to please their caretakers in the way that Max always does.

    But there are many more castmembers to come, including a complaining hawk (Albert Brooks), an alley cat (Steve Coogan) and a sly* old Basset Hound (Dana Carvey).

    Renaud’s vision of New York City is fantastic, with skyscrapers stretching beyond the frame and fire escapes leading upwards into different apartments and different lives, as if we’re seeing everything from the viewpoint of a dog watching the world of humans from the ground.(SD-Agencies)