“The guinea pig is based on my guinea pig,” Renaud says, adding that Meledandri “said he didn’t want to push the characters toward one of his dogs, but he thinks he did. Essentially it’s a buddy comedy.”Īs the team built the story, they drew from experiences with their own pets. We had to establish empathy because you want Duke and Max to come together as buddies. We had to establish dramatic conflict but not so aggressive that it’s off-putting -like Gru in Despicable Me. Duke’s character was one of most challenging. Eric can play big but also can be a softy. It was a big personality coming out of this big fluffy dog. “With Eric Stonestreet’s Duke, it was finding the contrast. Louis C.K.’s Max became “a little sarcastic, neurotic,” with the flavor of one of Woody Allen’s New Yorkers, Renaud continues. It was the contrast that felt really fun.” Ripper is a red and white bulldog with a red body, white mask and white markings on his face,belly, and paws. He is one of the main partners of Snowball and a prominent member of The Flushed Pets. We had been talking about Kevin Hart as the voice actor, and we sent the picture to Kevin’s people and he was excited. The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019) PG Animation, Adventure, Comedy, Family. Ripper is a bulldog who appears as a minor character in The Secret Life of Pets and the mini-movie Super Gidget. Explains Renaud, “We felt it would be funnier to have a little guy with a big chip on his shoulder, so we started talking about him more as a bunny you would see on an Easter card. The core team, which includes Renaud, Meledandri and producing partner Janet Healy, co-director Yarrow Cheney (who’s working on Illumination’s upcoming How The Grinch Stole Christmas), and the writing team of Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio ( Despicable Me) and Brian Lynch ( Minions) all communicated on a regular basis.Īs is typical on an animated feature, a lot evolved along the way, including the look and personality of the film’s antagonist, Snowball the bunny, who started out big and ugly and ended up small and fuzzy. Snowball (Kevin Hart) dressed as Captain Snowball fights against Little Sergei, the monkey of Sergei, the evil circus man. We start with storyboarding but it’s very collaborative,” says Renaud. “The writers and vocal talent are also typically in the U.S. Renaud works at Illumination Mac Guff’s Paris animation production facility, where roughly 700 artists are based and the studio’s films are made, while Meledandri works in the studio’s Santa Monica headquarters. The making of Pets was highly collaborative in Illumination’s own unique way. The voice cast also includes the likes of Jenny Slate, Lake Bell, Dana Carvey, Hannibal Buress and Albert Brooks. This reluctant duo must team up when they find themselves on the city streets, and on the run from a cunning bunny named Snowball, voiced by Kevin Hart, who’s building an army of pets who’ve been abandoned by their owners and are out for revenge. But his pampered life is turned upside down when his owner, voiced by Ellie Kemper, brings home Duke, a large, sloppy mongrel with no interpersonal skills, who’s voiced by Eric Stonestreet. Max is convinced he sits at the center of his owner’s universe. In the end, the filmmakers decided to tell a New York-set story built around Max, a quick-witted terrier rescue, who’s voiced by Louis C.K. King Charles to Resume Royal Duties After Cancer Diagnosis

Secret life of pets snowball