While it may be one of the more low-key Illumination franchises compared to other
series like “Despicable Me” and “SING”, the Secret Life of Pets films still have
their fans. Although the stories within these films are often seen as simple and
maybe a bit familiar when it comes to certain plot elements or tropes, it’s the lovable and
adorable characters that have kept these films going. So, let’s talk about these characters!
I’m Caleb with WickedBinge, and this is the Secret Life of Pets characters: Good to Evil.
First up, we have the characters who shine brightest in terms of morality
and heroics. These characters are The Good.
Earning the Gold Medal of Goodness is the pomeranian, Gidget. While she may be most known
for her fluffiness and her crush on the series’ main character, Max, she still has a lot of great
strengths of her own. In the first movie, we see that she is willing to go through everything and
anything to rescue Max and bring him home, and is the main pet pushing everyone else forward.
We even see her fight off all the flushed pets just to save Max. But while this pup
isn’t afraid to throw down, Gidget is typically very sweet-natured and affectionate despite
being absolutely spoiled and pampered by her owners. She’s even willing to forgive Tiberius
for nearly eating her. Her strong sense of loyalty also continues in the second movie,
where we see her go undercover as a cat to get Max’s busy bee toy back from a bunch of
cats. With hardly any negative traits to speak of, we felt she more than earned our top spot.
For our Silver Medal of Goodness, we’re giving it to the farm dog Rooster. Though he may seem tough
and cold on the surface, this dog certainly has his softer moments. When he first meets Max and
Duke, he’s just a bit standoffish, being more focused on doing his work than making friends.
After all, he’s the protector of the farm, able to do things like take down a fox or
stop a cattle stampede with ease. However, this aloofness doesn’t last too long. It’s Rooster who,
believing in the method of ‘tough love’, pushes Max to overcome his fears and stop being so
overprotective of Liam. When Max proves himself, Rooster continues taking Max under his wing,
inviting him to howl with him and even giving him a cool bandana. Even if he’s not the friendliest
looking dog around, it’s obvious that he cares a lot about Max and the animals he protects,
which in turn pushes him to make a positive difference in their lives.
Moving onto our Bronze Medal of Goodness, we’re giving it to Daisy. Considering that
Daisy is just a normal, bystanding dog who didn’t have to get involved,
it’s incredibly admirable that she went out of her way to enlist Snowball’s help in rescuing Hu
the tiger cub. Even with how clearly dangerous the situation was, Daisy still repeatedly put
herself in danger in order to free the poor cub, and even went head-to-head with Sergei’s wolves
at one point. Both her bravery and her concern for other animals in need is extremely admirable,
and even if she’s still a relatively minor character compared to the other pets, what she
does do is very impactful. She’s brave, fearless, bold, kind and always looks out for her friends.
Next up, we have Pops. Pops is an aging, paralyzed Basset Hound who tends to take advantage of the
fact that his owner is rarely home by making his apartment into a local hot spot where pets are
free to come in and party as they please. While this normally would make him a pretty naughty dog,
we think it’s sweet that he’s willing to open his home up to so many others
to have fun during the day as they wait for their owners to return home. Additionally,
despite his paralysis, Pops still manages to help lead the search team for Max alongside
Gidget. He’s practically fearless when it comes to going into the sewers and crossing
the highest sections of New York. We also see him mentoring puppies in the second film,
which is incredibly sweet. Although he can sometimes be a bit flirty towards Chloe as well
as pretty grumpy and fairly rude at times, which in all honesty isn’t too surprising given his age,
we feel like his positives and willingness to help far outweigh those negative traits.
We’ve finally arrived at the main star of the Pets movies, Max. Let’s start with his
more negative traits, as Max can sometimes be pushy and even a bit of a jerk. To be fair,
this is mostly seen in the first movie, where he goes so far as to purposely break a vase
to make it look like Duke did it, though you could argue it was in self-defense after Duke
started trying to push Max around. But for as bitter and suspicious of Duke as Max was,
he does start to warm up to the bigger dog eventually. After the two of them bond and
open up to each other, Max tries to help Duke find his old owner. While this didn’t end very well,
it’s the thought that counts, and Max truly thought Duke would be happier with his old owner.
During the first film’s climax, Max went out of his way to rescue Duke from the dog catchers,
showing just how far his relationship with Duke had come. These heroics continue in
the second film, ranging from small things like him helping raise and look after Liam,
to bigger things like saving the lives of Cotton and later Hu the tiger cub. While Max can
sometimes be a bit self-centered and timid, his heart is more often than not in the right place.
Next up is one of two humans that we have on this list, Katie. Simply put, Katie loves her pets,
with her specifically rescuing them because she didn’t want them to be forced to stay at
the pound. As a pet owner, she’s very patient and doesn’t tend to yell at them even when they
make a mess while she’s away. She’s affectionate, loving and an overall warm presence. What brings
her ranking down, however, is how careless she can occasionally be. Many fans feel that she could’ve
done a better job introducing her two dogs to each other, as well as being more observant,
given that she completely missed how Duke stole both Max’s bed and food. In the second movie,
once her son Liam is able to start crawling, he also starts casually tormenting Max,
and we don’t see Katie or her husband correcting this behavior. Who knows
if they even knew that it was going on. Of course, Max’s relationship with Liam
worked out in the end, but it certainly wasn’t because of anything Katie did…
Following her is the doggy duo, Mel and Buddy. Although they don’t play a huge part in either
films and aren’t always the most observant or willing to help, these guys are friendly
enough dogs towards other pets. Mel even helps Max find another ball for Katie in the first
film. They’re also seen being incredibly loving towards their owners, but can sometimes be judgy
towards other owners - like the hipster using a plastic ‘arm’ to throw a ball for his dog.
All in all, they may just be a couple of average dogs that tend to act more
as comedy relief than anything else, but average certainly doesn’t mean bad.
Next up, let’s quickly talk about Sweetpea. He’s a sweet enough bird, hence the well-fitting name,
and though he can be a bit skittish at times, he’s apparently forgiving enough to still
willingly hang around Chloe. This is in spite of the fact that Chloe tried eating him once. Like
Mel and Buddy, he doesn’t do that much but still helps out on the first film’s journey
in minor ways, and does his job rounding out the cast of lovable characters well.
Nearing the end of this tier, we have Duke. For the most part, Duke is a friendly, happy-go-lucky,
gentle giant of sorts. However, he’s certainly not afraid to get mean or throw his weight around if
he feels like he has to defend himself, like when he thought Max was trying to get rid of him or
when he was having an emotional breakdown at his late owner’s house. Speaking of this scene, his
temper also prompts him to accuse Max of trying to get rid of him when he tries to reunite Duke with
his original owner, only to find out that he’d died. While this accusation is a bit unfounded, as
Max was just trying to do something nice for Duke, we can understand Duke’s distress and mistrust
given how the two of them didn’t exactly start off on the right paw. However, this anger and
hurt doesn't stop Duke from performing a Heroic Sacrifice, getting caught by animal control,
so Max can escape - meaning that he won't lose Katie like how Duke lost his old owner, Fred. As
for Duke’s role in the second film, while he may not get as much focus as he did in the first film,
Duke still cares for his family, showing them plenty of love, affection and support.
Finishing off the Good, we have Norman the guinea pig. Now,
given that he spent three weeks trying to find his way back to his apartment room,
he’s not exactly the smartest guinea pig around. Nor is he the most loyal it turns out,
since he abandons the group after Gidget blows their cover to the flushed pets. He ends up
getting caught by them anyway, but then joins them. We can’t exactly call this an outright
betrayal though given his general lack of smarts as well as his pleasant and friendly nature. He
doesn’t seem to fully understand what being part of the flushed pets entails, and he still wants
to try and help find Max instead of ever seeing him as an enemy like the other flushed pets do.
To sum it up, Norman just likes everybody and everything, including the hawk that
snatched him up to eat him, and we can’t really hate him for something like that.
Next up are the characters who land somewhere in the middle,
having both good and bad moments. Welcome to the Grey Area!
Starting off this tier is the always-hungry Chloe. Somewhat apathetic, aloof and snarky
for the most part, it may seem like she doesn’t care much about the other pets or about anything
that’s not food. However, this meanness is only surface level. While she may state that
she doesn’t care about Max’s problems, she clearly cares more than she lets on,
given that she's the first one to go along with Gidget's call to action. She also
convinces the others to come along by pointing out how Max has helped them all in the past.
Although she may steal food from the fridge, she still loves her owner quite a bit, immediately
feeling guilty when she instinctively bites her. She also helps Gidget with her ‘cat lessons’ and,
despite trying to eat him prior, seems to be on good terms with Sweetpea. All in all,
Chloe is a good example of not judging a book by its cover.
Following her is the falcon, Tiberius. In all honesty, Tiberius doesn’t give off the best
first impression. In fact, we’re sure many fans thought he was going to be an antagonist. In his
first scene, he tricks Gidget into letting him out of his cage so that he can try to eat her,
although the attempt is foiled thanks to the chain around his foot. Surprisingly though,
he actually regrets his actions after Gidget scolds him, and, after she removes his chain,
he never tries to eat her again. We can’t exactly say the same for the
other smaller animals of the rescue party, as he is pretty tempted to eat them instead - but hey,
it’s good that he knows how to control himself for the most part. While his hunger for small
and cute things may be a bit off putting, Tiberius does still have a soft side,
as we see him affectionately nuzzling his owner at the end of the first film. Really, Tiberius
is just really lonely and wants friends, hence why he’s still willing to control himself around them
once he makes some new friends, even if there’s still a small part of him that wants to eat them.
Finishing off the Greys is the infamous crazy bunny, Snowball. In the first film,
Snowball is all about hating domesticated pets and wanting to kill humans, being jealous of the
former and wanting revenge on the latter. But while he may seem crazy and more than a little
bloodthirsty, he’s still generally friendly to other animals, just as long as they share his
goals. After Max and Duke accidentally kill Viper, one of Snowball’s fellow Flushed Pets,
he tries to get revenge on them. However, he’s later willing to team up with Max to
save Duke and three other Flushed Pets. We even see Snowball dive into the Hudson river,
where he manages to get the keys to unlock Duke's cage, saving the day. In that sense,
maybe it makes sense that once he becomes Molly’s pet, he decides to become Captain Snowball and
helps Daisy with saving Hu the Tiger Cub. While we couldn’t quite ignore just how violent he
seemed towards humans in the first film, he does do enough good to stay out of our bottom tier.
We’ve finally come to the characters who maybe deserve a nice long stay at
the pound. These characters are the Bad to Evil.
Just outside the bottom 3, we have the wolves. As the name implies,
they're a pack of large and vicious black wolves that repeatedly go after Snowball, Daisy and later
Max when they try to free Hu. Although they are technically antagonists who try to hurt
the second film’s heroes by chasing them down and trying to re-capture them for their owner,
we are going to cut them just a bit of slack as they are implied to also be victims of Sergei,
given that he threatens to hurt them if they don’t follow orders. Even if
an entire wolf pack could probably take out a lone human, we aren’t going to judge the
animals that aren’t willing to go after a guy holding something like a whip or a gun.
Taking the Bronze Medal of Evil is the leader of the stray cats, Ozone. Weird name,
we know. Maybe it has something to do with all the holes in his ears. Anyway, Ozone is a
feral hairless cat, being the first stray that Max and Duke meet on their adventures in the
first movie. Upon first meeting them, Ozone destroys Max and Duke's collars and steals
their tags for no real reason at all other than to just mess with them. Once he starts getting
annoyed with the dogs, he then summons an entire army of feral cats to attack and torment them.
Although Ozone was probably just trying to pick a fight, his actions are also what inadvertently
make it all the more dangerous for Max and Duke to be caught by animal control, given that they would
be considered strays without their collars and tags. We should also mention that he doesn’t seem
very remorseful of his actions, which just adds to how needlessly cruel this kitty seems to be.
Taking the Silver Medal of Evil is Sergei’s monkey, Little Sergei. Since he’s the only animal
that Sergei actually likes, being his ‘right-hand monkey’ of sorts, he doesn’t seem to care at all
about the cruelty that Sergei subjects his other circus animals to. In fact, Little Sergei even
goes so far as to try and fight off Daisy and Snowball when they try to save Hu, showing just
how little sympathy he has for his fellow animals. We can’t even say that he’s just following orders,
since Sergei wasn’t present during this scene and, if Little Sergei really wanted to, he could have
escaped with the other animals. But hey, why leave a life of luxury? During the scuffle,
he even tries to fire Daisy out of a cannon, only to wind up getting shoved into the cannon himself
thanks to Daisy and Snowball’s efforts. It’s certainly a fitting end for such a bad monkey.
Finally, our Gold Medal of Evil is, obviously, going to the evil circus
owner Sergei. It’s almost whiplash-inducing just how much darker Sergei is compared to
all the antagonists we saw in the first Secret Life of Pets movie. He treats both the animals
and workers in his circus terribly. With the animals specifically, he’s often seen taking a
whip to them and threatening to make them into coats or rugs when they annoy or disobey him.
He also tries to force Hu to jump into a pool of water for his act, not caring if
the poor cub is terrified of water. Even when the animals start fighting back, Sergei doesn’t
hesitate to try and shoot them all. What makes him even worse is that we never see any sort of
motive for all of this nor do we know anything about Sergei’s background that could have made
him this way. He’s just a cruel and greedy circus owner who wants to make as much money as possible
on the backs of innocent animals, and that’s more than enough to earn him a spot at the very bottom.
But let us know in the comment section if you agree with our ranking, and tell us what we should
cover next. Remember to hit that notification bell and binge our Good to Evil playlist,
where we break down the morality of the characters in your favorite cartoons,
shows and movies. But most importantly, stay wicked!