Talk:The Secret Life of Pets

Character breeds
Before we start an edit war, I'm going to explain why I reverted a change to two characters' breeds.

Earlier today, I changed breed labeling for the character Duke. (Also Chloe, but that one does not appear to be in dispute yet.) Duke had been listed as a Newfoundland, but the referenced source clearly described him as a mongrel. (Actual word used by source.) A quick search did not find any official citable source identifying Duke as anything but a mongrel/mutt/mixed-breed dog.

A little while ago, I got a notification of additional changes to the page. Over the course of several anonymous edits (the editing user(s) seemed to be having trouble with wikilinks, and ended up leaving them out altogether), Duke had ended up being labeled as a Labradoodle. This is not supported by source any more than Newfoundland is—and as Labradoodle is not a registered breed at this time, there is no standard by which Duke could be identified as such solely by appearance. And, again, the sources describe him as a mongrel.

During the same series of edits, Gidget was changed from a Pomeranian to a toy American Eskimo dog (and then "toy" and "dog" were dropped, with the amusing result that she was now being described as an ethnic human—"dog" is part of the actual breed name for "American Eskimo dog"). I had not previously edited Gidget's breed; her breed is not identified in the sources, even as "mongrel", and "Pomeranian" had already been on the page. As with Duke earlier, a quick search did not find any official citable source identifying Gidget as either a Pomeranian or an American Eskimo dog, nor could I find any major kennel club that registers a toy version of the American Eskimo dog. (Pomeranians are already considered toy-sized, so do not have a separate registration for that.)

In both cases, no new sources were provided for the changes to breeds. Having just watched the movie myself, I can say that nothing in the movie identifies breeds for either of these characters. In fact, the movie almost entirely leaves out breed designations for the canine characters. So any breed identifications should come from citable sources, unless they are obvious or highly probable due to distinctive features. (Buddy is definitely a dachshund. Pops is definitely a basset hound. Leonard is definitely a standard poodle. Mel is probably a pug. Max is probably a Jack Russell terrier, a Parson Russell terrier, or a Russell terrier—the three are distinct classifications but are hard to distinguish for most people, and are generally used interchangeably.)

So my rationale on the reversions was different for the two dogs. I reverted Duke specifically because the cited sources all label him as a mongrel. I reverted Gidget because, while no cited source gives a breed for her, the probability that she is a white Pomeranian (an atypical but not unusual coloring) is a lot higher than that she is a toy American Eskimo dog (an unusual size for a full-grown AEd).

The upshot of this is that I would like to see the breed identifications for the characters in this film be held to "encyclopedic" standards, which would mean source-supported rather than opinion-based. As I said, some are pretty clear and undisputed. But those which are disputable really should conform to what is provided by citable sources. Opinion-based identifications would constitute "original research" and thus should be avoided.

I would fully support removal of all breed labels in this article except where they are sourceable, but I don't plan to do that myself, and it would be kind of silly for those characters whose breeds are easy to ascertain. But I wanted to state that openly before this becomes an edit war, in the hopes that those who disagree with me will say so here and discuss it. (A slim hope, I know, but I like to give people the benefit of the doubt until they demonstrate otherwise.) I know that those who make anonymous edits generally don't read Talk pages (if they even realize they exist), but they should. (I admit I have a bias against anonymous edits—I think there's a strong, valid argument for prohibiting them under most circumstances—but my view on this particular set of edits would be no different if they had come from logged-in users.)

I can't say for certain how vigilant I will be in defending the state of this page. Unlike some, I don't have the time to continuously monitor and edit Wikipedia. I'm just an occasional editor who wants this site to be as reliably correct and authoritative as possible.

Quantumpanda (talk) 05:08, 11 July 2016 (UTC)


 * Official website ( http://www.thesecretlifeofpets.com/ ) "MEET THE PETS" section (no direct link; maybe because flash is involved?) lists Max as a "A PAMPERED TERRIER MIX" (all caps at website) So change article description of Max as a "Jack Russell Terrier" to "Terrier mix"? -EarthFurst (talk) 18:41, 28 July 2018 (UTC)

IMO
Did it bug anyone else that this whole movie takes place over like 8 hours? I mean I never been there but New York City is a massive place right? Just didn't seem all that realistic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.158.75.75 (talk) 17:08, 18 August 2016 (UTC)


 * There are animals that talk and turn on stereos and use TV remote controls, a rabbit that breaks out a dog from the dog catcher van with a carrot that it has chewed into a key, a pig and bearded lizard driving a vehicle and reading a road atlas, a dog using a go pro, editing and uploading the footage, all the impossible cartoon physics going on, a viper bigger than an alligator, a gang of animals of all different kinds that are united and plotting vengeance on humankind, and a host of other unrealistic things in this movie and what bothers you is the lack of realism in depicting the vastness of NYC and the time frame in which the plot takes place? No, I don't think that one particular thing bothered most people watching this movie. Ileanadu (talk) 18:48, 11 September 2016 (UTC)

Leonard's gone missing - from the article
The cast of characters lists "John Kassir as Leonard's owner" but the article doesn't ever mention Leonard. He's mentioned in the talk section, but not in the article. Granted that no one is voicing Leonard, but it makes no sense to identify someone or something by reference to something else that isn't defined/identified. We could either mention Leonard in the section of the article of the plot, or in the cast section add the information to the listing on his owner. I think I'll do the latter. Ileanadu (talk) 18:31, 11 September 2016 (UTC)

"highest grossing non-disney animated" a dubious claim
Finding nemo made more, whilst pixar went on to become part of disney, it wasn't at the time it made, advertised, & released, finding nemo. Although you might say that FN is a Disney film now, I think that's not what this context is. 79.74.4.64 (talk) 00:25, 29 September 2016 (UTC)

Snowball originally from Pixar short
Can we add that Snowball looks exactly like Alec from Pixar's classic short movie Presto? -nagytibi ! ? 22:58, 5 November 2016 (UTC)

Harrison Ford
From the source it looks a lot like Harrison Ford only said he was a fan after being cast in the second film. It seems like this might belong in the article for the second film not in this article. The image caption makes it seem like he was a fan of the first film, and then it was somehow related to him being cast in the second film. The USA source only says that he was a fan of the first film, it doesn't say when, or even suggest that it is the reason he was involved in 2. It is possible that it is true but it is stretching what the source actually says.

I recommend moving the picture of Ford to the article for Pets 2. -- 109.79.69.130 (talk) 01:36, 9 August 2019 (UTC)


 * https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2019/06/05/harrison-ford-secret-life-pets-indiana-jones-dislikes-cats/1337669001/
 * “I asked them if they wanted me to do a dog voice,” says Ford, 76, a fan of the first film. "And they said, ‘We’d prefer you to actually just use your own voice.’ I was surprised by that. I thought, ‘This is too easy.’ ”
 * That is quite different from "Actor Harrison Ford loved the film, which led to his casting in its eventual sequel The Secret Life of Pets 2." I have removed that false claim and the picture of Ford from this article.
 * Even if he is truly a fan of the first film the source doesn't say anything about that being the reason he got the job on the second film. I might add the picture to the article for TSLoP2. -- 109.78.244.23 (talk) 04:15, 14 August 2019 (UTC)

Nationality of production
Only production company listed is American. Japan was added with a national database source but that conflicts with their being no Japanese production company involved with the production. Dentsu was listed, which is Japanese, but Dentsu is not a production company. Geraldo Perez (talk) 16:07, 18 March 2024 (UTC)