THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS (12A)

Creatures great and small wreak havoc on the streets of New York City in Chris Renaud and Yarrow Cheney's colourful computer-animated romp.

Employing a similar framework to Toy Story, The Secret Life Of Pets imagines what our four-legged, feathered and finned friends get up to when our backs are turned, suggesting that the fun begins when we go to work or school.

A Jack Russell terrier and an affection starved mongrel replace Woody and Buzz Lightyear as the feuding central characters, whose rivalry mellows into mutual affection when they are separated from their owner.

Screenwriters Ken Daurio, Brian Lynch and Cinco Paul have great fun in early scenes, revealing how a dachshund uses his owner's food mixer as a back massager or one tiny dog performs acrobatic leaps to water a hanging basket with a cock of its leg.

The central concept isn't original but there's an infectious charm to every shiny frame of Renaud and Cheney's well-groomed picture, which mercilessly exploits our affection for the critters that share our homes.

The Secret Life Of Pets is the brainchild of the makers of Despicable Me and Minions, and retains a similar visual style and family-friendly sense of humour.

The main feature is accompanied by a cute animated short entitled Mower Minions in which the gibberish-spouting sidekicks tend the lawn of elderly neighbours.

Alas, the diminutive do-gooders are yellow fingers and thumbs, propagating plentiful guffaws and giggles.