The Secret Life of Pets Movie Night with DIY Popcorn Bar

Sponsored post by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. All opinions are my own.

When we first saw The Secret Life of Pets at VidCon over the summer, we fell in love with the movie. So when we heard The Secret Life of Pets was being released on Blu-ray & DVD this month, the kids were super excited! We invited everyone over for a movie night with a DIY popcorn bar with popcorn mixes inspired by our favorite characters from the film. Find out how to set up your own DIY popcorn bar and learn more about The Secret Life of Pets on Blu-ray & DVD now:

Ever wonder what your pets do when you’re not home? From the humans behind Despicable Me, The Secret Life of Pets is a hilarious comedy about the lives our pets lead after we leave for work or school each day. I can totally see my pets in some of the characters in the movie and if you have pets, I bet you can identify your own pet's personality in these characters too.

The all-star voice cast includes Louis C.K., Eric Stonestreet, Kevin Hart, Jenny Slate, Ellie Kemper, Lake Bell, Dana Carvey, Hannibal Buress, Bobby Moynihan, Steve Coogan and Albert Brooks. My favorite is Kevin Hart as the voice of the bunny, Snowball! Watch the movie trailer here:

Own The Secret Life of Pets with 3 Mini Movies on Blu-ray & DVD December 6. The new release features nearly an hour of bonus content, including three hilarious mini-movies: the all-new Norman Television and Weenie PLUS Mower Minions which debuted in theaters and is now available to own.

After picking up the new The Secret Life of Pets on Blu-ray & DVD, plan the best movie night ever with this DIY popcorn bar, inspired by the characters in The Secret Life of Pets.

How-to: DIY Popcorn Bar for Movie Night

What are the toppings you wish the movie theater had? When you make your own movie night popcorn bar, you can create whatever flavors you want! The kids wanted melted chocolates and nacho cheese for their popcorn creations. Well, sure thing, we can do that when it's all DIY.  We thought about our favorite characters from The Secret Life of Pets and created popcorn flavors inspired by them. You can do the same thing for your movie night!

Creating popcorn flavors

To create flavored popcorn and topping combinations inspired by your favorite movie characters, think about their personality, the colors they wear, and even what kinds of foods they might eat. Think about what flavors go well together when creating your popcorn mixes. Salty and sweet combinations are great but salty and spicy work well too. Never had that topping on popcorn before? It might be a great flavor combo, so try it and see if it works.

We created our flavored popcorn mixes based on three characters from The Secret Life of Pets: Gidget, Snowball, and Duke. Each popcorn mix had it's own unique “drizzle” to add on top, from nacho cheese for the Snowball inspired popcorn to pink white chocolate for the Gidget inspired popcorn.

You can pre-make the popcorn combinations and have guests fill their popcorn boxes or bags with each mix if you don't want to deal with the mess of drizzled nacho cheese and chocolate everywhere.

Or you can allow guests to make their own flavor combinations like we did. You're only a kid once, right? We wrote the recipes for each character inspired popcorn mix on chalkboard signs and then everyone made the mixes they wanted to try most.

Duke Popcorn Mix

To create the Duke-inspired popcorn mix, we wanted to go with “muddy” flavors and colors.

Duke is a big, clumsy but loving dog and we thought chocolate, with a few nuts, is a flavor combination that perfectly describes his personality.

To make this Duke-inspired popcorn, pop at least one bag of butter popcorn or kettle corn. In a bowl, mix the warm popcorn with 1/2 cup of dry hot cocoa mix to make it look “muddy”.

Scoop the chocolate dusted popcorn into a bowl or bag, drizzle with melted milk chocolate, and then top with Raisinets and chopped pecans.

Gidget Popcorn Mix

Gidget is the adorable female-lead character in The Secret Life of Pets who leads a pampered, luxurious, bubblegum pink life but sets out to rescue her love interest, Max, who is lost and kidnapped during the movie.

Our Gidget inspired popcorn mix is made with fluffy, butter popcorn, drizzled with pink colored white chocolate and tossed with colored sprinkles.

Cute and sweet, just like Gidget!

Snowball Spicy Taco Popcorn

Snowball looks cute and fluffy but he's a spicy little fireball of fury.

He's a street rabbit with a big beef with humans who's after Max for revenge but eventually, he saves Max in the end. We translated Snowball's personality into popcorn by creating a spicy, cheesy popcorn mix:

Top cheese popcorn with a drizzle of nacho cheese, a shake of spicy taco seasoning, and a sprinkle of shredded cheddar cheese for a hot and cheesy popcorn treat!

Setting up the table

The key to a successful popcorn bar is making sure everyone can reach all of the ingredients and they know how to put it all together. Start with a sign, bags, and napkins. You can pick up most of these party supplies at the same retailer where you get The Secret Life of Pets on Blu-ray & DVD.

We set up shallow tubs with each popcorn flavor with the toppings in smaller dishes in front. We set the drizzle station, a warmer with 3 sections, further back from the edge of the table to prevent the younger kids from reaching it. Since the drizzle station contained hot, melted chocolate and cheese, we decided it was best for adults or older kids to  add the drizzle for the younger kids.  Behind each container of drizzle, we added a sign with the name of the character from The Secret Life of Pets and a short recipe for how to make their popcorn mix using the ingredients directly in front of the signs.

Next we set up a simple drink station with cherry lemonade and red cups to match our color scheme of red, black, and white.

Place a small dish under the spout of a drink dispenser to catch any drips. I love drink stations like this because the kids can all serve themselves. You can also add lidded cups, like we did here, if you want to minimize spills if the kids will be laying on the floor to watch the movie.

Smart Affordable Party Decor

We put this party together in less than an hour using affordable items you can get at the same time as The Secret Life of Pets on Blu-ray & DVD. For the backdrop, we added strips of wrapping paper to the wall with push pins and tape. We then draped pom pom trim across the background. We picked up leashes and collars to match our red and black color scheme and then draped those across the backdrop like garlands to tie into the movie. At the beginning of The Secret Life of Pets, Duke and Max both lose their collars, which is why I used collars and leashes as decor for our popcorn bar.

Each popcorn mix had a recipe to follow so we made resuable signage using household items that can be painted and customized to use over and over again. I used empty clay pots from my patio, dowels, mini chalkboards, gift wrapping shred, painter's tape, and spray paint to make cute signs for this party. The signs can be taken apart and the pieces used for other projects when movie night is over. No glue needed!

Here's how to make easy signage for your next party or popcorn bar:

Supplies:

• clay pots
• spray paint
• dowels
• mini chalkboards
• painter's tape
• gift wrap shred
• ribbon

The whole family had a blast making custom popcorn mixes inspired by their favorite The Secret Life of Pets characters while watching the new release Blu-Ray and DVD. This movie night was surely a hit!

Even my kitty Tubbington watched the movie! His favorite snack is plain popcorn. Usually I only toss him a few pieces but on movie night, he got his very own dish filled with popcorn. Hopefully he doesn't get any silly ideas from The Secret Life of Pets.

Be sure to pick up The Secret Life of Pets on Blu-ray & DVD on December 6. Which of the characters from the movie do you connect with most? Let me know in the comments!