The animated anthropomorphic shoe movie “Sneaks” reminds me a lot of Werner Herzog, and not just because one time he ate a freakin’ shoe.

The director of “Fitzcarraldo” and “Aguirre, the Wrath of God” also claimed that humanity was “starving for new images,” a challenge many filmmakers have taken to heart. I cannot say with absolute certainty that Herzog will think highly of a film in which a phalanx of living footwear marches through Central Park in the middle of the night as giant murder rats dart at them from the shadows, slaughtering each shoe one by one. But I’m pretty sure he’d have to concede that yes, this really is a new image. Well played, “Sneaks.”

“Sneaks” is the latest in a long line of films that wonder whether the little things we take for granted in life have feelings. “The Brave Little Toaster” argued that we...