DC League of Super-Pets

  • Title: DC League of Super-Pets
  • IMDb: link

Centering around Superman’s (John Krasinski) super-dog Krypto (Dwayne Johnson) learning to accept his owner’s affection for Lois Lane (Olivia Wilde) and discover how to make his own friends in a group animals (Kevin Hart, Vanessa Bayer, Natasha Lyonne, and Diego Luna) who all become super-powered through a mad guinea pig’s (Kate McKinnon) use of Orange Kryptonite, DC League of Super-Pets offers your basic animated kind of mildly diverting fun with the Justice League being completely unprepared to deal with super-villain animals and the need for our unlikely heroes to unite and form the League of Super-Pets.

While not likely a film I’d return to, and would prefer DC to drill into the untapped potential of Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! (think Justice League meets Tiny Toon Adventures), fans of DC (or anthropomorphic characters in general) should have a fine time.

Our new heroes are more goofballs than anything else (helping to explain how ineffectual they are in their first heroic outing together). We get a pig with the powers of the Atom, another dog who becomes invulnerable, a turtle who can run incredibly fast (seemingly a nod to the Zoo Crew’s Fastback), and a squirrel who can shoot what looks like Force Lightning. Hart’s Ace is the only one of the bunch that gets even close to the amount of screen time and character moments Krypto is given leaving the others far less defined. There are, of course, other animals super-powered for our team to fight including a variety of guinea pigs and one very dangerous kitten (Winona Bradshaw).

There’s a little something for everyone here in the obvious dog-owner kind of moments (even if the makers of this film drastically over-estimate the lifespan of even a super dog). We also, in limited action, get to see the Justice League with Keanu Reeves‘ take on Batman being the most memorable member of the group outside of Superman, and a reminder why no one should ever trust Lex Luthor (Marc Maron). And, of course, there’s plenty of action along with some lessons about growing up for the film’s target audience. The script also throws in a few small nuggets for longtime DC fans such (such as our final shot of Chip).

Watch the trailer