Basically: Taking classic DC super pet characters and giving them a Secret Life of Pets style treatment.
Even though Superman’s dog is old news for some and Batman’s Bat-hound is pretty standard, I’d say this is a completely new idea for many people. See, the DC Universe and its characters are over 80 years old; whatever you can think of it might exist in the DC Universe. As I said, for a person like me, I know about Krypto, the Super Dog, Ace the Bat-Hound, Wonder Woman’s Kangaroo (sadly not in this movie), or one of my favorites, Streaky the SuperCat, Supergirl’s cat. WB has played with these characters over time in and outside of the comics, most recently on the Cartoon Network show Krypto The Superdog. That was a fun show but I’m happy to see the Super-Pets on a much larger stage and scale thanks to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kevin Hart.
This DC League of Super-Pets take has Krypto (The Rock), Superman’s dog, as the one friend who has been with him his whole life. To Krypto—they are the most important friends to each other in the entire universe. No one is as good as Superman (John Krasinski) is. He is the best. No one is really worth his time besides Krypto and saving the world. But, there’s one thing messing up this perfect life: Lois Lane (Olivia Wilde). Krypto can’t deal with the fact he won’t be the closest to Superman anymore. Supes and Lois’ relationship is going to a new level. Things get pretty bad when Superman is captured by Lulu, a test subject guinea pig from Lexcorp that is superintelligent and wants revenge on Krypto. The powerless Krypto now has to rely on a group of shelter animals led by Ace (Kevin Hart) to stop Lulu and save the Justice League.
DC League of Super-Pets is really fun and keeps a great tone throughout. Krypto has a strong arc from the movie’s beginning to the end as he is pretty condescending to other animals and needs to learn to be more selfless. Krypto is a dog that doesn’t act like a dog—he acts like Superman. He even makes a secret identity of Bark Kent that doesn’t work on other animals. All this is sold by The Rock’s voice acting and how good he is. But Kevin Hart as Ace kind of steals the show. Here we have Ace as a guide or catalyst for change for Krypto. In the Buddy cop nature of it, Ace is the wise cop. Vanessa Bayer rounds them out as PB, the pig who is Wonder Woman’s biggest fan; Diego Luna comes in as Chip, the overthinking squirrel, and a scene stealer all the time is Natasha Lyonne as Merton, the turtle. I swear they need shorts with just Merton, the turtle, cause I’d watch each one. Kate McKinnon is also amazing as Lulu, the super-powered revenge-minded guinea pig. It’s this character that really has that WB cartoon-style humor. They had a nice mix of something new and a little bit of Brain from Animaniacs’ Pinky and the Brain that still felt new and not too similar.
So the film also looks great. The textures and lighting do well to add depth and weight to things in the world. Everything feels lived in and tangible. The character designs have the right amount of cartoonish exaggeration along with realism to feel like a heightened cartoon superhero world. Each has a distinct silhouette that’s easy to recognize and also feels consistent with the Warner Bros. cartooning style. I think the movie will do well with audiences and hopefully does well enough to become a franchise because I’d enjoy seeing a few more movies with these versions of the characters.
In the End: DC League of Super-Pets is a great animated feature that works well as a superhero movie and a great cartoon animal movie. It’s for kids and adults with no one getting bored.
