DC League of Super-Pets Review

The works of DC Comics have been eclectic. There have been light-hearted Silver Age stories to much darker tales. One of their lighter properties, The Legion of Super-Pets has now been adapted into an animated film.

Krypto (Dwayne Johnson) is the loyal companion to Superman (John Krasinski). They are best friends and partners in superheroics. However, a piece of orange kryptonite lands in Metropolis and bestows some shelter animals with superpowers. When the Justice League gets defeated by Lulu (Kate McKinnon), a psychic-powered guinea pig, Krypto must go to the pack of superpowered animals and work with them to defeat the villain.

In recent years films based on DC properties have varied in style, tone, and quality. The DCEU started out with a grounded take on Superman, before evolving into Zack Snyder’s weird edge lord film with Batman v Superman before attempting to lighten things up with films like Aquaman, Shazam! and Wonder Woman 1984. Warner Brothers have many different continuities because there’s the DCEU, the standalone Joker film is getting a sequel, and The Flash movie is bringing back Michael Keaton to play Batman. The Batman pendulum has swung wildly because in Batman v Superman Batman was a psychopathic killer, The LEGO Batman Movie was a fun family film, and The Batman was a dark detective story.

DC League of Super-Pets starts a new cinematic universe for Warner Brothers, this time a family-friendly animated adventure. DC’s League of Super-Pet should be a success because it’s a superhero film about animals that stars Dwayne Johnson. As a family film, DC’s League of Super-Pets was perfectly fine. There was slapstick, action, witty interactions, toilet humour, pop songs, and some pop culture references. It was standard kids’ fare and a fun premise for a Saturday Morning Cartoon.

The screenplay was a cookie-cutter affair. The main characters were given a predictable arc, like Krypto learning to give Superman space and needing to learn to work with other animals. Ace (Kevin Hart) states all his companions’ character arcs will be in the film. There were plot twists that could be seen from far away. One character had a backstory that felt like it was trying to replicate Jesse’s emotional flashbacks in Toy Story 2.

Jared Stern was hired to direct and co-write DC League of Super-Pets. He did work on The LEGO Batman Movie and some of that film’s DNA was present in DC League of Super-Pets. Both films had lead characters who needed to learn to play with others and had a knowing sense of humour. There were some jokes comic book fans will enjoy like when Lois Lane called the Justice League hotline.

McKinnon as Lulu was a fun presence in the film. She was a test subject at LexCorp and learned from Lex Luther how to be a scientist. She was like The Brian from Pinky and the Brian because both were test animals with super-intelligence and dreams of world domination. Lulu didn’t have a comic foil to scupper her plans and it was amusing to see DC’s greatest heroes getting defeated by a small rodent.

Whilst DC League of Super-Pets was made for kids, a joke that didn’t sit well with me was the implied swearing. The swearing was bleeped out, but it was clear what the words were meant to be. It’s an irritating trend in shows like The Goldbergs and Brooklyn Nine-Nine and I don’t want to see it being used in family films as a way to sneak in swearing.

DC League of Super-Pets was a paint-by-numbers family film. Children might enjoy it but there’s little to sustain adult audiences.