DC League of Super-Pets Review

*C’mon people…

IMDB Synopsis

Krypto the Super-Dog and Superman are inseparable best friends, sharing the same superpowers and fighting crime side by side in Metropolis. However, when the Man of Steel and the rest of the Justice League are kidnapped, Krypto must convince a ragtag group of animals to master their own newfound powers for a rescue mission.

“I should be a lot more dead right now, right?”

With all the news this week coming out about DC and Warner Bros. What got lost in the shuffle was that the number 1 movie in the world was DC League of Super-Pets. An animated movie about the pets of all your favorite Superheroes. Usually, when I read a sentence like that I would say that people have run out of ideas when they come out with movies like that, however I enjoyed this movie and am starting to think the best Super Hero movies are stories about newer characters that people haven’t heard of. That way the when the filmmakers take them in whatever direction (Guardians, Ant Man, Shang-Chi, etc..), it does not feel as weird as maybe making Superman a quiet and almost emo hero, or Batman a killing machine. Super-Pets simply just wanted to be a fun movie that involved super powered pets, and that is exactly what we got on the screen. It was very unique for the usually very serious DC Animated movies, which was very fun to see.

So let’s talk about it and get to the ratings.

Animation – B-

Colorful, and exciting animation during the fight scenes. Where it lacks is just in non-action scenes it feels like it is more basic animation that was not given the full effort of maybe the bigger set pieces. All the characters look great though and do not feel like they would be Pixar, DreamWorks or Illumination characters. I also felt it was a unique style for DC Animation overall which tends to utilize more hand drawn animation, so it was interesting to see them go the full CGI route here.

Voice Cast – B+

With The Rock and Kevin Hart you know what you are getting, banter and arguing that leads to friendship. However, I was very impressed with some of the other actors, particularly Kate McKinnon as Lulu the evil guinea pig. She was so funny and evil at the same time it worked really well. I also thought Keanu Reeves as Batman was perfect and of course the duo of Middleditch and Schwartz as the fire and ice guinea pigs giving us laughs every time they were on screen. Honestly, the cast is loaded and everyone has a great moment.

Music – D+

I thought the score was fine, but I thought it would have been a lot better had we maybe gotten some personal themes for some of the pets. Giving us no music in an animated movie and then just a basic Superhero movie score did not give me the energy I wanted.

Story – C+

Listen, you are obviously going to know everything that is going to happen in this story. It is very basic in the fact that it is another Kryptonite scheme just in a different way. Superman is kidnapped and of course his dog Krypto has to round of the super powered pets in order to save him. But, the way they play with the genre and try and give you some new wrinkles is very fun. Having Lex’s lab rat become the villain, was great and making fun of montages was also very smart. But, the movie thrives when all the pets are together just feeding off each other and telling jokes. I would watch another one of these movies just to see the characters again and watch them interact.

*A couple other tidbits

Making the Turtle the one with super speed feels cheap but actually works very well.
Keith David continues his hot streak here in a very funny bit as Dog-El.
It is good to continue to see movies like this normalizing LGBTQ+ characters and not making it a big deal. It is normal and should be treated as such.

This is a solid entry for the DC animated universe because they really have never made straight comedies like this before. I walked out thinking I would watch these characters again, and I still feel that way. Keep trying different things DC, it seems to work better when you do.

Juice Rating: