Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Kevin Hart, Kate McKinnon, John Krasinski, Vanessa Bayer, Natasha Lyonne, Diego Luna, Thomas Middleditch, Keanu Reeves and Olivia Wilde
Exploring a new breed of superheros - literally - featuring a roster of cute and comical pets that find saving the world is a lot harder than expected when they are Earth's only hope...
Krypto (Johnson) is the super-pet of Superman (Krasinski), saving Metropolis together as a winning team. But all that comes crashing down when Superman and Lois Lane (Wilde) become closer, and Krypto feels he doesn't have a place at home anymore.
To make matters worth, megalomaniac Lex Luthor (Marc Maron) brings a new form of kryptonite to Earth that gives animals superpowers, and his evil hamster Lulu (McKinnon) absorbs the power and sets her sights on taking over the world with Lex.
When the Justice League are captured by Lulu, Krypto has new heroes in the shape of dog Ace (Hart), pig PB (Bayer), chipmunk Chip (Luna) and terrapin McSnurtle (Lyonne) who must understand their new abilities and help Krypto stop Lulu and save the world...
While DC has front-loaded Batman in recent years for their marketing and output, this time we are led by Superman. Regardless of the evolving themes and films of Supes, his classic 1978 score by John Williams still finds its way into this adventure, truly making it the leading trait for the Man Of Steel in signalling something rather...super. Hearing the music actually adds something rather majestic to a basic kids film.
A new generation of young audiences are treated to glimpses of how Superman came to Earth, but this time with his faithful pet pup Krypto, voiced by Dwayne Johnson. While Krypto isn't new to the lore, having been around since 1955 and appearing in a number of comics, TV shows and games, he is given the slick DC CGI treatment for a feature film.
But he's not alone, oh no. We have a number of similarly comical CG pets such as Kevin Hart's Ace the future Bat-hound, Diego Luna's Chip the chipmunk and Vanessa Bayer as PB the wonder pig.
None of these new super-pets resonate through previous DC history, and it's basically a collection of crazy cartoon animals in the same vein as Sing. And it's time for them to be the superheroes who save the world this time, not the human Justice League. They are up against bald hamster Kate McKinnon and her mutated super army of fellow furballs who learnt villainous ways from one Lex Luthor and intergalactic orange kryptonite.
So it's a journey not just about saving the world from evil, but also rescuing the Justice League themselves and discovering their newly discovered superpowers. Cue the gags about burping, weeing, scratching your backside and everything else animated animals can do for laughs as they have the adventure of a lifetime. It's silly stuff, but certainly kicks the boxes for everything that young audiences would find amusing and recognisable in the DC superhero brand. This helps make certain characters, themes and action sequences recognisable but in a much more approachable way for younger audiences. That's not to say there's nothing for grown-ups; it's spot the nods to wider DC projects, and the bleeped out monotonous panic by Natasha Lyonne's terrapin Merton McSnurtle.
There is no real crackling chemistry between animated co-stars, even with regulars Johnson and Hart together (but not in person). We have support for our captured human heroes from the likes of John Krazinski as Superman, Keanu Reeves as Batman and MCU star Jameela Jamil as Wonder Woman. They all pop-up now and then, just to remind us all of the DC world we are in.
This is elevated by the brand, and in that sense it works with all the nods, winks and references to the wider DC universe out there with music, character themes and a new super-pet for the post-credit sequence. With emotional moments that bring the silly humour down to earth for a few sequences (accompanied by the familiar slow moving ballad), all helping weave in life lessons and how to be a better person (or dog) in the process.
Be true to yourself, have faith in your worth and discover the meaning of love and friendship. Tick box morality for a children's animation, all wrapped up in an average DC superhero adventure for the kids with lots of comical characters and slapstick.
'DC League Of Super-Pets' is a co-production between Warner Animation Group, DC Entertainment and Seven Bucks Productions
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