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DC LEAGUE OF SUPER-PETS
Director: Jared Stern Cast: The voices of Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Vanessa Bayer, Natasha Lyonne, Diego Luna, Kate McKinnon, John Krasinski, Marc Maron, Olivia Wilde, Keanu Reeves, Dascha Polanco, Ben Schwartz, Jemaine Clement, Daveed Diggs, John Early, Jameela Jamil, Keith David, David Pressman MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:41 Release Date: 7/29/22 |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | July 28, 2022 As the comics unfolded, it is a bit amusing how much of Superman's obliterated home-planet of Krypton turned out to have survived. DC League of Super-Pets revolves around one of the stranger but at least pleasantly re-assuring of those unlikely survivors: the Man of Steel's canine companion Krypto the Superdog. Well, the movie is about Superman's loyal and super-powered pooch, until it isn't so much, and by the end, director Jared Stern and John Whittington's screenplay feels as if it exists as a joke machine. The movie winks so much at its premise, characters, and plot that it loses all sense of any of them as anything other than a series of punch lines. Some of this is admittedly funny, if only on a conceptual level. Take the main villain, for example, who's an animal, obviously, since the entire story revolves around Krypto (voice of Dwayne Johnson) and then the dog's motley crew of other super-powered pets. The baddie here is a rodent named Lulu (voice of Kate McKinnon), a literal guinea pig in the scientific experiments of a human supervillain. The diminutive, hairless thing has concocted a plan to get Superman (voice of John Krasinski), as well as the rest of the Justice League, out of the picture in order to enact some kind of world domination. The sight of the pathetic creature with such megalomaniacal intentions is inherently amusing, and there's a good bit in which the guinea pig confronts Superman, referring to him with some proper bluster as "Kal-El, son of Jor-El," before using the same dreadfully serious tone to announce herself as "Lulu, daughter of Cinnamon." That's a good gag, and it's almost as funny that Superman can only hear the tiny rodent squeaking through all of the big speech. The temptation to continue talking about Lulu, as well as her army of diversely super-powered guinea pigs (which she recruits from a classroom), is strong, and that's probably not a good sign. First, the villain isn't particularly special, since Lulu is just a one-joke figure of considerably diabolical plans in a little package. Second, what does that say about the main characters here, both animal and human, who should outshine such a simple character and joke in at least some way? Since almost everything here is a gag in the making, there's little time expended or effort made to give these characters more than the broad strokes of a personality. None of those broad strokes shows even the basic comedic inspiration of the villain, either. Stern and Whittington do display some sincere and endearingly amusing ideas at the start. In this telling of Superman's origin, a puppy Krypto joins the toddler Kal-El in his escape pod, launching from Krypton before it's destroyed in a fiery explosion. Decades later, the dog and the superhero have a fairly ordinary bond between man and man's best friend—except that their "walks" consist of flying above and through Metropolis, stopping an armored truck robbery, and playing tug-of-war with a giant robot (The computer animation possesses a soft texture that gives it a cartoony, hand-drawn feel, which highlights the narrative ease of those introductory scenes). The only conflict is that Superman is getting serious in his relationship with Lois Lane (voice of Olivia Wilde), and Krypto worries that his best friend has a new one. The sweet simplicity of this can't stand, apparently, and soon enough, we meet Lulu, who was rescued by Superman and Krypto from the lab of archnemesis Lex Luthor (voice of Marc Maron), as well as a quartet of soon-to-be super-powered animals at a rescue. The plot is just convoluted enough to simplify it: Lulu gains powers from a piece of orange kryptonite, abducts Superman, and tricks Krypto into eating green kryptonite, which turns him into a normal, un-superheroic dog. He teams up with those four animals from the rescue, who have gained abilities from the extraterrestrial rock, to save Superman and the rest of the captured Justice League. By the way, those other four animals are dog Ace (voice of Kevin Hart), pig PB (voice of Vanessa Bayer), tortoise Merton (voice of Natasha Lyonne), and squirrel Chip (voice of Diego Luna). Ace becomes physically invulnerable, although he's still emotionally wounded from being abandoned by a family. PB can shrink or grow and is a huge fan of Wonder Woman (voice of Jameela Jamil), and Merton gains super-speed (It's funny because she's a tortoise, eh) but can't see where she's going. Chip gains electrical powers and has a bad case of anxiety, and in the rush to keep both the comedy and action going, any sense of individual personality to all of these characters is swallowed up by constant impulse to keep cracking jokes. Some of those jokes hit—a few self-referential ones, such Krypto having a holographic image of his father (voiced by Keith David) and the semi-brooding Ace having a lot in common with the very broody Batman (voice of Keanu Reeves). Too many of them miss or just become repetitive. DC League of Super-Pets stretches its limited setup and ambitions so thin that it ultimately feels flat. Copyright © 2022 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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(for action, mild violence, language and rude humor)
