DC League Of Super-Pets

This review may contain spoilers!

 

DC League Of Super-Pets is an animated adventure in which a depowered Krypto the Super-Dog must enlist the help of some newly superpowered shelter pets to stop a maniacal Lex Luthor-obsessed guinea pig from destroying the Justice League. This film has a tremendous approach to what is constantly a very comedic film. There is a real approach here of trying to find something for everyone; be that visual gags, puns, one-liners or even more adult humour like censored curse words and superhero movie references. I appreciated that the film knows its strength is going to be how well does a punchline land, prioritising a voice cast predominantly known for their comedy roles and often placing the humour of a scene as the main priority. The animation isn't super detailed by any means but the character designs are very charming; you can also see the effort that goes into making those long fight sequences look visually impressive. The score by Steve Jablonsky is a pretty entertaining light action romp with some fantastic homages to well known DC film scores.

 

Kevin Hart, who voiced Ace, is surprisingly great as the more stoic and serious canine of the film; Hart's drier comedic delivery is different and works well for him. Kate McKinnon, who voiced Lulu, absolutely knocks it out of the park; McKinnon really goes overboard playing this villainous guinea pig which is the exact energy her role demands. John Krasinski, who voiced Superman, works his way into the role quite nicely; Krasinski has a gentle charisma which suits the tone of Superman. Vanessa Bayer, who voiced PB, is really charming as the most enthusiastic of the Super Pets; Bayer switches between PB's excitable and nervous nature very smoothly. Keanu Reeves, who voiced Batman, really suits a more comedic yet serious take on Batman; please move aside Arnett because Reeves is all I want in my animated Batman films for awhile. Olivia Wilde, who voiced Lois Lane, gives the intensity of a hard hitting journalist while also playing the flirty girlfriend of Superman perfectly; Wilde really embraces the fearless energy that has always made Lois Lane such a famous character in a world of superheroes. Jameela Jamil, John Early and Daveed Diggs, who voiced Wonder Woman, The Flash and Cyborg respectively, all really embody their superhero personas quite strongly; I especially liked Early's more comedic delivery as The Flash. Keith David, who voiced Dog-El, is just a genius bit of writing and voice delivery; David really brings some gravitas to some of the more ridiculous lines of the film. Winona Bradshaw, who voiced Whiskers, is the terrifying antagonist I never expected from the film; this very cute sounding feline delivering some of the most spine-tingling lines was a great choice.

 

However, the best performance came from Natasha Lyonne, who voiced Merton. This small and slow turtle leaves in a relatively perpetual state of confusion, making them a really eccentric role to watch. I love Lyonne's distinctive voice and how she manages to use it to mold a role that doesn't fall into a stereotype like some other characters in the film do. Seeing Merton get powers and really bumble through understanding what was going on is fun. More than that there are multiple scenes in which Lyonne really gets to work her comedy chops, having Merton flirt with various objects and animals or other scenes in which Merton gets overwhelmed and descends into censored swearing. Seeing this turtle become the comedic and unassuming powerhouse of the film was the last thing I expected going into this but it was absolutely everything I wanted.

 

DC League Of Super-Pets thrives when it is testing and trialling its comedic material, but as a whole there isn't a lot of plot for the film to stand on. Even the fact the film has an approach to comedy of throwing everything out and seeing what sticks means that some of the jokes fall notably flat. Yet there more pressing problem for the film is the story. At the heart of this film we gets a very generic Superman origin that brings Krypto into the forefront; noting the main character of this film is Krypto and how he relates to Superman will matter the most. But Krypto is never really an interesting role; he simply gets jealous when Superman has a relationship with anyone else and has no friends of his own. Krypto's entire character arc is learning to give Superman space and learning to actually make friends for himself. Half of how that all turns out you'll have probably already guessed if you've bought a ticket for the film. Because the film never does a thing to make Krypto's journey interesting or surprising we're left hoping the superheroics or the subplots will pull it all through. However, the main superhero story around the orange kryptonite is never the focus, in fact you never feel like Lulu's evil doing is something to worry about until the last ten minutes of the feature. The film constantly takes the danger out of scenes, making the consequences lighter and toning things down to hit that younger demograph. I even found the relationships Krypto earns with the other pets to be quite simple all told, there is very little work done to make those character relationships something he earns. The soundtrack for the feature is quite a wide spread of tracks that never have a cohesive theme and only a few actually enhance the comedic tone.

Dwayne Johnson, who voiced Krypto, has fallen a long way from his Moana days with this performance; Johnson has no range in his delivery whatsoever and crafts one of the blandest protagonists of his career. Diego Luna, who voiced Chip, does some very generic voice work here; seeing this rodent erupt into bouts of fear or excitement is never funny nor memorable. Marc Maron, who voiced Lex Luthor, is one of the worst takes on the character I've ever seen; Maron's performance felt more like a mob boss than some criminal genius. Thomas Middleditch and Ben Schwartz, who voiced Keith and Mark respectively, have some monotonous line delivery that I never could find the comedy in their performance; it's always nice to see these two working together but it failed to land here. Maya Erskine, who voiced Mercy Graves, is a pretty stereotypical henchwoman; her gravelly delivery meant she fell into the background pretty quickly. Jemaine Clement and Dascha Polanco, who voiced Aquaman and Green Lantern respectively, were the weaker side of the Justice League performances; Clement's didn't really have a good moment of comedy at all and Polanco's delivery was dismal.

I was laughing almost the whole way through which was almost enough to forget this film has nothing going for it in terms of plot. I would give DC League Of Super-Pets a 5.5/10.