THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
The DC Universe has had a diverse list of superheroes for generations and in League of Superpets, we’re reminded that they come in all shapes and sizes.
PLOT
The film follows the Kryptonian canine Krypto, pet of Kal El/Clark Kent/Superman who share the similar abilities of flight, strength, speed, cool breath & heat vision. They protect Metropolis alongside members of the Justice League (the vigilante Bruce Wayne/Batman, Amazonian Princess Diana/Wonder Woman [Jameela Jamil], Atlantean King Arthur Curry/Aquaman [Jemaine Clement], Speedster Barry Allen/The Flash [John Early], Green Lantern Jessica Cruz [Dascha Polanco] and the half cybernetic Victor Stone/Cyborg [Daveed Diggs]. With Krypto jealous of his intimate relationship with Daily Planet co worker Lois Lane (Olivia Wilde), Kal tries to distract him by purchasing another pet to help him befriend other animals. That gets prevented when they and the League stop their rival Lex Luthor of LexCorp from reeling in a meteor strapped with orange Kryptonite. However, a Guinea Pig named Lulu, once a test subject of Luthor’s but was sent to an animal shelter by Krypto, reels in a piece of the rock with her own handmade tractor beam. Knowing that orange Kryptonite can grant abilities to animals only, she gains flight and telekinesis. When she leaves, the rock grants abilities to other animals in the shelter. A boxer named Ace becomes invulnerable, a potbellied pig named PB can change her size, a nearsighted turtle named Merton gains super speed and a paranoid squirrel named Chip gains electrokinesis. By that same night, Lulu is also able to abduct Superman. Krypto tries to save him, but is unable to when losing his powers, as a result of eating green Kryptonite laced cheese stuffed inside his plush toy. Now powerless for the time being, he aligns with the newly powered shelter animals to help him save Superman. They try to confront Lulu who gains her own super-powered army of animals that captures the rest of the League, but quickly get overwhelmed of it all. With Krypto feeling distraught that odds are against them, Ace chooses to give motivation by sharing his life before the shelter. He was once a pet puppy of a human family with a toddler, but was taken to the shelter when they mistook him to attack their baby. In reality, he bit her arm and pulled her to safety to prevent falling down from stairs. Knowing that Ace stands by his actions, Krypto continues leading the group to their rescue mission. When they go to Stryker’s Island, they outsmart the kitten Whiskers who was able to create weapons at will. When they confront Lulu, she threatens to kill Krypto, thus leading the other animals surrendering and putting themselves in prison cells. Lulu would free Luthor, but he would dismiss her and trap her in his own cell. She would break out easily, only determined to kill him and the League. With the green Kryptonite finally passing through his system, Krypto regains his powers and frees himself and his team to continue their mission. As Krypto overpowers Lulu’s army, she imprisons Luthor with the League and sends them off into space. Once away from Earth’s atmosphere, their rocket will implode. As Krypto saves Lois from a helicopter crash, his super friends save the others. Enraged of her plans backfiring, Lulu injects the orange Kryptonite into her brain and enlarges to the size of a Kaiju. Without a second thought, Krypto ends the conflict by committing the ‘Solar Paw Punch’ in which he throws a punch after absorbing the power of the Sun. He survives the punch he throws, but it causes an explosion that removes the Kryptonite from Lulu’s brain. Now powerless, she is trapped in a hot dog stand by her defective minion Guineas, Mark (Ben Schwartz) and Keith (Thomas Middleditch) who respectively gained the powers of pyrokinesis and cryokinesis. In the aftermath, Krypto accepts Lois as Kal chooses to marry her. As for the animals, each get adopted by a member of the League whereas Luthor remains imprisoned. Ace would be adopted by Batman, PB gets adopted by Wonder Woman, Merton gets adopted by Flash, Chip gets adopted by Green Lantern, Keith gets adopted by Aquaman and Mark gets adopted by Cyborg. Some time after this, all super powered animals form their own official team. The film ends with a mid credit scene showing Lulu get freed and adopted by Luthor’s assistant Mercy Graves (Maya Erskine), while a post credit scene shows Krypto encounter Anubis, pet dog of the god like anti hero Black Adam.
THOUGHTS
Although a popular brand regularly have made products meant for kids, you can’t help but make high expectations for everyone to enjoy it. So I felt relieved that I got to enjoy this with my younger siblings. Co writer John Whittington and Directors Jared Stern & Sam J Levine were able to make things exciting by making something that was put with the right amount of excitement younger audiences would gain at first glance. The visuals are generally fine as each character is given distinctive designs to get deserving attention. To top that off, that helped make the various fight scenes pretty cool to see. And it’s generally funny for these animals trying to act as human as they feel with their powers. Since animated movies are known to have big hearts inside, this one gains it by expressing the value of teamwork and natural born leadership and I'm glad we got to explore this through a bizarre ensemble. If you're a Superman fan, then you have to be aware of Krypto the Superdog, which made me glad that he was the lead protagonist in this story. Dwayne Johnson accurately portrays this super canine as one who lives as cheerful as he can. He remains happy due to the unconditional love towards Superman and because of that, he became willing to interfere in his relationship with Lois, knowing that his happiness mattered too. Although he feels more self aware than the animals lead to victory, he accepts that even the strongest beings need help, someone to confide in and trust. And thanks to the new friends he made, he was able to expand his mindset in ways he'd never imagine. I also thought it was funny for The Rock to also voice Anubis and Black Adam in the post credit scene, because that was just a wild decision to promote the live action movie of the titular character. Speaking of which, those new friends were the absolute delight. As a Batman fan, it was long overdue for Ace the Bat Hound to have a theatric appearance and he fit right into this mold so well. Kevin Hart gave a great job expressing him as a cynical and skeptical animal who has the right to feel such due to personal experience. Having said that, he always knew when to express sympathy which ultimately shows exactly how strong of a bond a pet can have with an owner. All of that shows why he was the perfect companion for the dark knight. Vaness Bayer was a delight for making PB the most sweet and overjoyed of the group. Her new powers briefly give her doubts on her overcoming the odds, but it gets quickly outweighed by her confidence, thus becoming a perfect match for Wonder Woman. I even dug Diego Luna as Chip for portraying the squirrel as timid and fretful because I can relate to the feeling. It ain't easy adapting to new things, but one step at a time makes it helpful, which is how it worked out when learning his powers. In all honesty, I thought Natasha Lyonne made the cluelessness of Merton too damn adorable for me. Her poor eyesight makes her pretty lost in the crowd, but once she gets some glasses, she fits right in. I swear I will pay anything to hear Merton freak out uncensored because it's too funny to ignore. With animals so heroic, there had to be at least one that would back up villainy and we got just that out of Lulu. Kate McKinnon does a fine job portraying this guinea pig as one who was taken from somewhere she was comfortable at and was riled up with revenge to become a conqueror like her original owner. What she enjoyed the most was taken from her and that made her want others to feel the pain she felt. Seeing how close she was to defeating the Superpets proved that even little things can be powerful enough to take down something bigger. I don't know if she'll try more mischief now being adopted by Mercy, but I'm sure she'll be extremely supportive as she was with Luthor. While this movie is about Superpets, they wouldn’t be so heroic without the heroes they look up to. John Krasinski is honestly an ideal Superman I would cast for live action, so I’m glad that he got the chance to shine through the voice alone. We love the man of steel here for being able to live each day to the fullest, despite having a much different lifestyle. It may be Krypto’s duty to protect him at all costs, but even the one needs to be protected knows that he can’t be looked after forever. It’s good to have a best friend, but even they need a break from each other to give a chance to grow. With that being said, I’m glad that Krypto got to understand that when push came to shove. Another voice acting casting that paid off big time has to be Marc Maron. He definitely nailed it in playing the manipulative schemer the villain is known for, I wouldn’t mind at all if he was offered to do it again in live action. Considering that the role of Batman would have to be approached in a parody manner, you know it’d be challenging to make the performance generally entertaining. While Will Arnett is favorable in the Lego Movie franchise, Keanu Reeves was unexpectedly great as the Caped Crusader. It was funny how he approaches the role to be so grim, yet the irony is that no one takes serious of his perspective. He’s too serious yet no one takes him so. The line "I miss my parents" should be so cold yet Reeves delivers it in hysterical fashion. I don’t know if a whole movie based on this Batman would work, but I wouldn’t mind if they tried. This was a cute movie to sit down to, but being cute doesn’t excuse the issues I had with the story in general. Like for instance, it’s a funny gag to see Krypto help Superman fight crime but did the latter have to dump the stolen money when he could’ve taken the robbers out of the car? It’s like he was bragging about his strength when he destroyed the getaway car. And how come only once Krypto hears Superman tell Lois he loves her? Being in denial is one thing, but overhearing is another and this dog has superhearing just like his owner. I don’t blame Ace for still choosing to trust Merton because he doesn’t want to be rude. But since that turtle was unreliable the whole time, he should’ve tried to ask another animal in secret. Going into it deeper here, the first encounter between Ace and Krypto is all over the place because Superman should’ve tied his dog anywhere other than a pole since we know he can fly off it, which he does. And the pet store owner should’ve noticed Ace go out the window because it happens just when she notices he escaped. It’s dumber than the fact that it takes that moment for Ace to have a lock in his cage, considering that he escapes all the time. Luthor was smart to use a tractor beam on Superman & Krypto, which gives an excuse to introduce the Justice League, but why didn’t he do that immediately when they pulled up? Had he done that, he could’ve used the meteor sooner. And as if Superman couldn’t make any more bad decisions, he chooses to throw the meteor back into space rather than destroy it. He’s just giving himself to save the world again. I’m already picking on the characters a lot as is, but why exactly does Krypto take Lulu to a shelter rather than let her decide what to do like the others? It’s like he was asking for a supervillain to be born. I don’t even blame Lulu for reaching out to other animals to build her own army, but why just rodents? If she really wanted to be at the top, she should’ve looked for bigger threats like a rhino. Hell if she had min control, she could’ve controlled Beast Boy and call it a day. It’s pretty crazy seeing the Justice League get overpowered by Lulu’s army, but I can’t be the only one who thought Flash should’ve got injured off of momentum when his legs get trapped. That was weirder than PB getting excited about the Solar Paw Punch when she knows damn well the one delivering it can die trying. Other than that, this is still fun to sit down to. To wrap up, League of Superpets is a standout film from DC that gives a vibrant feeling kids will love a whole lot. If you’re an animal lover that digs superheroes, this film is meant for you.
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