“DC League of Super-Pets” certainly qualifies as a feel-good animated movie with humor, emotion, and fun. And what makes it even better is pets. We will have to hand it to DC for pulling it off, and it is a reminder of DC’s ability to execute one-offs better than a franchise. “DC League of Super-Pets” is a great independent undertaking, which with its brilliant choice of voice actors and their great voice acting, makes it downright entertaining for all age groups.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In The Animated Film ‘DC League of Super-Pets’?
Krypto (Dwayne Johnson), a Labrador, arrived on Earth with Superman (John Krasinski) when he was a baby. At present, they fight crime in the Metropolis together. Krypto is quite possessive of his bond with Clark. This possessiveness is affected when Clark falls in love with Louise Lane (Olivia Wilde). When Clark understands this, he decides to bring home a friend for Krypto from an animal shelter to help him overcome his apparent envy. Krypto, however, thinks that a superpowered dog like him doesn’t need a friend.
But when Superman and the other members of the Justice League are captured by an orange-kryptonite-powered guinea pig named Lulu (Kate McKinnon), Lex Luthor’s beloved lab rat, who has also rendered Krypto powerless by using a dosage of green Kryptonite, Krypto must team up with fellow pets from the shelter to rescue his owner and his superhero friends. These friends of Krypto, namely bulldog Ace (Kevin Hart), squirrel Chip (Diego Luna), pig PB (Vanessa Bayer), and turtle Merton (Natasha Lyonne), have all gained superpowers from the orange Kryptonite as well. What follows is how the pets save the superheroes by defeating Lulu, and the truth that Krypto learns in the process about unconditional love.
The Characters
The exchanges between Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart are already legendary. And in this film, too, that camaraderie is absolutely palpable. When Krypto and Ace are talking to each other, especially in their first few conversations, we can almost see Dwayne and Kevin talking to each other. And the comedy see-saw is authentically fun. Krypto’s false sense of reality is matched by Ace’s pro-doggie fervor. Next up, we have Lulu, done yet again brilliantly by Kate McKinnon. Lulu’s sarcasm is enough to kill anyone and makes her superpowered villainous self a lot more appealing. Lulu is a small creature who wants to be big, which is basically the case with us all. And for Lulu to become a baddie has certainly been borrowed from reality, wherein people often take the wrong path to be successful or “big.”
As for the Justice League characters, Keanu Reeves nails it completely as Batman. His baritone and manner of speaking are perfect and go with the mood of the character of the Dark Knight. His monologue that he shares with Hart’s Ace is a treat to the eyes as well as the ears. As Batman gets all emotional talking about how his family was taken from him, Ace, too, speaks of how he was taken from his family. The scene is basically one of the best things the film has to offer, wonderfully matching the arcs of the two characters, one a dog, and the other a human.
A Misunderstanding
It is surreal how the film uses the motif of misunderstanding and joins it with that of unconditional love associated solely with pets (and animals in general). Young Ace saved his owner’s kid from falling down the stairs by pulling her away. But in trying to do that, he unknowingly hurt her arm. Scared that he might hurt her again, his owners decide to leave him at the shelter. Krypto also started to think that Louis’s coming into Clark’s life would bring an end to their friendship. Clark will spend more time with her, and he will be left all alone. In the scene where Ace and Krypto talk about it in front of the Hall of Justice, Ace tells Krypto how he would do what he did again because that’s what unconditional love means. Krypto speaks from his heart and tells him that when you love someday then that means you are willing to do anything for them and that also includes letting them go for their sake. It establishes the emotional arc that the film is based on. Unfortunately for Lulu, who perhaps loved Lex Luthor unconditionally, things went south because Lex never had feelings for her. This ultimately made it worse for her and she decided to take it out on the world. This is what we, as humans, usually do too. When we don’t get the love we believe we deserve in return from the person we love, we take our anger out on other people. She didn’t have anyone to share her pain with, unlike Krypto, who had Ace and the other pets who listened to him and helped him.
‘DC League of Super-Pets’ Ending Explained: Do Krypto and his Friends Defeat Lulu?
Together, Krypto and the other pets are indeed able to defeat Lulu. But it is what Krypto is willing to do to stop Lulu that makes all the difference. He decides to sacrifice himself using his ultimate move, the Solar Paw Punch. While Lulu takes a hit, Krypto is saved from death by Ace, who jumps in front of the extreme heat generated from the punch. His indestructible power prevents him from dying too. Ultimately, Krypto declares that he is happy that Clark is marrying Louis but also realizes that nothing is going to change between him and his owner. He will always be Clark’s best friend. The other superheroes of the Justice League, too, find themselves new pets in Ace, Chip, PB, and Merton, along with two guinea pigs, Keith and Mark, thereby bringing the film to a sweet completion.
In the mid-credits scene, we see Lulu too finds her owner, and it is Lex Luthor’s assistant, Mercy Graves. And we can clearly see how happy Lulu is. However, the post-credits scene shows Krypto and Superman meeting Black Adam and his dog, Anubis. This seems like DC taking a dig at its own choice to cast Dwayne Johnson as the live-action Black Adam. I’m pretty sure he did the voice for Anubis too. So Dwayne is Superman’s dog, Black Adam’s dog and Black Adam (live-action) too. Truly electrifying, right? We hope that the sequel has Black Adam in it.
“DC League of Super-Pets” is a 2022 Animated Adventure film available on Video on Demand with subtitles.
