DC League of Super-Pets (2022 | USA | 105 minutes | Jared Stern)
As baby Superman is quickly pushed into a spaceship by his parents to save him from their crumbling world, we find out that he wasn’t alone on his trip to Earth. His best bud, a pup named Krypto, stows away and offers company in the strange new land. Jump forward a few years and we see Superman as we know him. As per usual, he has the major hots for Lois Lane and as he readies himself to pop the question, Krypto freaks out thinking he’s being replaced.
Just as Superman was headed out for the big night, the creepy science experiment and pet guinea pig, Lulu (Kate McKinnon), of famed rival Lex Luthor captures Superman. She also rounds up all the super friends and plans to destroy them to impress her beloved owner. Just to add icing to her cake she doses Krypto with some kryptonite, so his only hope of saving his best friend is a raggedy band of shelter pets still working to tame their own newly endowed powers.
A decent storyline and a fair amount of charm pushes this story forward but it felt pretty flimsy most of the way through. Despite that, it included quite a few moments of sincerity and sweetness that made most of the characters endearing. Once again Dwayne Johnson (Krypto) and Kevin Hart (Ace, the shelter dog) team up on a family-friendly film where Hart plays the angry and untrusting anti-hero and Johnson the goony sweetheart that eventually wins him over. While I enjoyed it in the newer Jumanji films (admittedly Hart’s character annoyed the crap out of me… they wrote him kind of terrible) I’ve been there, done that so let’s move on. I have to give Hart credit though, he got a bit more serious and heartfelt this time and I appreciated the attempt.
To add a little fun for the adults in the room, there were a couple subtle jokes about billionaires with rockets and rich men finally, shockingly, landing in jail. I had a couple snort-worthy moments and I didn’t even have a kiddo with me this time.
DC League of Super-Pets is in theaters now.