'DC League of Super-Pets' review: all-star cast doesn't have us rolling over

Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Kevin Hart, Keanu Reeves, John Krasinski and Olivia Wilde are among those who lend their voices to this family animation

Krypto, the star of 'DC League of Super-Pets', is voiced by Dwayne Johnson. He is the pet dog of Superman. All photos: Warner Bros Pictures

'DC League of Super-Pets' includes an all-star cast, including gerbil Lulu, who is voiced by Kate McKinnon.

Superman, who is voiced by John Krasinski, tries to woo Lois Lane (Olivia Wilde) and makes Krypto feel left out in the process.

Krypto accompanied Superman from Planet Krypton when he was a baby.

Ace is voiced by Kevin Hart.

Master and hound fly around the world together.

Hart's character Ace unintentionally gains superpowers just as Krypto loses his.

When you’re the rival to Marvel, you better come up with some innovations to keep your brand alive.

A colourfully animated feature, DC League of Super-Pets, tries just that by bringing together the Justice League superheroes — Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Cyborg, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and The Flash — and turns them into a sideshow.

The real heroes are the animals. Leading the way is Krypto (voiced by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), an eager-to-please labrador retriever belonging to Superman (John Krasinski), who accompanied him from Planet Krypton when he was a baby.

Capable of flying just like his master, Krypto is no ordinary dog. But as Supes gets close to Lois Lane (Olivia Wilde), his faithful hound is feeling a bit left out. Soon he has a chance to win his owner’s heart again when Lulu, a guinea pig (Kate McKinnon) who once belonged to Superman’s nemesis Lex Luthor (Marc Maron), hatches an evil plan.

Joining in the fun are a bunch of other strays — a dog (Kevin Hart), a turtle (Natasha Lyonne) and a squirrel (Diego Luna) — that all accidentally gain superpowers, just as Krypto loses his after a collision with some Kryptonite, Superman’s own Achilles’ heel.

The stellar cast doesn’t stop there — with Keanu Reeves as a gravel-voiced Batman, Jemaine Clement as Aquaman, Jameela Jamil as Wonder Woman, Daveed Diggs as Cyborg, Dascha Polanco as Green Lantern and John Early as The Flash. But much like the live-action Justice League films, the script struggles to balance this multitude of characters, flip-flopping between the cleverly written and the mundanely plotted. The best bits largely revolve around Reeves’s Batman, riffing on his torment (“I miss my parents”, he sobs), his fears and his isolationism.

The rest of the humanoid heroes are given short shrift, with the filmmakers concentrating on this coterie of oddball animals. Unfortunately, Super-Pets suffers from arriving in the wake of other superior animations, notably The Secret Life of Pets (which had Hart as a psycho rabbit) and The Lego Batman Movie, which saw Will Arnett truly prick the pomposity of the Caped Crusader.

While director Jared Stern worked on the latter, he isn’t quite able to transport the same magic across to Super-Pets, which feels a little derivative, despite the occasional spot-on gag (Hart’s dog Ace referring to Superman as “Captain Hair Gel”).

Some jokes repeat ad nauseum, such as Chip the squirrel’s inability to control his new-found electro-lightning bolt powers or Merton the Turtle’s terrible eyesight. McKinnon’s performance as Lulu, the gerbil who just wants to see out Luthor’s venal vision, is also a little over-egged, even for a broadly comic superhero tale.

But there are some neat sight gags and occasional flashes of inspiration. Krypto, for example, gets to play with a toy Batman, called a ‘Squeezy Bruce’, while Lulu’s homemade weapon — she calls it "The Device" — is partially made up of a smooth jazz CD. Terrifying.

Talking of music, Super-Pets does come with a cracking soundtrack, with Queen’s You’re My Best Friend, Chemical Brothers’ Block Rockin’ Beats, and Canned Heat’s version of Let’s Stick Together all cranking up sequences. But Stern isn’t quite able to hang it all together, with a middle portion that gets bogged down in acres of story, too many characters and catastrophes and not enough emotional connection.

Even Johnson’s amiable voice work as Krypto isn’t enough to make you fall in love with either his character nor the film. No doubt, younger viewers will have fun with this lively mix of superheroes and Super-Pets, but parents may find themselves wishing they were watching a rerun of The Dark Knight instead.

DC League of Super-Pets is in UAE cinemas from July 28

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