Directed By Jared Stern and Sam Levine

Starring – Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Kate McKinnon

The Plot – When the Justice League are captured by Lex Luthor (Marc Maron), Superman’s dog, Krypto (Johnson), forms a team of shelter-pets who were given super-powers: A hound named Ace (Hart), who becomes super-strong, a pig named PB (Vanessa Bayer), who can grow to giant-size, a turtle named Merton (Natasha Lyonne), who becomes super-fast, and a squirrel named Chip (Diego Luna), who gains electric-powers.

Rated PG for action, mild violence, adult language and rude humor

DC LEAGUE OF SUPER-PETS – Official Trailer – YouTube

POSITIVES

When this film is at its best, it’s a satirical deconstruction of the overstuffed comic book movie subgenre, with all of the reality-breaking insights leading to more than a few clever chuckles in the consistency of its overtly comedic material. This falls solely on Stern’s shoulders, who crafted 2017’s “The Lego Batman Movie”, and here continues to channel his inspirational impulses with a tonal exploration that feels so uniquely diverse from the stuffy surroundings that the D.E.C.U etched out with a series of films devoid of the energy and excitement that should otherwise permeate effortlessly from a comic book. This affords the film that rare but respected transcendence in animated kids films, in that it not only caters equally to both sides of the audience age bracket, allowing them to each pull something different from the engagement, but also occasionally pushes the boundaries of its surprising PG-rated designation, which it tempts with several vulgarity bleeps and inside jokes that definitely provide a wink and a nod to the patient elder who has been through enough of these films to swear them off all together. Not everything lands perfectly as intended with the effectiveness in magnitude, but Stern’s creativity does conjure more than a few unpredictable instances, extending his grasp well beyond the revealing trailers that feel like they could-but-thankfully-don’t spoil all of the best jokes. Aside from this, the voice work from the supporting cast wholeheartedly steals the show, with Lyonne’s turtle, Mckinnon’s hamster, and Keanu Reeves surprising turn as The Dark Knight making the most of the opportunity to shed the many layers to their otherwise familiar tones. In particular, Lyonne adds a rich sense of color to the proceedings that repeatedly make the most of her minimal screen time, made all the more alluring with the way her tones line up seamlessly to the designs of the character’s many sagging facial reactions. Finally, while the direction lacks consistency in the compelling nature of the narrative, the action sequences were easily the highlight of the film’s storytelling, with the kind of whisking, wonderous velocities giving way to some excitingly intense conflicts with all of the stakes included. During these sequences, even despite the aspects of superpowers granted, there’s a detectable vulnerability that easily transfixes over the proceedings, made all the more riveting with the tangibility’s of the many city backdrops influencing the complexity of the drama that captivates breathlessly when coincided with Steve Jablonsky’s thunderously titanic score narrating the devastation.

NEGATIVES

“DC League of Super-Pets” is often at conflict with itself, in that nearly every beneficial aspect that it crafts for itself is squandered away with a contradicting reaction that proves not all ideas inside of this world were fully fleshed out for audience participation. This is most apparent with the structure of the storytelling, which not only echoes too much familiarity of other canine best friend films to ever feel original, but also is paced in a way that makes 95 minutes feel arduous with little to no engaging quality to the shallow characterization. Part of the problem is certainly that there are too many characters to begin with, leaving little time of development for each of them to properly divide in such a miniscule amount of screen time, but for my money the bigger conflict resonates in the many afterthoughts of attention paid to their backstories, which come across as artificial by the desperation of their inclusion. One such instance comes in the tragic backstory of Hart’s former family, reaching so forcefully for that somber moment for the audience, but failing to do so with the abrupt nature of its manufacturing. The film wants so badly to be periodically poignant but can’t attain this with an otherwise childish personality dominating the forefront of its tonal consistency, giving the intention an often-disjointed aspect that feels like a series of ideas instead of one cohesive project. The animation also fell flat for me, in that it adds little dimension or appealing beauty to its many coldly calculated designs. The animation isn’t terribly rendered by any stretch of the imagination, just bland compared to other Warner Bros. animated properties, and in an age where so many of D.E.C.U’s animated superhero films are among the most artistically transfixing releases of the year, the underwhelming and unappealing qualities here are disappointing to say the least, capping off a rudimentary ambition that doesn’t even conjure a substantial style to the momentary distraction of the film’s many other abundance of problems. This flatness is equally echoed by the quality of the performances from Johnson and Hart, who once again undercut the momentum of a film’s potential and charisma of their candor with phoned-in emotions of the most undersold variety. Both of them equally conjure a mundanity in their approaches that never even remotely challenge them to lose themselves in the exploration of their respective roles, with Johnson’s monotony and Hart’s reservations wiping away who are arguably the two most charismatic personalities working in cinema today.

OVERALL

“DC League of Super-Pets” gets off to a consequentially ruff start with a duo of disappointing lead performances and predictably bland story that almost completely takes the wind out of its characters capes. Though the gags reach more than a few effective targets with various fourth wall breaks and satirical superhero spins, the flat animation doesn’t even grant a momentary distraction to what is otherwise a simultaneously mediocre superhero and kids’ film respectively.

My Grade: 5/10 or D