Langreview Kurzkritik English Version Fakten + Credits

Recently, DC’s comic universe was able to gain a lot of sympathy with a new version of the film SUICIDE SQUAD and make up for some of the many production failures of the past years. In the film sector, however, the company is still lagging behind the giant Marvel, which is blithely expanding its own multiverse and going all Flash with three or more films a year as well as regular series releases and showing the Batman and Superman publishers how works can be realised and marketed. Warner Bros, who usually take over the production of the DC flicks, has meanwhile taken a much darker path and is showing the courage to release films outside the FSK 12 rating, which has recently made it possible to do a little rehabilitation.

DC League of Super-Pets ©2022 Warner Bros.

However, DC LEAGUE OF SUPER-PETS has now appeared almost out of nowhere. This animated film has hardly been advertised so far, even though it boasts a damn good cast and even has a director in Jared Stern, who has already proven himself successful with his script for THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE. Alongside action-comedy stars Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, names like John Krasinski, Keanu Reeves, Ben Schwartz and Kate McKinnon also join the team to dub a work that goes off the beaten track of comic book adaptations, but nevertheless first found a basis in content in 1962 as part of the Adventure Comics.

Here’s what it’s about

Krypto is a loner who never got along with other dogs. However, this may be because he is Superman’s pet and was sent to Earth with him from the planet Krypton as a puppy. The Labrador also has all the abilities that his master has and always gives him a hand in saving Metropolis. However, the great superhero life takes a sudden turn when Superman proposes to Lois Lane and Krypto suddenly sees himself as a third wheel. To make matters worse, Lex Luthor wants to implement one of his diabolical plans again and instead of robbing Superman of his powers, he wants to get some for himself. Even if his attempt fails at first, he gets unexpected support from the world of animals and after the guinea pig Lulu has taken out the entire Justice League, Krypto must find a way to put an end to this terror.

Review

One might assume that the minds behind this film wanted to develop a wonderful children’s film that would allow even the youngest to immerse themselves in the adventurous world of comic book heroes. What could be better than an animated film in which animals play the main role and have similar, if not the same, superpowers as their human counterparts? DC LEAGUE OF SUPER-PETS offers us a nice hero story that hardly differs noticeably from so many other ideas, delivering a classic from hero to zero story and thus neither shining nor outright embarrassing itself. The adventure of the animal alliance is reminiscent of OVER THE HEDGE, especially through the character of the squirrel. In addition, it offers the possibility of exploiting a much wider range of gags, since now comic and animal humour can be combined. This, of course, plays perfectly into Stern’s hands, as he tries to make almost every scene more pointed.

DC League of Super-Pets ©2022 Warner Bros.

Surprisingly, however, hardly any of the jokes really hit home, as we’ve heard them all hundreds of times before in various other parodies, so they’re getting stale. But apparently the film is not aimed at young-at-heart adults, but simply at the new generations, because the whole presentation and staging screams that DC wants to attract a new generation of consumers and lure them away from Marvel at an early age. At the same time, the film is once again so dark and violent that its suitability for under-12s is an absolute impertinence, which is why the FSK assessment of a 0 rating seems questionable and debatable. After all, cute kittens are abused here to carry out terrorist attacks. It should at least be worth considering whether the denunciation and degradation of the underclass or the creation of self-doubt will have more drastic effects on our offspring.

The money printing machine is running

Moreover, the producers have understood exactly how to milk a cow properly and encourage children not only to become cinema consumers, but to exploit the full range of consumer society. Several times in the film we are confronted with toys from Batman and Superman, which are of course included in the course of a somewhat flat joke, but at the same time are a clear hint to the children that Fisher-Price and co. have already stocked up their range. And so that the short attention span of young people does not stand in the way of a successful advertising purpose, the end credits sequence must of course once again focus on this theme, so that even the last little one hangs crying and meowing at the tip of his parents’ tongue until the figures finally land in the shopping trolley.

DC League of Super-Pets ©2022 Warner Bros.

The sad thing is that DC LEAGUE OF SUPER-PETS serves absolutely no other purpose than those previously criticised. In fact, the content of the work does not play up to the many possibilities of the comics in the hope of reaching adult geeks. Thus, the entire League of Super-Pets is completely changed and instead of monkey, horse, bird and cow, the presumably statistically determined favourite animals of the population have to be used to replace the comic originals. But it doesn’t stop there, because unfortunately the entire premise is based on false assumptions and facts, or at least is not sufficiently unravelled. For strangely enough, the Kryptonite only drains Superman of his powers, while the antagonists remain in full possession of their abilities. And even when the villain is defeated, the former aides remain in possession of their energy. These two aspects, in retrospect, make the whole film seem obsolete.

Conclusion

In the end, DC LEAGUE OF SUPER-PETS is once again a loud and nonsensical action children’s film that bristles with boredom, serves countless clichés, shows absolutely no creativity and doesn’t even bother to pick up comic fans in terms of content. Even if the work cannot be denied that it can collect some moral plus points towards the end, the charming and fun comedy that one hopes for unfortunately fails to materialise. Whereas PETS was able to demonstrate ingenuity and diversity in the characters, here we only get superficial figures who do not develop any deeper personalities until the end and are reduced to just one or two character traits per animal.

How did you like the movie?
(1 Bewertungen, Durchschnitt: 7,00 von 10)

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