DC League of Super-Pets - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

DC League of Super-Pets



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
I’m going to be honest with you. When I saw the trailer for DC League of Super-Pets I thought to myself “oh good, The Secret Life of Pets with super powers” and put it out of my mind as a silly fluff piece that would most likely get ignored by the general public. Well, the movie is most certainly silly and fluffy, but it was WAY more fun than I originally expected. I mean, I won’t be going around comparing it to Despicable Me, but League of Super-Pets is a light hearted romp with a killer cast of actors, and makes for a wonderfully fun diversion from the usual darkness and depression of the live action DC universe, and less kiddy and goofy than some of the more child based animated DC adventures.

All of us grew up with Krypto the Super Dog back in the days of classic Super Man lore, but he was mostly relegated to a niche audience due to the general public not exactly sticking around for a super powered dog along with Super Girl and the countless other Kryptonian knock offs of the originals. He got his own highly popular show for a while, but still a very niche audience. League of Super Pets attempts to bring the super powered goodest boi into the spotlight once more by aiming directly for a kid’s movie with just enough humor for adults to cling to and have fun with. This time with the attached at the hip couple of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kevin Hart helming it.

Krypto (Dwayne Johnson) and his best pal Superman (John Krasinski, who seems to be in EVERYTHING lately) are going through some changes. Good old Supes has got someone in his life and he’s about to propose to Lois Lane (Olivia Wilde), and good old Krypto suddenly realizes that his best friend is pairing up with someone ELSE. Meaning his days of sleeping on the bed are over, and in his mind, he’s being replaced for the first time ever. He and Supes get into a little row before a date with Lois, only for said date to get turned on it’s head when orange Kryptonite crash lands on Earth and infects a pet store full of rejected pets, including Lulu (Kate McKinnon), one of Lex Luthor’s ex guinea pigs (quite literally).

Thinking that she’s going to impress her master with her new found super powers gifted by the orange Kryptonite, Lulu sets out to destroy the Justice League, capturing them one by one and locking them in cages, even going so far as to slip Krypto a sliver of green kryptonite in order to incapacitate him from helping his owner. However, one thing Lulu forgot was that she wasn’t the ONLY pet in that pet store given super powers. Befriend the lest of the bedraggled super powered misfits, Krypto, Chip (Diego Luna), Ace the dog (Kevin Hart), and PG (Vanessa Bayer) head out to save the world, kick a little discount hamster butt, and hopefully regain their sense of dignity.

Yeah, League of Super-Pets is NOT Oscar winning material. But what it is, is a whole load of silly fun that is way more entertaining than I originally expected. The movie dances around with just the right amount of kiddy fun and general super hero action, playing off of the very real life camaraderie that Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson very obviously exude from every pore. It also doesn’t hurt that the entire cast is a revolving door of famous actors, and now has given me a reason to REALLY want a Keanu Reeves run as Batman (him adopting a dog at the end had this John Wick fan snuffling).




Rating:

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




Video:

Sadly we didn’t get the 4K UHD to review, but the Blu-ray is quite the looker for sure. It’s filled with gorgeous amounts of bright primary color shades, from the classic red and blue of the Superman franchise, with the luscious greens of the park, to the bright neon shades of Kryptonite orange. Fine details are very solid for an animated film, leaning more into the range of blockbuster animation rather than cheap home video from the DCAU. I did notice a little bit of color banding during some of the chaotic battle scenes, but nothing that should really cause anyone any worry for the integrity of the image. Black levels are great, and all in all, this is a stunning looking 1080p encode.









Audio:

Warner brothers offers two audio mixes to enjoy on disc (which are present on the 4K UHD disc as well from what I can see). A Dolby Atmos track be default, and a complimentary 5.1 DTS-HD MA track (luckily not chosen by default). The Atmos track is obviously the superior track (even though the core is pretty much identical to the Atmos track). It’s spacious, got tons of kinetic energy as the super pets blast around town, and has some massive LFE included as well. Overheads get used quite a bit with things being thrown from the sky, and aircraft floating around. Once again, a stunning mix that isn’t 100% perfect, but pretty close to being so.












Extras:

• How to Draw Krypto
• Behind the Super Voices
• Super-Pets Animation 101
• Find the Easter Eggs
• The World of Super-Pets
• Deleted Scenes

Final Score: ​

All in all, League of Super-Pets is just plain silly, goofy, fun family oriented super heroing. It’s got a cast that is just having a blast, a decent plot that doesn’t go as stupid as I would have thought on first glass, and a pretty looking/sounding Blu-ray that should be bound to impress. The extras are also pretty solid, allowing this reviewer to give the entire package a solid thumbs up.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Kate McKinnon, Keanu Reeves, John Krasinski, Diego Luna, Olivia Wilde, Jermaine Clement
Directed by: Jared Stern, Sam J. Levine
Written by: Jared Stern, John Whittington
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English DTS-HD MA 5.1, French, Spanish, Portuguese DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: PG
Runtime: 105 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: October 4th, 2022

Recommendation: Fun Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. This looks to be a good family movie. Will check it out.