A superhero pet movie with a guinea pig as one of the main characters? Sign us up! Not only is this a superhero pet movie, it’s a DC superhero pet movie! If you’re looking for humor, epic action scenes, and, of course, a guinea pig main character, then this is the movie for you.
DC League of Super-Pets is a fun, entertaining film for children and adults alike. There’s a great message about the unconditional love that pets offer up to us and how difficult it can be for pets when they realize that you have other people that you care about aside from them! We may, or may not have gotten a little misty-eyed at some parts, and when you watch the film, you’ll know why.
What’s the movie about?
We’ll give you a plot synopsis for those who haven’t seen it yet! DC League of Super-Pets is an animated superhero comedy film released by Warner Brothers in July 2022. This film is based on the DC Comics’ Legion of Super-Pets, and tells the story of Krypto, Superman’s dog.
The DC League of Super-Pets cast is incredibly star-studded, with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Kevin Hart, SNL’s Kate McKinnon, Keanu Reeves, John Krasinski, Natasha Lyonne, Diego Luna, Jameela Jamil, Keith David, and Olivia Wilde. Kevin Hart really seems to like doing animated pet movies!
The film is from the point of view of Krypto, a Labrador Retriever that escaped the destruction of Krypton with Kal-El (more commonly known as Superman). Pretty much everything about their background is as we already know it: Krypto (Dwayne Johnson) and Superman (John Krasinski) live in Metropolis, with Superman working as a reporter at the Daily Planet under the name Clark Kent and dating fellow reporter Lois Lane. Krypto is jealous of Lois Lane and thinks that he is being replaced by her, and even thinks about throwing her into the ocean!
Superman notices that Krypto is unhappy and thinks that he might be lonely, so he heads to a shelter to look for a friend for him. While Superman is inside the shelter, a Boxer dog named Ace attempts to escape, only to be stopped by Krypto and gets taken back inside. Inside the shelter, Superman considers adopting a hairless guinea pig named Lulu, but ends up having to go outside to break up a disagreement between Krypto and Ace.
On their way home, Krypto and Superman spot Lex Luthor pulling in a meteor that is covered in orange kryptonite with a tractor beam, and puts a stop to it immediately, sending him to jail. Meanwhile, guinea pig Lulu from the shelter was able to make her own tractor beam to reel in some kryptonite of her own.
It turns out that Lulu was one of many guinea pigs rescued from Lex Luthor’s lab headquarters because he’d been experimenting on her and the others with different types of kryptonite.
Her hair loss was caused by one of these experiments, but Lulu doesn’t see her experience in Lex Luthor’s lab as bad or traumatizing, and she even believes herself and Lex Luthor to be scientist partners. Their goal is to strip the Justice League of their powers and send them into space.
Lulu escapes the shelter with her newfound powers, and sets the place on fire as she leaves. What she doesn’t realize is that Ace and the other shelter pets now have powers from exposure to the same kryptonite that she had been. Using their new abilities, they’re able to save themselves and escape the shelter as well.
Meanwhile, Superman is kidnapped by Lulu and Krypto is stripped of his powers because of some green kryptonite that he'd been poisoned with. He has to wait some time for it to pass through his system, and until then he is just a normal dog! Krypto enlists the help of the shelter pets with their new powers to help him free Superman and the rest of the Justice League. Lulu recruits a group of guinea pigs and gives them powers, and uses them to defeat the Justice League and imprison them alongside Superman.
At first he is discouraged because of his lack of powers and his inability to rescue Superman, but Ace talks to him about his experiences previous to being in the shelter.
It turns out that he was a puppy that belonged to a family that he loved very much. One day, the baby was about to fall down the stairs, and in order to save her, Ace had bit her arm and pulled her back. While he did save her from falling, she started crying because of him biting her, and when the parents came, they saw the bite marks and just assumed that he’d attacked her. They’d sent him off to the shelter, but he still says that he wouldn’t change what had happened.
Through this, Krypto learns about the idea of unconditional love and sacrifice, and becomes determined to rescue Superman. Krypto and his newfound friends head to Stryker’s Island to intercept Lulu, knowing she’s headed there to free Lex Luthor. However, she threatens to hurt Krypto if Ace and the other shelter animals don’t voluntarily enter the prison cells, so they all listen to her.
Lulu frees Lex Luthor, only to be imprisoned herself once he’s out, an act of betrayal towards her. Because of this, she becomes even more crazed than before and wants him to be destroyed alongside the Justice League.
The kryptonite finally passes through Krypto’s system and his powers are restored. He goes off to save Superman, but he soon realizes that the only way that he can do that is by sacrificing himself. He remembers Ace’s story about unconditional love and sacrifice, and gains the courage to do what he thinks needs to be done. However, he’s saved by Ace in the end, and they’re able to save the Justice League and defeat Lex Luthor together with the rest of the super-pets.
What we wish it could have done better!
We’ve said this before, but we really can’t complain when there’s movies that feature guinea pigs, since there are so few of them! We really enjoyed the fact that we got a really substantial backstory on Lulu the guinea pig, even if it was her evil villain origin story. The way they portrayed Lulu and the testing that she went through was a great way to indirectly say that testing on guinea pigs is bad—especially if you don’t know if those guinea pigs could turn into powerful supervillains!
We also wish there had been a “good” guinea pig on the team of super-pets to face off against her one-on-one. That would have been lots of fun!
Final Thoughts
If we’re being honest, this might be our favorite out of the movies we’ve reviewed so far! The humor was written really well, and can appeal to both children and adults! There were plenty of jokes about guinea pigs and comparing them to hamsters, which Lulu got plenty offended by.
This is the perfect movie to put on during your next movie night, so make yourself some snacks and cut up some veggies for your guinea pigs! (Just beware of your guinea pigs getting some ideas for their own supervillain origin story!)
