DC League of Super-Pets

image for DC League of Super-Pets

Short takes

Not suitable under 8; parental guidance to 10 (violence and scary scenes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for DC League of Super-Pets
  • a review of DC League of Super-Pets completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 1 September 2022.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 8 Not suitable due to violence and scary scenes.
Children aged 8–10 Parental guidance recommended due to violence and scary scenes.
Children over the age of 10 Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: DC League of Super-Pets
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild animated fantasy violence and coarse language
Length: 105 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Krypto (voice of Dwayne Johnson), the super dog, has been Superman’s (John Krasinski) best friend since he was sent to Earth with him as a baby. Krypto joins Superman on all his missions to fight crime in Metropolis. However, Krypto is feeling threatened by Superman’s relationship with Lois Lane (Olivia Wilde), as the two have become very close. Meanwhile, Metropolis is under threat from the evil Lex Luthor (Marc Maron), who is intent on destroying it. This time it’s Luthor’s laboratory experiment, a trained guinea pig called Lulu (Kate McKinnon), who has become the main threat. Lulu has managed to obtain a source of orange kryptonite that gives super powers to pets, which, together with her training, turns her into an evil monster. Lulu, with her band of followers, manages to capture Superman and all of the superheroes who have come to his aid. It is now up to Krypto to save his best friend and Metropolis itself.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Superheroes; Fantasy; Animals in peril.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is a lot of violence in this movie, some of it done for laughs, and includes a lot of explosions, punches, fighting, crashes etc, in which no-one gets seriously hurt. Some examples include:

  • Superman and Krypto hit each other. Krypto lifts Superman up into the air and drops him.
  • A police car chases after robbers and crashes into another car.
  • A large robot monster explodes.
  • The superheroes all engage in combat with the villains.
  • Lulu destroys objects in a pet store and sets the store on fire.
  • Chip, a squirrel, can send electricity out of his hands, which he uses to zap opponents and set things on fire.
  • Krypto imagines biting Lois on the leg and throwing her into the ocean.
  • Superman and Lulu fight, and Lulu manages to overpower and trap Superman.
  • Krypto gets hit by a vehicle which sends him flying. He lands heavily on the ground.
  • A huge fireball crashes into a plane which plummets to the ground.
  • The guinea pigs trap a cat in a rubbish bin and blow it up.
  • General chaos in Metropolis with everyone fighting and cars being tossed about.
  • Lulu sends Krypto flying and he lands on a large spike.
  • The superheroes all attack Lulu, who bursts into a huge fireball which sends everyone flying.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • A fireball chases the capsule containing Superman as a baby.
  • Lulu is a particularly scary character. She is hairless as she lost all her fur in a laboratory test. She is mean and looks evil, and sometimes her eyes glow yellow.
  • PB is a pig, who, after eating the orange kryptonite, can grow into an enormous size. She eventually shrinks back to her normal size but this is something she has no control over.
  • Lulu recruits a team of guinea pigs and gives them all some orange kryptonite. They grow into large and fierce creatures. One of them is constantly on fire.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Parents send their baby with a dog in a space capsule to Earth, as their planet is about to explode.
  • Metropolis is rocked by a powerful beam across the city.
  • Pets are locked in their cages while the pet store is on fire.
  • Superman’s eyes glow red when he wants to send out laser beams.
  • Krypto has a black and bruised eye. He has difficulty walking.
  • All of the superheroes are seen locked in cages.
  • Krypto’s dog friend, Ace, tells a sad story of when he was a puppy, he saved a baby from falling down the stairs by grabbing her by the arm. He was pleased with himself but the parents only saw the bite marks and sent him to a dog shelter.
  • Lulu appears as a giant monster covered in fire, with a distorted voice and burning eyes. Quite a scary scene.
  • Krypto flies to the sun on a mission to gain more powers but knowing it could kill him.
  • At one point Krypto appears dead.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Some children in this age group could be disturbed by the above-mentioned scenes.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

  • Nothing further of concern.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • DC comic book merchandise.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Lois and Superman kiss a couple of times.
  • Krypto tells his friend that he has to go to his special place when Lois sleeps over in the big bed.
  • Merton, a turtle, often uses innuendo about finding love.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Butt
  • Oh my God
  • What the heck
  • Crap
  • One word is bleeped out.
  • Some name calling such as:
    • Dummy
    • Stupid
    • Losers
    • Chumps
    • Dorks.

In a nutshell

DC League of Super-Pets is an animated, superhero, comic movie that is fast-paced and action-packed. The movie is full of violence, which is in comic style so no-one actually gets hurt but some characters do appear injured or even dead at some points. There are also a couple of quite scary scenes. In addition, some of the jokes are adult in nature, though likely to go over the heads of children. For these reasons, the movie is not suitable for children under 8 and parental guidance is recommended for children aged 8 to 10.

The main messages from this movie are that it is not super powers that make you a hero; and that love means putting the needs others before your own.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Pets will love you unconditionally
  • Courage and bravery
  • Heroism
  • Selflessness.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Comic-style, superhero action is unrealistic and should not be emulated by children.