DC League of Super-Pets is funny and family friendly 

Editor's note: Glen Starkey stepped aside this week so that 8-year-old Acacia Newman of Cayucos could bring a kid's perspective to this animated family film in this Split Screen review with Anna Starkey.

Co-directors Jared Stern and Sam Levine helm this script by Stern and co-writer John Whittington about inseparable best friends Krypto the Super-Dog (Dwayne Johnson) and Superman (John Krasinski), who fight crime side-by-side in Metropolis ... until the unthinkable happens and Superman is kidnapped, forcing Krypto to master his own powers if he hopes to rescue his best friend. (106 min.)

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• Photo Courtesy Of Warner Entertainment Group, Dc Entertainment, And Seven Buck Productions
• FRIENDS IN NEED Besties Superman (voiced by John Krasinski) and Kryoto the Super-Dog (voiced by Dwayne Johnson) fight crime as a team, but when Superman is kidnapped, Krypto must rise to the challenge, in DC League of Super-Pets, screening at local theaters.

Anna We meet quite a cast of characters in DC League of Super-Pets. Krypto the Super-Dog is the star of the show, but he's soon joined by a cast of characters who are newly endowed with powers of their own. There's Ace (Kevin Hart), a dog given super strength; PB the pig (Vanessa Bayer), who can shrink and grow in size; Merton (Natasha Lyonne), the super speedy turtle; and Chip (Diego Luna), an adorable squirrel who can conjure lightning. When Krypto loses his superpowers, this band of misfits team up with him to save Superman and stop the evil Lulu (Kate McKinnon), a hairless guinea pig whose devotion to Lex Luthor (Marc Maron) and psychokinesis powers have her gunning to take over the world. There are a lot of great characters and superpowers in this movie. Do you have any favorites?

Acacia I definitely like PB the pig the best out of all the super pets. She's really funny and so obsessed with Wonder Woman. She even has duct tape rolls on her wrists like Wonder Woman's bracelets. But for superpowers, I think I would probably want to have Lulu the guinea pig's abilities. You wouldn't have to use them for evil, you could use them to summon your cereal bowl or if you were lying in bed and thought, "Ooh, I want some chocolate," you could make it come to you without having to get up. That would be pretty cool. I also really liked the squirrel's lightning hands.

Anna Those powers would definitely come in handy! I thought that all of the voice actors did a great job—they definitely got a lot of funny people to take part in this movie. When things start to go awry, we see other superheroes like Batman (Keanu Reeves), Wonder Woman (Jameela Jamil), The Flash (John Early), Aquaman (Jemaine Clement), and The Green Lantern (Dascha Polanco) join in to try and defeat Luthor and Lulu. I'm not sure how familiar you are with the Superman movies or comics, but do you think the movie was easy enough to follow if someone didn't know the backstory?

Acacia I've seen the Superman movies, at least Superman I, II, III, & IV, so I know the characters. I do think they did a pretty good job of explaining who everyone is though. You could tell right away who the good guys are and that Lex Luthor wasn't one. I thought all the voice acting was good, too. I really liked the actress who was PB, and the one who voiced Lulu was also really funny.

Anna This movie is rated PG. I noticed there were a couple of times where they had bleeped out curse words and there were a couple of moments that may be a little scary for younger kids. What do you think is a good age range for this movie?

Acacia I think that a little younger than my age, maybe like 6 or older, would probably like it and wouldn't be too scared. It depends on the kid and what kind of movies they've watched before. The bleep-outs were pretty funny though because it was when the turtle ran super fast and ended up somewhere and was like, "Where the bleep am I?"

Anna That definitely made me laugh. The end of the movie kind of surprised me; how about you?

Acacia I was kind of surprised at first, but then I realized they needed a way to bring all the super pets back together, so I knew there had to be something else that happened. I did like that the super pets got paired up with superheroes at the end, and they all ended up happy. Δ

Special contributor Acacia Newman and freelancer Anna Starkey wrote Split Screen this week. Senior Staff Writer Glen Starkey compiles listings. Comment at [email protected].