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Super Pooches to the Rescue! How writer/director Jared Stern and his team brought the canine heroes of DC League of Super-Pets to animated life. By Tom McLean
J
ared Stern was volunteering a while back in a pet shelter when he noticed older animals that were less likely to be adopted were kept in the back room. “It was sad to me, and they seemed so powerless,” says Stern, a writer/producer whose credits include Warner Bros.’ LEGO animation franchise, the movies Storks and Smallfoot and the acclaimed Netflix Green Eggs and Ham series, as well as the creator of the live-action comedy series Dr. Ken. “I don’t know why — maybe because I’d been watching a lot of superhero movies — I was just like, what if those pets got superpowers?” Thus was born a pitch that comes to fruition with the theatrical release of the animated feature DC League of Super-Pets, in which Superman’s beloved dog Krypto and a ragtag group of shelter pets with superpowers save the Justice League — and the world — from a hairless guinea pig from outer space. The movie features an all-star voice cast, with Dwayne Johnson playing Krypto, his Jumanji co-star Kevin Hart as a hound named Ace, SNL superstar Kate McKinnon as the alien Lulu, Russian Doll’s Natasha Lyonne as a super-fast turtle named Merton, Diego Luna
as the super-powered squirrel Chip and Vanessa Bayer as a pot-bellied pig who goes by PB. The movie also features John Krasinski as Superman, Keanu Reeves as Batman, Marc Maron as Lex Luthor, and Olivia Wilde as Lois Lane.
Wagging the Origins Tale The screenplay is by Stern and John Whittington. Stern also directs, with Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero creator Sam J. Levine as co-director, and the movie is animated by Animal Logic. Stern describes the movie as an origin story for the super-pets that balances both
“We wanted this origin story to have a lot of fun, but also to be a great action comic-book movie, and also to make you care, and to tell a really good emotional story.” — Writer-director Jared Stern
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august 22
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