Jared Stern, the director of the new animated film DC League of Super Petshopes families will consider adopting their own super pet after seeing his film.
Set in the DC Comics universe, the new film features the voice talents of Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Kate McKinnon and Vanessa Bayer as cute and super-powered pets. They are joined by John Krasinski as Superman, Keanu Reeves as Batman, Jameela Jamil as Wonder Woman and Marc Maron as Lex Luthor.
While the star-studded Warner Bros. movie is sure to impress at the box office this summer, the origin story of this superhero movie comes from a surprisingly serious place.
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“I was volunteering at an animal shelter in LA, and while I was there, I looked at these pets, these cute kittens in the front that were very likely to be adopted. And then in the back, there were some older animals, handicapped animals, who were more or less lived in the shelter more,” Stern told News week.
“It was great that the shelter took care of them, but I felt bad like I wish they could be adopted too,” he added. “I thought, ‘What if they have super powers?’ So that was kind of an emotional genesis.”
This prompted Stern and co-writer John Whittington to write the script for DC League of Super Pets. While Johnson plays Krypto, Superman’s dog, the film opens with Ace the dog (Heart), PR the pig (Bayer), Merton the turtle (Natasha Lyonne), Chip the red squirrel (Diego Luna), and Lulu the guinea pig (McKinnon). ) all looking for someone to adopt them.
DC League of Super Pets marks Stern’s first animated project as a director. He previously wrote screenplays for The Lego Batman Movie, Mr Popper’s Penguins and Happy Birthday (which he also directed), but he was elated that the studio allowed him to direct this one as well.
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Given the origin story of the super-petsStern hoped his film would inspire families to take a chance on unconventional animals.
“At the very end of the credits, the last words you see are ‘Be a hero, adopt a pet,'” he said.
“They need to know it’s a commitment and take it seriously, but hey, that would be great. If families want to adopt a pet after this, I hope they will,” Stern said.
Stern is also happy to see that the cast has been behind this spirit as well. “One of the nice things about the promotion for the film is that it’s not just big, glitzy, glamorous stuff. They’ve organized a lot of events in conjunction with rescue teams around the world, which was really fun.”
As they’ve done for movies before, like Central Intelligenceboth Jumanjic movies, Hart and Johnson have been on the campaign trail together for DC League of Super Pets. One of their antics caught the attention of director Stern.
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“What you see is what you get with those guys. They recently did a challenge where they took turns hitting each other in the face with a tortilla and I wish I knew that was an option when we were in the recording booth to just “I had no idea I could punch them in the face,” Stern joked.
“They’re great and fun. The same energy you see in those interviews is real life, they have in the booth.”
The film is packed with comedic talent such as Hart, McKinnon, Bayer (both from Saturday Night Live), Maron, Jermaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords), John Early (the afterparty) and Thomas Middleditch and Ben Schwartz. Despite writing the script himself, Stern knew he would have to give his actors space to express themselves.
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“It’s a tricky business because we’re doing these highly choreographed animations like storyboard reels from the movie before we even get to the real actors that come in,” Stern said. “So there can be an instinct to just want to replicate what you already have because you’ve worked so hard to get it that way, but you have to take that away because these people are such brilliant comedic improvisers, they will be your bits of realism and surprise, which you simply could never write on your own.
“So many of my favorite lines in the movie weren’t written by me or any other writer, but that was purely for spontaneity, and I love that.”
Saturday Night Live alumni McKinnon provided Stern with his favorite moment when her hairless guinea pig improvised a line about popping a pimple.
Warner Bros. partners with animal charity Best Friends to promote local animal shelters across the country. Some of the voice cast, including Johnson, have created promotional videos for the charity and posted them on their social media channels.
DC League of Super-Pets hits theaters Friday, July 29, 2022.