DC League of Super-Pets may be one of the newest DC animated movies to hit the big screen, but super pets have been part of the DC comic book continuity for quite some time. But director Jared Stern wasn’t inspired to make the film out of a longtime fandom. Instead, it was ordinary animals at a local shelter that gave him his motivation.
“My wife volunteers at a local pet shelter, and I went one time because I am not a good human being,” Stern told Comicbook.com. “And while I was there, I noticed that the front room had these adorable little kittens, it’s a miracle when any pet is adopted, but I had a feeling like those kittens have a good shot.”
“And then in the back room, there were these older pets and some with various problems and it felt like they didn’t have as good of a shot at getting adopted. And in fact, they lived there, they were the lifers. And it was sweet, it was great that the shelter took care of them, but I don’t know why I had this thought, ‘What if these pets got superpowers?’ Maybe because they were feeling so powerless to me, ‘What if they had powers?'”
It’s not exactly a rocket ship from the planet Krypton but it may be just as inspiring of an origin story. Thankfully, Stern’s day job gave him the platform to do something with his idea. His partnership with Warner Bros. and DC allowed him to bring the idea to life using classic pet characters like Krypto and Ace the Bat-Hound. According to Stern, “It just fit with pets that you could find in a Metropolis shelter as I was digging. I wish we could have used all of the great pets in the DC canon, there’s a lot.”
Fingers crossed for a sequel.
DC League of Super-Pets releases cinematically today.
