While I knew of Krypto’s existence as a kid but I wasn’t really familiar with him since most of his adaptations were just references to him and not explicit versions of him. This was more since he was considered a bit too Silver Age for the 90s I guess. Regardless I was a fan of the character existing so when he started getting more love in the 2000s I was all over it. Since then he’s gotten plenty of reference appearances but also real appearances as well. Here I will focuse on his two big leading projects were got to star as his own dog in the DC Universe in the animated show Krypto The Superdog and the movie League of Superpets.
Krypto the superdog
This cartoon came out of nowhere, meant for kids when DC was trying to be more mature. No one could really complain since it was clear who the target audience was. I first watched it thinking it’d be bad and not for me but was won over by its pure unfiltered kino. Watching it again I would tend to agree, he’s a supercute superdog. You get cute stories, a cute origin, its just full of soul. Kevin is the human character who adopts him for a while from superman and he works as his human well. We do see a DCAU looking Superman though Lex Luthor is far more cartoony, but neither is the focus, we get a whole new cast meant to play off Krypto and they all work great. They all get their neat origins that work perfect for the universe.
The Dog Star Patrol, Streaky the supercat, Ace the Bathound, Robin. It’s all very well done and with great designs for toys. There’s references to superfriends, and it’s written like a good silver age comic. The cast of characters just works so well. Intentionally childish and well written that this universe deserves so much more love. Every made up dog from the Dogstars like Elastidog are so well done that makes sense in the world. Luthor’s Lizard villain is not the best antagonist but he doesn’t show up all the time. It’s a bit repetitive but at 11 minutes an episode you can watch a couple at a time. Oh, and they do keep track of the little continuity the show has.
League of Superpets
Sadly Krypto got downgraded in the title of this movie but it is very much his movie with the rest of the Superpets league. This is an example of not understanding the tone well like the cartoon did. The CG of Krypto and the real heroes are nice. Superman’s origin works well and is cute. The superheroes of the Justice League get plenty of screentime in this pets movie but their designs range from bad to neat, they’re way too cartoony. Superman lieks Krypto flying, Krypto confirms clark is sleeping with Louis Lane. It begins strong as a soulful parody and enjoyable.
Later on the movie starts becoming a rather generic League superhero dog origin for the superpets and it isn’t as fun just predictable and bland. Same with the villains. It plays it very safe and that’s a shame given how the more kino take in the beginning was working out. I think they also realized the superpets did not have strong enough personalities to hold the movie on their own since they give the human Justice League plenty of time. The movie is jus ttoo long and it runs out of its good will rather quickly. No one cares about the Justice League being captured by ferrets, not if they play it seriously like they try to. The league’s superpets rescuing them is just too cliche and not enough jokes that are playful to make up for it. I mean I can enjoy parody Batman but its been done so many times. I also enjoy the rather odd Black Adam being an important part of the DC Universe they tried to sneak in in the end. Talk about awkward.
Krypto’s other animated appearances have been smaller but they work fine. It’s a shame the movie was so generic, it could’ve had potential had it understood what it needed to do. The original cartoon from the 2000s understood the assignment, never took itself too seriously and played around with a fun world. That’s something the movie didn’t do.
With Krypto getting more of a mainstream thumbs up lately thanks to the 2025 Superman movie I’m glad he’s stayed in the public eye now and not just seen as some silly silver age gimmick that is only relevant in making fun of him. There’s just something so fun about having a dog that can have the powers of superman. Lots of cute fun moments can be made from that.