Superdog is an american 2015 American Superhero-Action film based off of DC Comic's canine superhero, Krypto/Superdog and the 2005 TV Show, Krypto the Superdog, premiering in theatres on February 15, 2015. This film is the first of six installments, distributed by Warner Bros, and starring Ryan Kelley, Dylan Sprayberry, Kira Kosarin, Jesse Eisenberg, Michael Rosenbaum, Mellisa Ponzio, Rene Lavan, Amy Adams, and Russel Crowe, followed by a sequel film, Superdog 2.
Summary
With Planet Krypton near it's destruction, kryptonian scientist, Jor-El, creates a ship to send his infant son, Kal-El, to Planet Earth, using Kal-El's kryptonian puppy, Krypto, to test it, but after a meteor damages the ship, Krypto is put into a dormant state as the ship slowly heads towards Earth for two decades. Upon landing on Earth, Krypto is found by a 15 year old boy, Kevin Whitney, who takes Krypto in and helps the dog control his powers and starts using them for good, right as Lex Luthor's devious genetically enhanced and highly intelligent iguana, Ignatius, puts his evil plan to destroy Superdog into motion.
Cast
- Ryan Kelley as the voice of Krypto/Superdog, a young puppy on Planet Krypton, who belonged to Kryptonian infant, Kal-El, until Kal-El's father, kryptonian scientist, Jor-El, created a rocket ship to save Kal-El from his prediction of Krypton's destruction and used Krypto to test it, but when a meteor crashes into the ship, it activates a safety protocol that puts Krypto in a dormant state for twenty years. Upon landing on Earth, Krypto is taken in by the new kid in town, Kevin Whitney. Krypto soon discovers his powers and decides to use them to save lives, but ends up having to deal with Ignatius and his devious plot. Like all Kryptonians under the radiation of Earth's yellow sun, Krypto has super strength, speed, hearing, breath, heat vision, and flight, but also has a weakness of Kryptonite, radiated pieces of Krypton. Not only does Krypto have Superman's abilities, he also has his good morals and values, such as loyalty, bravery, compassion, and selflessness. Though no literal breed is said for Kryptonian canines, Krypto appears to be a white labrador retriever. When not saving Earth, Krypto wears a yellow collar with a circular dog tag, with a "K" on it, but as Superdog, Krypto wears a blue collar, trimmed in yellow, with a red and yellow House of El "S" shield for a dog tag, and a red cape with a yellow House of El "S" on the back.
- Dylan Sprayberry as Kevin Whitney, a 15 year old teenager that just moved to Metropolis from Smallville, and had no friends, until one day, he found a spaceship with a dog in it. He took the dog in and soon discovered Krypto's powers, and taught him how to control them. When Krypto decides that he wants to save lives, Kevin designs a blue collar lined with yellow, with the "S" shield and red cape attached to it. Kevin persues a romantic relationship with his growing attraction towards his neighbor, Andrea Suseman, while keeping Krypto's identity a secret from her and her family. After touching the ships activation disc, Kevin is downloaded with the ability to understand animals.
- Michael Rosenbaum as the voice of Ignatius, Lex Luthor's pet iguana, who after being injected with LuthorCorp's secret L61-Chemical, gained vast superhuman intelligence, being just as smart as any of LuthorCorp's scientist, little enhanced strength, with the ability to speak full english, and being just as devious and strategic as Lex. Using enhanced intelligence, Ignatius tests Superdog with multiple challenged, in an attempt to destroy Metropolis.
- Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, the billionaire CEO of LuthorCorp, and an evil mastermind that has been in confrontation with Superman numerous times. Upon being released from prison, Lex continued an unfinished work on genetic enhancements on the human mind, using animals to test it, but was unaware that the formula was a success on his Iguana, Ignatius.
- Kira Kosarin as Andrea Suseman, Kevin's new next door neighbor, who was kind to Kevin, unlike anyone else. Immediately taking in interest in Kevin, she gained a romantic attraction towards him, but becomes curious of his mysterious behavior. Andrea mentions that she has a cat named Streaky.
- Rene Lavan and Merissa Ponzio as Jack and Amy Whitney, Kevin's parents, who moved their family to Metropolis after Jack got transfered. While Jack works, Amy stays at home and takes care of her youngest child and Kevin's sister Melanie. They constantly get on to Kevin about his new mysterious behavior and how he's not focusing on school.
- Amy Adams as Lois Lane, a reporter for the Daily Planet, who interviews Andrea, filling in for her fiance, Clark, who was "busy on an assignment." She helped evacuate the Daily Planet while Kevin and Krypto were searching for the bombs. At the end of the film, talking with Martha Kent about how Superman didn't show up when the bombs blew, Lois realized Clark is missing.
Additionally, Russel Crowe and Ayelet Zurrer play Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van, Kal-El's kryptonian parents who created the ship that Krypto tested. Logan Moreau plays baby Kal-El and Henry Cavill plays Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman, who is only mentioned as Clark and only seen on the news as Superman. Lee Majors as Perry White, editor-in-cheif of the Daily Planet. Uriah Shelton plays Jimmy Olsen, a Daily Planet Photographer. Robert Girdisch plays the quarterback that picks on Kevin. Makayla Jade Bolkin plays Melanie Whitney, Kevin's two year old sister. Allison Mack plays Mrs. Bennete, Kevin's teacher. Keri Lynn Pratt portrays Mercy Graves, Lex's assistant. Kali Rocha plays Andrea's mother.
Synopsis
With Krypton's destruction nearing, Kryptonian scientist Jor-El continues to work on a rocket ship to help his son escape the explosion, while his wife, Lara Lor-Van watches as their infant son Kal-El plays with his kryptonian puppy, Krypto. Finishing his prototype rocket, Jor-El uses Krypto as a test pilot and launches the rocket towards Earth, but it is struck by a roaming meteor, damaging the ship. A safety protocol activates, and Krypto is put into a dormant state as the ship slowly heads towards Earth.
Twenty two years later on Earth, 15 year old teenager, Kevin Whitney, endures his first day at his new school since moving to Metropolis from Smallville. Trying to walk up to a girl, Kevin trips and she helps him get his book. She recognizes him and tells him that she's his new next door neighbor, Andrea Suseman. At lunch, Kevin is picked on by the football and sits at a table alone with his head in his arms, until Andrea sits next to him. After School, Kevin comes home to his mother Amy feeding his two year old sister Melanie, while watching the news headlined "Man of Steel Saves President", with a bunch of unpacked boxes laying around and decides to head to the skate park. While there, he runs into one of the jocks, who shoves him into a tree.
Meanwhile, at LexCorp, billionaire CEO Lex Luthor checks up on his latest projects and enters a room full of defected animals due to their experiment. They run another trial on Lex's iguana, Ignatius, but it appears to be another failure.
An hour later, Kevin is sitting in the tree looking up, when suddenly he sees a large object crash. He runs over to it, to find out that it's a spaceship, which opens up to reveal a dormant grown up Krypto. Kevin sees a disc pop out of the ship and pulls it out, causing it to glow and give him the ability to talk to animals. Krypto wakes up and tells Kevin who he is and that he's from Krypton and Kevin takes the dog in.The next morning, Kevin discovers Krypto has super strenght and super speed, while retrieving the ship with his pickup truck. Later that day, Kevin builds a dog house on top of the spot in the backyard in which Krypto used his powers to bury his ship. Then suddenly Krypto starts hearing a bunch of voices. Kevin takes him up to his room and tells him to try to focus. Krypto focuses and hears Kevin's parents talking and describes to Kevin what they're saying. While walking with Kevin to the school, Krypto discovers his X-Ray vision, seeing through one kids cast, then seeing Kevin's muscles, so Kevin tells him to go back home and get some rest.
Meanwhile at LexCorp, Ignatius, with his newly found genetically enhanced intelligence, escapes his cage, using his tail to crush cage. He sneaks into the lab and pulls the fire alarm and then steals a vile of the serum that gave him his intelligence and sneaks into a LuthorCorp truck delivering chemicals to the Smallville Fertilizer Plant and uses the serum and the chemicals to create a neurological gas bomb. He climbs to the top of the truck and throws the bomb in front of the truck, causing the driver to lose control. An oncoming bus, with Kevin's class, swerves to miss the bus and crashes into the lake. The class begins to panic as the bus is half way filled with water. Pieces of concrete break through the window and one nearly hits Andrea, but Kevin jumps out of his seat and pulls her out of the way and they fall under water, and he pulls them onto an empty seat, but the bus becomes nearly filled with water, so Kevin yells for Krypto. Laying in Kevin's room, Krypto hears Kevin's yelling and super speeds to the bridge and jumps into the water and pushes the bus out.
After the incident, the ambulance and police arrive to help the injured kids, while the others, Andrea, and Kevin sit wrapped in blankets. Kevin notices Andrea shivering and wraps his blanket around her and holds her in his arms and she kisses him.
Returning home, Krypto tells Kevin that he wants to save lives and that he thinks he can fly. Kevin gets him a blue collar to replace his yellow one when he's saving lives, but Krypto points out that a different collar isn't exactly a disguise. Remembering that Krypto is the dog of Superman he modifies the collar, trimming the blue collar in yellow and adding a red cape with a House of El emblem on it, but still notices it needs something else so he goes down into the ship and grabs a House of El shield tag and attaches it to Krypto's collar.
Ignatius sneaks back into his LexCorp cage as Lex walks in, talking to his assistant Mercy Graves about the mysterious bus saving and knows somone superhuman did it, and Ignatious only remembers seeing a short white with yellow blur and sneaks out again to the lab.
The next day, Kevin is out with Krypto getting a birthday present for his mother and walks into a jewelry store and sees Andrea. She talks to him about the accident and asks if he saw anything, thinking she saw a weird blur, but he brushes her off. Suddenly Krypto hears an alarm and tells Kevin before speeding off. While running towards the bank, Krypto tears off his yellow collar to reveal his blue and yellow collar with the "S" hidden inside and the cape rolled up. As he stops at the bank, the "S" and cape come loose. He goes inside, breaking the doors down. The criminals start shooting at him, but they bounce off. Krypto takes them down one by one. Krypto returns to Kevin, who wraps up the cape and hides the blue collar with the yellow one.
Meanwhile, in order to see if Metropolis really does have a new mystery savior, other than Superman, Ignatious hacks into the LexCorp satellite to control a plane passing by Metropolis and causes it fly straight down.
Kevin returns to his house with Andrea to study, while his mother watches the news, with Krypto next to her playing with Melanie. Up in Kevin's room, while studying with Andrea, she starts kissing him, but downstairs Krypto hears a news report of the plane "malfunction" and starts barking. Kevin goes down stairs and Krypto tells him, and says he knows he can fly to stop it, so Kevin takes off the yellow collar and Krypto runs out, running down an alley, Krypto keeps on jumping higher and higher until he begins flying. As he flies towards the plane, the cape unravels around the collar. Krypto reaches the plane and uses his super strenght to push it vertically and aims for the bridge, but has a hard time slowing it down. As it touches down on the bridge, Krypto finally stops it. Andrea walks downstairs and sees Kevin and Amy watching the news, seeing an image of an unclear flying dog. When the dog flies away, Kevin and Andrea turn around and see Krypto.
Back at LexCorp, Ignatius is in his cage in Lex's office and sees the news report of "Superdog" and talks to Mercy about how Superdog obviously has a relation to Superman, due to his "S" Shield dog tag and cape. Ignatius decides that another superhuman-like animal will be a problem, so he decides to test the dog in ultimate attempt to crush him. After Lex leaves for a meeting, Ignatius sneaks into one of Lex's secret vaults and reveals that it's filled with kryptonite.
A few days later Krypto is known to all of Metropolis as Superdog, as Kevin reads the newspaper about the presumed dog of Superman and his miraculous saves around the city. Krypto asks why Kevin isn't at Andrea's like he said he would be and Kevin replies that Andrea is at the Daily Planet for an interview with "some reporter named Clark Kent." Suddenly, Krypto hears a cry for help from LexCorp, so he changes into Superdog and flies out.
He arrives at LexCorp, but sees no one in the room, but an unsuspecting Iguana. Ignatius reveals his genetic intelligence by standing and walking towards Krypto holding Kryptonite with his tail. Superdog gets weaker as Ignatius gets closer and collapses to the floor. Ignatius puts the Kryptonite in Superdog's collar and explains to him that he set three hidden bombs at the Dailey Planet.
Meanwhile at the Daily Planet, Andrea meets with reporter Lois Lane, since her partener Clark was "busy on another assignment", unaware to them that a bomb is currently ticking down in the building.
Weakened by Kryptonite at LexCorp, Superdog signals Kevin by gathering all his strenght and giving a giganticly loud bark, shattering a lot of glass and windows around the LuthorCorp. While driving around the city, Kevin sees all the glass shattering and then sees a red beam coming from LuthorCorp so he drives quickly to LuthorCorp. Once getting there he sneaks in by pretending to be there for an internship. He sneaks into Lex's office and finds Superdog on the ground and removes the Kryptonite and puts it back in the led vault. Krypto tells him what happened and he grabs on to Superdog's collar as he flies to the Dailey Planet.
After dropping Kevin off on the roof, Krypto super speeds through the building. Kevin finds Andrea during her interview with Lois and tells them about the bombs, so Lois pulls the fire alarm and has the building evacuated. Meanwhile Superdog finds one of the bombs in the basement, flies it out to space, throws it, and flies back to the Daily Planet to find the other bombs. While evacuating, Kevin remembers that she wrote all the articles on Lex's arrests and about his tyrony and realizes that the bomb is in the package is in Lois' desk and goes to get it and Andrea follows. Reaching Lois' desk he takes out the package and opens it to reveal the bomb. He looks at his watch to see that it has 5 seconds until it goes off so he grabs Andrea and dives for the floor as it goes off. Krypto hears it and flies up through the floors. Kevin pulls Andrea and sits against a wall with her in his arms, both bruised and cut, with fire surrounding them and blocking the exits. Kevin pulls a piece of glass out of Andrea's cheek and notices her leg bleeding badly, so he takes his jacket and covers the cut on her leg. Superdog flies through the floor and puts the fire out with his super breath. Kevin asks if he's found the first bomb and Superdog replies it was in the basement, so Kevin suggest that the final bomb is hidden somewhere on the roof they didn't see, since the first two bombs were in the bottom and middle of the building that the final would be on the top. So Superdog flies to the roof, as Kevin carries Andrea out. About to leave the building, Kevin sees green bomb residue on Andrea's jacket, realizing that the bombs are powered by kryptonite and that Ignatius would do something to beat Krypto if Krypto found all the bombs, so he sets Andrea down and asks if she can walk. Andrea worriedly tells Kevin not to go, but he replies that he has to and kisses her before leaving. On the roof Superdog finds the third bomb under the Daily Planet globe, bigger and more powerful, but not made out of lead, unlike the other two, causing the Kryptonite to make him fall ill. Ignatius speaks through a communicator on the bomb, saying that the bomb will go off unpredictedly. Kevin finds him and covers the bomb with lead shielding. Ignatius hacks into the LuthorCorp "Safety Drones" and uses them to keep Superdog from stopping the bomb. Superdog fights them, ripping one apart with his jaws and this slicing another in half with heat vision. At Kevin's house, Jack walks in on Amy watching the news, in which Superdog is fighting the drones. Superdog attempts to freeze the final one, but it breaks free and continuously attacks Krypto and knocks him into the Daily Planet. About to shoot Superdog with Kryptonite, Kevin uses a pole and stabs it, but it knocks him back, and Superdog gets back up and hits it into another building. Suddenly, the bomb goes off and the Daily Planet Globe falls. Superdog flies down as fast as he can as the globe prepares to crash into street and everyone in it, including. Andrea ducks down, but looks up to see that Superdog has caught it. Superdog carries it back to the top of the building. Seeing Kevin walk out of the building, Andrea jumps in his arms and kisses him.
Kevin returns home, where sees Krypto playing with Melanie and his parents watching the news. They turn around and see him, with a few cuts and bruises. He hugs them and kisses Melanie on her forehead, and goes upstairs to his room with Krypto. He tells Krypto about "their new job."
Meanwhile, Lois drives into Smallville to see Martha Kent to talk to her about how Superman wasn't around to help save Metropolis which brings up the question "Where is Clark Kent?"
The next day, Kevin and Krypto go to the Dailey Planet, where Lois is finishing her interview with Andrea and congradulates her on getting the job. Andrea asks what they're doing there and Perry walks in to introduce the new photographer and his "specially trained new dog" to Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen. After a man comes in and tells Perry that a bomb is stuck in an elevator downtown, Krypto disappears. Lois smiles at Kevin, knowing that Krypto is Superdog. The film ends as Krypto runs on the Daily Planet roof, ripping off his yellow collar, to reveal the "S" Shield.
Trivia
- Many actors for Superdog have relations to the Superman and/or DC Universe. Dylan Sprayberry, the actor that plays Kevin, portrayed a 13 year old Clark Kent in Man of Steel. The same actors that portrayed Kal-El's biological in Man of Steel play the same characters in this film. Henry Cavill not only plays Clark Kent in this, but also plays as Clark Kent on Man of Steel. Allison Mack, the actress that portrays Mrs. Bennete in this, played Chloe Sullivan, Clark Kent's best friend, in Smallville. Michael Rosenbaum, who voices Ignatius, portrayed Lex Luthor on Smallville. Gal Gadot who plays Lois Lane also plays Wonder Woman in Superman v. Batman. Robert Girdisch, who plays the quarterback jock, also plays one of the teens picking on Clark in Man of Steel.
- The scene in which Ignatius causes Kevin's school bus to crash into the lake and Krypto saves them after hearing Kevin yell for him is similar to the scene in Man of Steel in which Clark's bus crashes into the lake and Clark pushes it out of the water.
- In the TV Show, Krypto the Superdog, Kevin gains the ability to talk to animals through a universal translator he found in the ship, but in this film, he was downloaded with the ability to understand animals through the Heart of the Ship.
- In the comics, Krypto's costume was a yellow collar and a red cape and yellow "S" shield on the back. In the show, he wore a plain yellow collar as Krypto and as Superdog, he wore the plain yellow Collar, with a red and yellow "S" shield dog tag and a plain red cape. In the film, he wears a plain yellow collar with a circular dog tag with his name, but as Superdog, he wears a blue collar trimmed in yellow, a red and yellow "S" shield dog tag, and a red cape with a yellow "S" shield.
- The films showing of each Superdog character's origin is highly similar, but also different to that of the original comics and tv show. In the comics, Superman finds him, and in the show and this film, Krypto is taken in by a boy named Kevin, but in the show, Krypto saves Kevin from falling off a tree, while searching for Kal-El after landing on Earth and in this Kevin finds Krypto while sitting in the tree. In both the show and this film, Kevin has just moved to Metropolis, but in the show Kevin, as is Andrea, is 9 years old, just starting middle school, and in this they are 16 years old in highschool. In the show, the malfunction of Krypto's ship was due to Krypto's ball destroying the controls, but in the film it was due to a meteor strike. As of the show Ignatius, he is a regular Iguana, devious and selfish, but in this, he gains genetically enhanced intelligence, just as high as any LuthorCorp employee.
- A lot of facts, such as Kevin being older than nine and being a Daily Planet photographer, him and Andrea being in a relationship, the Whitney family originally being from Smallville, and Krypto hiding his hero collar under his plain yellow one, were taken from my Pre-Superdog TV Series, Dog of Smallville.