Comic book fare continues to rule at the cineplex. We’ve seen extensive announcements illustrating the ongoing future of various superheroic cinematic universes, with films announced for literal years down the road. While I myself ride hard for this stuff, I also understand that for those less inclined, much of it is beginning to blur together.

That’s why it’s interesting to see a film like “DC League of Super-Pets,” a more kid-oriented animated offering separate from the canon writ large. Now, if you’re like me, your initial thought was that this would be a middling kiddie flick intended primarily as a way to keep cashing those sweet comic book IP checks. Slap a cape on it and people will go, you know?

Imagine my surprise, then, when I discovered that this movie is actually … pretty good? Very much a movie for children, of course, but engaging and entertaining for the adults in the audience. It’s animals with superpowers – who doesn’t love that? Plus, the action is decent, the voice cast is stacked and the jokes largely work.

Basically, this movie is significantly better than it needed to be (a welcome departure from some of the “good enough” offerings we’ve seen from this sphere in recent years).