In this 2005-2006 Animated Series based on the Superman comics, the eponymous dog is allowed by Superman to live with a suburban Metropolis boy and his family, and has adventures alongside other characters such as Ace the Bat-Hound (Batman's dog) and Streaky the Supercat (in the comics, Supergirl's pet cat, but in this series, Streaky belongs to Andrea, the girl next door to the family Krypto lives with).
Tropes:
- Age Lift: Only in the backstory. It's implied that Kal-El was slightly older than a baby when he was sent away from Krypton in this continuity, as he not only did some childish drawings of him and Krypto, he actually remembers Krypto and his parents, which he wouldn't be able to otherwise.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Mechanikat builds a robot to help him with the various things he needs to do in order to take over the universe. The robot decides that taking over Mechanikat's organization is a better idea.
- Alphabet Architecture: The Lexcorp building is shown as shaped like a giant letter L.
- Amnesiac Resonance: In "Superdog? Who's Superdog?", Muttsy and his cronies try to convince an amnesiac Krypto into believing he's a bad dog like they are. Krypto doesn't initially believe it, as he doesn't feel like a bad dog, but goes along with it as it's all he knows. But as the episode progresses, it becomes apparent that even without memories, Krypto doesn't feel comfortable in his skin as a "bad dog". Towards the end, when he's ordered by Muttsy to out-right rob a pet store, he hesitates for a while before refusing to do so. Memories or no memories, Krypto knows and decides for himself he's not that kind of dog.
- Animal Talk: All of the animals can communicate with each other, but not with humans. Kevin uses a device that enables him to talk to animals.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: One story of the comics features Isis and Snooky gaining superpowers from Orange Kryptonite and using them to steal gold, art works and fish.
- Artistic License – Biology:
- Lex Luthor's pet Iguana and Harmless Villain Ignatius often gets himself into trouble using the Phlebotinum or technology of the week to catch an elusive bug or make them bigger, or in another episode, using a time machine to go to the past and try to eat a dinosaur egg. In reality iguanas are complete herbivores, as any protein is harmful to their health. Although they may accidentally eat a bug or two in the wild, they never actively hunt for anything other than leafy greens, fruits, or vegetables.
- In that same episode, Ignatius believes he is in the same family as dinosaurs. He is not even close.
- Attractive Bent-Gender: Stretch-O-Mutt changes genders twice in the show and both times he/she is very attractive to the people who see him/her. One time he changes into a rather sexy and curvy female bunny to distract a magical rabbit in order for Ace to get the rabbits wand. And the second time he disguises himself as a mermaid in order to get the rats away from blackbeak to save Streaky.
- Baby Morph Episode: "Puppy Problems". Mechanikat and Snooky transform everyone in the Dog Star Patrol — including Krypto — into puppies. And in the finale, Krypto transforms Mechanikat into a kitten using the same device.
- Badass Normal: Much like Batman, Ace the Bat-Hound has no superpowers of his own, which initially gets him made fun of by the Dog Star Patrol. However, he has a plethora of gadgets at his disposal that he is very adept at using, on top of being an astute detective.
- Big Bad: Mechanikat.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: One episode has a pair of aliens who appear to not be able to eat sugar. They use it for spaceship fuel, instead.
- Body Wipe: "Dog Gone Kevin" twice with a robber who stole a woman's purse and Krypto in Kevin's body.
- Brainwashed and Crazy:
- In the episode "Pied Pussycat Piper", Isis use a magic flute to control all the rats and manipulate them into stealing the whole city. When Ace and Krypto try to stop her, they're affected by the magic flute too, leaving Jimmy the rat to save the day.
- In the comic book, Mechanikat hypnotized all the cats in Metropolis to steal everything valuable. When Streaky was affected too, Mechanikat ordered him to stop Krypto ruining his plans. Fortunately, Krypto neutralized Streaky enough to destroy the satellite that hypnotized the cats and free them from Mechanikat's control.
- Brought Down to Normal:
- "Bat-Hound For A Day" had red Kryptonite take away Krypto's powers for 24 hours, so he has to ask Ace for help in fighting crime with gadgets instead.
- "Bat-Hound Meets the Dog Stars" has Hot Dog drained of his heat powers by Snooky to power a heat ray, so while Hot Dog recovers, Bulldog teases he's now a "chilly dog." Hot Dog weakly laughs as he tells Ace, "I guess you're not the only one without powers for a while."
- Yet another brush with red Kryptonite in "Furry Fish" turns Krypto and Streaky into powerless fish for a while.
- Streaky's superpowers are temporarily stolen and transferred to Waddles in "When Penguins Fly".
- Butt-Monkey:
- Streaky is the most prime example. He is almost always having bad luck around him.
- Jimmy the Rat also suffers this a lot, which doesn't help him a whole lot as a rat trying to survive.
- Hot-Dog also has a lot of comedic incidents happening to him.
- Canines Primary, Felines Secondary: Streaky the Supercat is Krypto's sidekick. The plot lines of most of the episodes revolve around Krypto and Streaky plays a more supporting role, even though he ends up doing most of the work.
- Captain Ersatz: The video game Veg Out is pretty clearly Pac-Man with the
Serial Numbers Filed Off. - Captain Obvious: The entire Theme Song. Just listen to it
, especially at the end, where even after showcasing Krypto's superpowered feats during the intro, one of the last verses of the song is "He's got superpoweeeeers!". - Carnivore Confusion: Sharks are considered mean because they eat fish and cats are feared because they like to eat fish as well. Too bad a dolphin is the first to react to Streaky being a cat because 1) dolphins aren't fish and 2) dolphins also eat fish. Not good when this show was also rated E/I, meaning it's supposed to be educational. Although the dolphin might be fish-friendly, and dolphins do accidentally get caught in fishnets.
- Character Catchphrase: Krypto's "It's super dog time!" and "Ruff ruff, and away!".
- A Cat in a Gang of Dogs: Streaky is the only cat among the all-canine superpets, and the first feline member of the Dog Star Patrol.
- Cats Are Mean: Mechanikat, the series' main villain, along with Mechanikat's sidekick Snooky Wookums and Catwoman's cats, Isis and Delilah. Averted with Streaky, who is one of the heroes, and also averted with Streaky's nephew and his Supercat Fan Club.
- The Chew Toy: Streaky. Rather unfortunate since the show is filled with dogs. Lampshaded in one episode.Streaky: That could've happened to anybody...(one of Robbie's devices falls and splatters Streaky with goop)Streaky: But this could only happen to me.
- City of Adventure: Metropolis.
- Clark Kenting: Averted as dogs tend to look alike(same for cats).
- Co-Dragons: Snooky Wookums and Delilah works as this for Mechanikat in the episode Solar Specs.
- The Comically Serious: Bathound, naturally.
- Comic-Book Adaptation: The show has its own comic book from November 2006 to April 2007. The comic besides adapting the first episode of the series, also makes their original stories of their own.
- Composite Character: Mammoth Mutt (of the male Mammoth Mutt and his girlfriend, Mammoth Miss in the comics).
- Criminal Amnesiac: Krypto in one episode when exposed to red kryptonite, causing him to forget who he is.
- Cyborg: Mechanikat.
- Dogs Are Dumb:
- Not so here! Krypto's no mental slouch, and as Ace himself noted, "most dogs just fetch the paper; I actually read it." Although to be fair, one of them is an alien dog and the other is Batman's dog
- Played straight with the Junkyard Dogs.
- Subverted in the case of Stretch-O-Mutt. At first, he seems kind of dopey but he's actually a lot more clever than others give him credit for.
- Dumb Dinos: In "Dinosaur Time", Ignatius believes the dinosaurs didn't last because they were this and goes back to their time to be their king. He finds out the hard way none of the dinosaurs see a puny lizard as a superior being, and the dinosaurs themselves are revealed to be quite intelligent (they did survive for millions of years after all).Tyrannosaurus: The nerve of that little lizard. Trying to steal my eggs!
Brachiosaurus: I think he thinks he's smarter than us.
Tyrannosaurus: Well, he can certainly learn to use some manners.
(both dinosaurs scoff in a dignified manner) - Enemy Mine: Mechanikat teams up with the Dog Stars to defeat Mechanibot. Ignatius teams up with Krypto to defeat Mekanikat and Snooky.
- Evil Redhead: Kevin's cousin Bailey.
- Eviler than Thou: Mechanikat builds a robot to help him out with his take over the world plans. Said robot says he is "50% Naughtier" than the original.
- Exactly What I Aimed At: While battling a vulture in a museum, Krypto shoots at the vulture with his heat vision and seemingly misses, only to hit a sprinkler system that soaks the bird making it difficult to fly.
- Expository Theme Tune: With perhaps the greatest lyrics of any television theme ever. It's still repetitive, however, with the lyrics just being the name and premise of the series.He's a super dog!He's a superhero!He came to Earth from outer space!And his name is Krypto!
- The Fat Episode: Ignatius becomes fat throughout "Up, up, and Away". He gets around his diet by cooking muffins that make him lighter than air but is caught when Kevin and his classmates discover them.
- Femme Fatale: Delilah and Isis, but especially the former. Her debut episode is even titled "Feline Fatale".
- Firehouse Dalmatian: The Firefighting Episode "Old Dog, New Tricks" features a Dalmatian named Smokey, who is worried that the firemen are going to ditch him in favor of a new puppy due to his age, so Streaky paints spots on Krypto so that he can pass off as Smokey.
- Forced Transformation: Krypto and Streaky are turned into non-superpowered fish because of some red Kryptonite.
- Foreshadowing: In "Superdog? Who's Superdog?", Muttsy tries gifting Rosie flowers at the expense of digging up other people's flower gardens, to which she expresses she's not impressed with his lack of consideration. Between that and her name being Rosie, it clues us in how she'll be adopted by the gardener.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: Some Red Kryptonite causes Krypto and Kevin to change bodies.
- Green Rocks: Appearing alongside the classic green Kryptonite throughout the series is red Kryptonite, which has a variety of random, temporary effects that range from simply depowering Krypto for a day, to transforming him and Streaky into fish or making him switch bodies with Kevin.
- Hate Plague: Mechanikat orders Snooky to send squeaky toys to the Dog Stars and Krypto that make them grumpy enough to separate, and thus, be unable to protect the Earth from being taken over. Only Hot Dog is immune because he is already angry and knows how to handle his own anger.
- Heavy Voice: Mammoth Mutt has one whenever she inflates herself.
- Incredible Shrinking Man: The aliens from planet Teeniton do this to Kevin and Krypto. Krypto is understandably not threatened by the environment. Kevin... not so much.
- Informed Judaism: Andrea and her parents.
- Insistent Terminology: Ace prefers to be called Batman's partner, not his "pet".
- Kids Are Cruel: Some kids who almost got Kevin hurt before Krypto saved him in "Krypto's Scrypto". And Bailey too.
- Kid with the Leash: Kevin and Andrea.
- Knowledge Broker: Jimmy the Rat, albeit unwillingly in most cases.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: In "Superdog? Who's Superdog", Krypto receives this after he comes in contact with red kryptonite that takes away his memories. To make matters worse, it happens while he's in the presence of the Junkyard Dogs, who take advantage of the situation and convince him he's a 'bad dog'.
- Last-Second Word Swap:Krypto: Oh! Sure! Batman! Your own—(Ace looks at Krypto and begins to growl)Krypto: own... uh... partner! 'Cause he's not your own*er*! Nope! Just your own partner!
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to the other DC animated shows airing at the time, this show has a more humorful tone and not much violence.
- Mailman vs. Dog: One story from the Comic-Book Adaptation features an intergalactic mailman who's constantly being attacked by dogs everywhere he goes. The Dog Stars (even Brainy Barker) can't help but bark at him in spite of knowing he's a harmless character who doesn't deserve this kind of treatment.
- May It Never Happen Again: In the end of "Storybook Holiday", Kevin tells Krypto to get rid of a page containing a spell that took them to the land of Fairy Tales after they got home. That way Krypto and Kevin will never go back to the Land of Fairy Tales again.
- Mecha-Mooks: Catbots. Mechanikat's giant cat-like robots who obeys his orders. Also, they obey Mechanikat's partners Snooky and Delilah.
- Me's a Crowd: An invention allows Ignatius to duplicate himself, but because the second duplication was used on a duplicate, the machine goes nuts and produces non-stop Ignatiuses... Ignatii... iguanas.
- Men Like Dogs, Women Like Cats: Krypto is owned by a boy named Kevin, while Streaky is owned by a girl named Andrea.
- Muggle Power: In "Bat-Hound Meets the Dog Stars", Ace meets the Dog Stars, but gets razzed by Bull Dog and the others when it's seen he has no obvious super powers. It's when Hot Dog vanishes that Ace gets to show his detective abilities, finding out he was kidnapped (by Snooky) and being able to locate where a power-drained Hot Dog is being held in time for Krypto to help in the rescue. Afterwards, Hot Dog vouches for Ace as well as the convinced Bull Dog, saying "'E's got powers of the mind, 'e 'as!"
- Musical Assassin: Streaky is such a Dreadful Musician that his singing can cause hull breaches on Mechanikat's ship. He later uses this ability to shut down an entire security system.
- Mythology Gag:
- The Villains Club's headquarters looks like the Hall of Doom.
- In "K-9 Crusader" Thundermutt, a dog actor, wants to emulate Ace for a movie. While Ace's costume resembles the Batman:TAS costume Thundermutt's costume looks more like the one Adam West used to wear.
- Non-Standard Character Design: In the few times Superman himself appeared in this series, he usually keeps his general design and art style from Superman: The Animated Series. Next to the show's more cartoony art style, it can be rather jarring to see.
- Pardon My Klingon: "Oh, Flapnar!"
- Pawprint Stamping: When Kevin meets Ace the Bat-Hound in Ruffled Feathers, he asks for an autograph. Ace notes that he can't sign his name, so he compensates by giving him a batarang with his pawprint on it. This batarang would end up being used to get rid of the kryptonite weakening Krypto and allow them to escape the death trap they're in.
- Planimal: In one episode, Krypto and the Bathound face off against a half-dog/half-plant villain named Dogwood who tries to bring the trees to life so they can rebel against humanity.
- Power Incontinence: Streaky gains invisibility powers, but as he uses them they become harder to control. It reaches a point where only his face can be seen only if he concentrates really hard.
- Power Loss Makes You Strong: Red Kryptonite causes Krypto to lose his powers. He learns to make do with equipment that he borrows from Bathound.
- Pronouncing My Name for You: Andrea states to Kevin at least once that her name is pronounced "An-dray-ah".
- Properly Paranoid: In one episode, one of the Lexcorp guards notices that Ignatius appears when strange things happen, and insists that he'd be kept watch.
- Punny Name: Snooky Wookums.
- Really Fond of Sleeping: In the comics, there's the way Krypto and Kevin react to Streaky's comment about how looking at big ol' moons makes him sleepy.Krypto: Everything makes you sleepy, Streaky, like sunny afternoons... or rainstorms!Kevin: Ha ha ha! Or Tuesdays!
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Ignatius is Lex Luthor's iguana.
- Retraux: The show intentionally evokes the look and feel of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon of The '60s or early 70s, most likely due to H-B having produced Superfriends in the past. It gets to be similar to two previous Scooby-Doo direct-to-video movies series creator Scott Jeralds directed, Scooby-Doo! and the Legend of the Vampire and Scooby-Doo! and the Monster of Mexico, done in a similar retro fashion.
- Robo Cam: Dogbot uses this to obtain a Target Lock on Kevin.
- Rogues Gallery: Mostly the animals associated with other DC characters' Rogues' Galleries, such as Catwoman's cat, the Joker's hyenas, the Penguin's birds, and Lex Luthor's iguana, though there are new ones as well.
- Rubber Man: Stretch-O-Mutt.
- Secret-Keeper: Kevin Whitney, and later Andrea.
- Shout-Out:
- Dog Star Patrol's doorbell.
- The news reporter in "Dem Bones" resembles the newscaster from A Pup Named Scooby-Doo.
- Two of the Penguin's avian thieves are a long-haired vulture and a hat and scarf-wearing penguin.
- Single-Minded Twins: Peek and Pleek.
- Smart Animal, Average Human: Krypto is a super-powered and intelligent dog from the planet Krypton who befriends an average young boy from Earth named Kevin. Same goes for Kevin's neighbor, Andrea, and her super-powered cat, (but not as intelligent as Krypto), Streaky.note
- Speech-Impaired Animal: Played with, as all animals can talk to each other but humans can't understand them without a intergalactic communicator.
- Stock Sound Effects: Viewers who have watched entirely too many cartoons will be able to recognize a lot of the sound effects in this show as coming from Hanna-Barbera's extensive sound library. Given that the cartoon seems to be evoking the look and feel of '60s Hanna-Barbera shows, this is probably deliberate.
- The Stoic: Ace (by virtue of having a personality similar to Batman's).
- Super Team: The Dog Star Patrol, based on the Space Canine Patrol Agency.
- Terrible Trio: The Junkyard Dogs and The Bad News Birds.
- Time Stands Still: The episode "Barrump Barrump" involves a wristwatch that can freeze time.
- Title Theme Tune: If you didn't know who the main character is when you first see the show, you soon will.
- Viewers Are Goldfish:
- The theme song. "He's a Superdog, he's a superhero..."
- The show's practice of Krypto not only reading the episode title but also the writing and directing credits borders on this.
- Villain Decay: Mechanikat started out as a shadowy figure who would try to get rid of Krypto for standing in the way of world domination. Later in the series, his plans were to steal the Earth's biggest ball of yarn.
- Villain Team-Up:
- In the episode The Cat and the Bat, Isis teams up with Bud and Lou to hypnotize all fish and make them easy to catch. Fortunately, Streaky and Ace stop them.
- In the comic book, Snooky and Isis teams up to use the orange kryptonite to gain powers and steal everything they want. Affortunally, the effects last about 24 hours and when their powers was gone, Snooky left her with the Dog Stars. More later, she guide the heroes to where Snooky was to stop him.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Stretch-O-Mutt, the elastic dog.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: When Supercat's fan club turns up in a later episode, it has a completely different set of members. Presumably a different club, but still, why not re-use the existing characters?
- Who's on First?: Gets a Shout-Out when Stretcho pretends to be a radio set. "Who's on first, What's on second, and Rodriguez is on third..."
