Dog Man (2025)

​"Dog Man" stars Pete Davidson, Lil Rel Howery, Isla Fisher, Poppy Liu, Stephen Root, Billy Boyd, and Ricky Gervais.  Released on January 31, 2025, the film has a police officer and his dog transforming into a crime-fighting hero following an injury.

The film is written and directed by Peter Hastings, known for his work on "The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants".  It is based on the children's graphic novel series by Dav Pilkey.  It also serves as a spin-off and story within a story of "Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie".  Many heroic duos come in all shapes and sizes and can make a huge difference for the world, especially ones involving a human and man's best friend.  But what if this iconic duo wound up being one singular figure?  The answer would be a recipe for a freak of nature because why would you make a dog into a person?  But through the eyes of DreamWorks Animation, it's a recipe for its latest big-screen adaptation of one of Dav Pilkey's nostalgic graphic novels.  If you thought "Captain Underpants" was the weirdest idea on the planet, then you clearly haven't heard of "Dog Man", a spin-off book series that began a year after "Captain Underpants" ended with its twelfth entry.

The concept for "Dog Man" is exactly what you'd expect from the title alone: a police officer with the body of a man and the head of a dog protecting the city from evildoers.  It's straightforward and a little bit bizarre, but like "Captain Underpants", "Dog Man" successfully envisioned the odd and humorous wonder of a child's imagination.  It definitely sounds like something that DreamWorks Animation would bring to the big screen following the critical and financial success of one of my favorite animated films of 2024, "The Wild Robot".  The studio looks to have an intriguing 2025 as it's releasing four new movies in a singular year, two of which are in live-action, but we'll get to them eventually.  Until then, we start DreamWorks' latest slate with a human-dog hybrid saving the world while fighting the urge to chase some squirrels.  That said, let's see if this latest animated comedy has enough howling moments to appease its target audience.

The story follows Knight, a human police officer, and his pet dog, Greg.  They're an unstoppable police force duo striving to protect OK City from crime.  However, their latest mission goes awry while defusing a bomb on top of the building, leaving them critically injured.  Fortunately, their life-changing surgery caused them to transform into one singular hybrid known as Dog Man (vocals provided by Peter Hastings).  With the body of Knight and the head of Greg, Dog Man is tasked by his police chief named Chief (Howery) to continue his duty to protect the civilians while fighting his dog-like urges.  When an arrogant and villainous orange cat named Petey (Davidson) seeks to destroy the city, Dog Man puts his new skills to the test as he attempts to foil Petey's plans for world domination.

Regarding my experience with Dav Pilkey's works, I only grew up reading "Captain Underpants" and one of its spin-offs, "Super Diaper Baby", during elementary school.  I wasn't familiar with "Dog Man," nor had I read any of its books until I heard about its film adaptation courtesy of DreamWorks Animation.  However, since "Dog Man" has the same kid-friendly aesthetics as "Captain Underpants" and its movie, I wondered why not introduce myself to the concept through animation cinema.  With the series being in the market since 2016, "Dog Man" is another children's book adaptation tasked with honoring the idea and presentation from its pages while providing enough elements to impress young and old newcomers.  Considering the studio's streak in successfully adapting the source materials, this seemed like an easy task to accomplish, especially since the trailers have shown promise regarding the film's comedy and plot.

However, this is also another film from DreamWorks that I didn't expect to be anything special.  While the studio has churned out some good to great movies for all ages, especially "Wild Robot", it also has plenty of misses that were either watchable or forgettable, like "Spirit Untamed" and "Boss Baby".  So, I hoped that "Dog Man" would have enough merits to land in the studio's "good" category.  Unsurprisingly, it does.  This is another animated family film from DreamWorks Animation whose only goal is to deliver a fun, harmless, and imaginative experience for kids, parents, and even those who grew up with the source material.  More importantly, it's got to have a narrative heft that's heartfelt enough to balance out its silly shenanigans.  Fortunately, "Dog Man" managed to fetch those elements with ease, resulting in a comically stylized and consistently amusing piece of family entertainment that had me howling with laughter.

But, of course, I wouldn't be quick to call it another DreamWorks masterpiece that's in the same veins as "Shrek", "How to Train Your Dragon", and "The Wild Robot".  "Dog Man" has a simple premise involving a half-human, half-canine super cop saving OK City from Petey the cat, akin to a Saturday morning cartoon you'd watch while eating cereal.  It's straightforward, narratively limited, and surprisingly swift in its pacing.  The film clocks in at around an hour and a half, which was common for most animated movies aimed at kids, so it had to cover a lot in just a short time without missing some steps in its heartwarming depth.  Fortunately, the movie was able to find a pretty decent balance of pacing and story to keep younger audiences glued to the screen while the adults admire its chaotically fun style and surprising amount of heart.  It may not impress everyone with its slapstick antics and inability to subdue its hyperactive essence sometimes.  However, it's also one of many examples of a children's film functioning as a kid's distraction and an entertaining nostalgic fest for the young at heart.  I should know because I was the only adult in the theater while watching it, and I had a good time watching it without feeling any regrets.

Peter Hastings, the film's writer and director, had his experience with Pilkey's works from working on Netflix's "The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants".  Regarding my experience with that show, I was pretty eager to see if Hastings would copy that success with a feature film adaptation of one of Pilkey's novels.  After all, both "Captain Underpants" and "Dog Man" share a similar sense of presentation and energetic meta-humor in the superhero genre.  After watching the film, I'm happy to say that Hastings proved me right, especially with his direction.  Hastings took the pages that worked in the "Captain Underpants" show and successfully applied them to "Dog Man", including its fun action scenes, witty humor, and amusing visual gags.  At the same time, he ensured that its rapid-fire pacing left a little breathing room for its heartfelt and relatable messages involving kindness and found family amid the bad times, hence the film's heart.  His screenplay may not have a human's brain to roll over its predictable plot elements and frenzied structure, but it's got enough amusement in its humor and cuteness to compensate for its simplicity.

In addition to writing and directing, Peter Hastings also provided the vocals for the titular hybrid through his barks and expressions.  However, he does not speak in a human language, keeping in line with the source material.  I respect the film's decision to follow the source material appropriately instead of getting a random celebrity to voice Dog Man because otherwise, we would never be able to hear the end of it.  More importantly, Hastings did a great job making the silent protagonist have something to say with his actions without actually saying anything regarding his performance and direction.  The film also saw Pete Davidson take on another kids movie after his disastrous role in the animated "Marmaduke" film on Netflix.  Remember that monstrosity?  This time, he voiced the "world's evilest cat", Petey, who seeks to destroy Dog Man.  I've only seen Davidson in some of his more mature roles, so it's nice that he's branching out into different territories to reach a broader audience.  Thankfully, he has shown some promise in doing so, as Davidson delivered one of the most entertaining performances of his career.  His approach to Petey's arrogant and short-tempered personality provided some satisfying laughs and plenty of heart in his character arc involving his kitten clone, Lil Petey, who's voiced wonderfully by Lucas Hopkins.  Lil Rel Howery and Isla Fisher were also terrific as Chief and news reporter Sarah Hatoff, respectively.

Finally, we have the film's animation.  Instead of having the same style as the "Captain Underpants" movie, "Dog Man" offered a completely different presentation that's almost in the same vein as "The Peanuts Movie".  It combined CGI aesthetics with some moments of stop-motion to generate the film's childlike imagination and graphic-novel-esque appearance in its settings, character designs, and vibrant color palettes.  This is because it was animated by Jellyfish Pictures instead of Mikros Image and Technicolor Animation Productions for "Captain Underpants".  Jellyfish Pictures had previously worked with DreamWorks on multiple projects, especially when providing animation for "How to Train Your Dragon: Homecoming" and "Spirit Untamed".  The latter did have some nice animation, even though the film itself was mediocre.  Thankfully, its work on "Dog Man" was a significant improvement over "Spirit Untamed", mainly due to its faithfulness to Pilkey's graphic novel style and visual gags.  Like the pacing, the animation can be pretty chaotic sometimes, but that's pretty much what Pilkey's works are known for: dynamic, fast-paced, random, and delightfully bonkers.  It's suitably stylized for both kids and adults to admire while Dog Man chases after Petey, but it's also well-crafted for its tribute to Pilkey's presentation and meta-humor.

Overall, "Dog Man" is a delightfully entertaining and dynamically stylized treat that's howling with success.  This is another film from DreamWorks Animation that's more focused on entertaining the kids instead of joining the high ranks of its other masterpieces, mainly due to its simplicity and predictable screenplay.  The rapid pacing may also cause some viewers to be disoriented by its cartoony chaos.  However, it's also another simple piece of family entertainment done right.  Not only did it have plenty of fun and harmless moments for kids to enjoy, but it also remembered to deliver those similar moments, along with some bits of nostalgia, to older audiences, including me.  Regarding its charismatic voice cast, Hastings' faithful direction, hilarious comedy, and terrific animation, the film continues the studio's successful run in translating Dav Pilkey's novels to the screens.  Now, the other question we should ask is: Can "Super Diaper Baby" get an adaptation next? 

B-