Dog Man – A Dazzling and Heartfelt Ride (Early Review)

Based on Dav Pilkey’s book series, Dog Man is DreamWorks’ follow-up to their previous Pilkey adaptation, 2017’s Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, making use of his spin-off novels as opposed to continuing the mainline series. Peter Hastings, after being the showrunner for the Captain Underpants Netflix series, leaps into the director’s chair for this charming spin-off, while also writing the script. The film follows the titular Dog Man, who was created from a life-saving operation, combining the head of a police dog named Greg and the body of police officer Knight. Serving his role as a protector of the community, Dog Man persistently purses Petey (Pete Davidson), a pessimistic cat who continuously finds ways to escape and wreak havoc with his peculiar inventions.

Following a surprising critical and financial success with Captain Underpants, a shift by DreamWorks to focus on stimulating new franchises seemed like a logical next step. Dog Man doubles down on the fast pace, dazzling animation, and heartfelt moments found in its predecessor, reinforcing the film-within-a-film concept presented as audiences delve into the creative minds of George and Harold building this story. Much of the potty humor, however, is wisely substituted for more absurdist approaches, resulting in prominent parodies of superhero tropes, including a hilariously ridiculous origin story, over-the-top villains, nosy reporters, and incompetent bureaucrats. These elements of comedic storytelling are distinctively incorporated not to trivialize the story for the younger children, but let them be aware of the absurd situations and allow adults to find admirable qualities in the film’s comedic takes on life topics presented in its layers. Audiences looking for nostalgia from their childhood readings of Captain Underpants may not recognize this material but will still find comfort in the authentic vibe brought to reading the book for the first time.

The film wisely chooses to have Dog Man remain as a silent character instead of utilizing a grating comedian to move the story forward. How Hastings emulates the emotional weight of Dog Man’s barking, whimpering, and howling is critical to the film’s success in keeping all audiences attached to the story, while still maintaining a faithful adaptation of a fun and jarring graphic novel series. The restraint in using leading stars to carry the film serves it fittingly as the voices of Davidson, Howery, and Ricky Gervais (Flippy) match their supporting characters excellently without seeming obnoxious or overbearing to the titular character.

The film falters, however, with finding a consistent story balance between Dog Man’s adventures and Petey’s antics, as the introduction of Li’l Petey (Lucas Hopkins Calderon) splits the focus between these archenemies, leaving an evident impression that the act structure was just merely combining 2–3 books within the same film without a proper through line. The dynamic use of the franchise’s animation style and faithful adaptations of Pilkey’s novels make it prime for future entries in the series. Considering the length of Pilkey’s novels, these adaptations seem more fitting for hour-long specials utilizing the same formula for a more tight runtime, similar to Disney’s recent approach with the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series instead of the 2D flash animation found in the Captain Underpants Netflix series.

In the end, Dog Man marks a promising continuation of Pilkey’s world as DreamWorks looks to expand into new franchises. The film maintains the fast pace, dazzling animation, and heart as Captain Underpants, while incorporating the absurdist style of comedy that continues to resonate with fans of the source material. However, the film’s lack of story balance makes it clear that the series is more fitting for shorter specials to better incorporate the limiting material of Pilkey’s novels. Nevertheless, the film remains an entertaining watch for all audiences that also lays the groundwork for potential future entries in the series.

still courtesy of Universal Pictures/Dreamworks Animation

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Costa Christoulas

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