I wasn’t really familiar with creator Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man beyond seeing the books while I was wandering around Comic Con but my girls who are 7 and 5, are definitely team Dog Man. When I asked who he was, they told me that “he’s a dog that’s also a police officer.” Because of course he is.
The film opens with police officer Greg and his loyal police dog in hot pursuit of the super-villain, Petey the Cat (voiced by Pete Davidson). After they get into a terrible accident, the only way they can survive is if the dog’s head is transplanted onto Greg’s body. And voila, we have Dog Man; half dog, half cop.
For reasons that were never really explained, Dog Man now takes over Greg’s job as a police officer and is tasked with capturing Petey. But he escapes and is captured again… multiple times in a fun bit of escalated craziness.
Soon, Petey figures out that if he’s going to defeat Dog Man and finally take over the city, he needs help, so he decides to clone himself. And that’s where Little Petey is born… or created? Whatever the correct terminology is, Little Petey is a cute ball of fur who’s exactly the opposite of evil Petey; kind and thoughtful. And evil Petey hates it and abandons him on the street where our hero, Dog Man, finds him and takes him in.
But after one of Evil Petey’s latest inventions, the 80HD, kidnaps Little Petey, both Evil Petey and Dog Man band together to save him.
I couldn’t quite understand why Dog Man didn’t talk, but both Petey’s did. My girls explained it was because Petey is a cat, and cats are smarter than dogs. While I don’t agree with them, I accepted their answer because they were more up on the Dog Man canon than I was.
Written and directed by Peter Hastings, the animation was slick, and the cuts between scenes made it feel like an actual comic book came to life. There’s a lot of cute and funny moments in the film, and some witty asides for the adults in the room but it did feel a bit long, especially during the middle of the film.
The voice work by Davidson and Lil Rel Howery (as the Police Chief) was great, although I could have sworn that Davidson said some curse words here and there. But maybe that was just my brain programmed to think that way because it was, you know, Pete Davidson.
But why take it from me? Take it from the experts, my kids:
Ella (7): It was really good. My favorite character was Little Petey. And I loved the end where there were like buildings on the loose. And then they did a dance, and everyone started dancing too. It was very funny.
Sadie (5): My favorite character was Little Petey and Dog Man. And I also liked it when the buildings started dancing too. That was my favorite, favorite, favorite part at the end of the movie. And I also liked the music and the characters at the end of the movie when they were dancing. That was my favorite part.
