I like that Dog Man, despite being computer-animated, kind of looks like it has been drawn with crayons. I like the fact that the image has depth and detail, but the buildings and cars and surrounding environment have the feel of a giant set-up with plastic toys. I like the energy and the humor and the off-the-wall wackiness of the concept, which finds a dedicated police officer and his beloved dog being combined Frankenstein-style after a horrible accident into the titular police hero, who always saves the day, but still can't help fetching or chasing after squirrels. But, most of all I like the fact that the movie, despite being supremely silly and absurd, has a generous heart and call to decency, which is something we need so much these days.

Dog Man is based on a series of graphic novels by Dav Pilkey, who writes and draws them in the style of a couple of hyper-active fourth graders because that is who supposedly created them. Several of Pilkey's Dog Man books have been adapted by writer/director Peter Hastings, who should know his way around Pilkey's unique sense of postmodern-subversive-adolescent humor having spent several years producing the hilarious DreamWorks series The Epic Adventures of Captain Underpants (2018-2019), which includes the characters of George Beard and Harold Hutchins, the in-world creators of Dog Man. Dog Man is not quite as blissfully whacked out and surreal as Captain Underpants at its finest, but it certainly casts aside the parameters of logic and good sense when they are not needed (which is pretty much all the time). This is, after all, a movie about a police officer who has a man's body and a dog's head battling against both an orange cat who envisions himself Dr. Evil-style as the world's greatest megalomaniacal villain and a sentient, telekinetic fish. Well, maybe it is as blissfully whacked out and surreal as Captain Underpants …

Hastings lends his voice to both Dog Man and Petey, the aforementioned evil cat genius who turns out to have something of a soft spot when he attempts to clone himself, but instead creates a miniature version of himself named Li'l Petey (Lucas Hopkins Calderon) who is all heart and kindness. The telekinetic fish, who is named Flippy, is voiced by Ricky Gervais in a way that only Gervais could do, while the constantly frustrated police chief who oversees Dog Man's exploits is voiced with high-speed, exasperated hilarity by Lil Rel Howery. Other characters include Sarah Hatoff (Isla Fisher), a reporter who ends up helping Dog Man, and Grampa (Stephen Root), Petey's grumpy, abusive father who provides a window into what he doesn't want to become.

While Dog Man moves at a fast and furious pace and jokes both verbal and visual are constantly flying, it works as more than animated mishmash because Hastings knows when to slow things down and allow for some genuine connection among the characters. There are real lessons here about decency and forgiveness and the legacy of pain that many carry with them through no fault of their own, which sounds heavy-handed, but never feels that way—perhaps because the characters feel like so sublimely like Crayola scribblings come to life.

Copyright © 2025 James Kendrick

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