For me, 2024 brought one of my favorite animated films of all time “Rose the Robot” from Dreamworks Animation.
Now, before they continue with the live-action version of “My First Dragon” in June and “Not So Bad 2” in August, they bring us another adaptation of Dav Pilkey’s books, “Dog Man” directed by Peter Hastings.
In the past, he worked on the “Captain Underpants” series and now returned to the director’s chair for a full-length movie more than 20 years after “Village Bear” (2002).
I checked if the new movie succeeds like the original work.
As with Dav Pilkey’s creations, “Dog Man” takes place in the same universe as “Captain Underpants”.
Unlike other cinematic universes, there is no need to complete the 2017 film or the 2018 Netflix series.
Apparently, “Dog Man” marks the beginning of a new franchise for the cinema and television medium.
The plot begins when the dog Greg and his owner,
Officer Nate, encounter a police chase with a professional criminal in town (who happens to also be a cat, Pet).
As a result of a work accident, the doctors have few choices but to merge them.
What follows is the same monotonous, light plotline, not very interesting (at least for adults), but luckily, much of it is semi-funny.
As mentioned, the movie is mostly based on the third book of the series “Dog Man: Double Cat”.
The characters and narrative remain faithful to the book and even the transition to the screen with the animation style we saw in “Captain Underpants” is not anything special,
yet the core, the aesthetics of the film, is inspired by two dimensional backgrounds, highlighting certain scenes from the book and many comic references that contribute greatly to the humor.
Supposedly, one of the first things noticed is the uniqueness behind creating a dog character without a voice actor, unlike the villain who conveys emotion through his voice.
Most of the humor comes from Dog Man’s body language and personality, similar to “Wallace and Gromit”.
Whether it is the chase after snacks, squirrels, and Pet the cat, it drives the story of the film, but it is not enough.
It is not a silent film, and there is no plot that is remembered like “Wall-E”, whose first half hour was created without words.
“Here lies the dog”: “Dog Man” is a film with a very thin plot, little depth, aiming to provide pure entertainment.
There is no comparison to other Dreamworks juggernauts like “My First Dragon” or “Shrek”.
Those are built differently in narrative animation and present morals for all ages.
Here it is slightly different, as when the film tries to deliver a message within the plot, it results in a fast paced storyline to the end, which is unfortunate because it is an important message for children and also for adults that should be mentioned publicly, even though dozens of films before it already emphasized it.
Although mostly faithful to the original story, the final act leaves no mark, almost identical to the book except for a minor detail that would change the outcome, making the sequence of scenes appear logical beyond the stunning visuals and I do not mean supernatural that already exists with the combination of the dog and his owner, but in the context of the scene.
However, if this is not considered important, it does a good job.
It is a film not meant to be taken seriously, even though there are things, as mentioned, that are illogical in the plot.
As a family experience, it delivers the goods, simply do not expect anything beyond that.
It never reaches emotional depth and there are moments it tries to, but fails completely.
The highlight is the charming, “childlike” humor, which makes it a very cute film. Still, I admit I missed those elements, even though it is categorized as a “children’s movie”.
Aside from the dog itself providing nonstop humor, there is a star cast that does not have much impact on the plot.
Among them is Pet, voiced by a famous actor, who is meant to be a nemesis to the dog just because he is “evil”.
Pet has charisma and an impressive reputation, but the way the actor enters the character through his voice is so generic that it fails to capture interest.
As noted, the one who actually steals the show is the police chief.
Two stand out in the dubbing the police chief, voiced by a comedian, and honestly, it is not surprising.
There are many highly humorous scenes that even made me forget it is a children’s film.
This is shown in the way charisma and emotion are expressed in the text, the impressive skills accumulated as a comedian and together with Dog Man (the second-best thing here), the comedy never stops.
So yes, you read that right.
Dog Man the character I thought was AI is actually the director himself: Peter Hastings.
I did not imagine that every small bark and whimper comes from a person. He also voices Officer Nate from the start of the movie and succeeds in making children and adults fall in love with this dog, letting body language do its job.
At least for me, any movie with animals, live-action or animation (for example, “With the Flow” which recently won an Oscar), if the dog is done right and not using soulless CGI like in “Cruella”, I will connect to it, at least to the animals themselves, not necessarily the narrative.
As someone who has dogs, I can relate to Greg the dog’s actions, even though some are not entirely accurate to natural behavior, some are strikingly accurate.
The film, of course, leans on ‘stereotypes’ of dogs like hating squirrels, hyperactivity, responding to harsh words, but most of all, separation anxiety and depression alongside all the joy this innocent creature brings humans.
After all, he is not just “man’s best friend”.
In conclusion, “Dog Man” is a film to be approached with an open mind. To its credit, it recreates the magic of the book on screen wonderfully. However, it is not a film with a deep purpose to pull adults on a journey, it is aimed at children only which it succeeds at in an hour and a half of continuous entertainment.
It does not set a new benchmark for animation and even though it is aimed at children, there are elements in the final act that may scare some.
It has some comic moments and excellent dubbing.
Just do not expect too much depth between the scenes and you will get a light and enjoyable experience.
