Director: Peter Hastings
Cast: Pete Davidson, Lil Rel Howery, Isla Fisher, Poppy Liu, Stephen Root, Billy Boyd, Ricky Gervais
Screenplay: Peter Hastings
89 mins. Rated PG.

I have younger people in my life who have read Dog Man, but I knew very little about the character before seeing the new animated film, directed by Peter Hastings (The Country Bears). Based on the Dav Pilkey book series, this film could better be described as Schrödinger’s Dog Man, a movie that is both bad (in execution) and good (in entertainment) at the same time, at odds with itself, but still an enjoyable enough experience to take your family to.

When Officer Knight and his dog are involved in a horrible explosion, the only way they can be saved is by attaching the dog’s head to Knight’s body, effectively creating Dog Man. Now, the hybrid hero is tasked with putting Petey (Pete Davidson, Bodies Bodies Bodies), the “world’s most evilest cat,” behind bars once and for all. While he’s hunting the villainous feline, Petey is attempting to perfect cloning, which some shockingly adorable results.

It was probably a good idea to gloss over as much of Dog Man’s creation as they could get away with, considering the sheer nightmare fuel of this near-Cronenberg-ian origin. This adaptation also jettisons the characters of George and Harold from Captain Underpants, who “created” the in-universe graphic novel. I feel as though these two could have served as narrators of the story would have aided the wild narrative swings, which feel underdeveloped in the finished film but would have been more understandable if through the lens of two youngsters with very active imaginations.

Dog Man is very much a “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” type of movie. There are so many convoluted plot threads that are all happening at once, some of them (like Petey’s father showing up) feeling like they didn’t serve the intended effect. Elements are introduced, forgotten, then remembered, then they have a major impact. Again, this makes sense within the context that it’s a comic book created by the main characters from Captain Underpants, and part of the film’s inherent charm is that inability to know where the story is going next, and this bonkers tone contributes well enough to some solid laughs and an overall pleasing experience.

Dog Man is a wild experience, especially for those that were unaware of this particular origin story (I have so many questions about this thing’s sentience, if it shares two brains, is one of them dead?), and not all of it works, but when I was in for the ride, enough of it landed to be an enjoyable enough movie. If your family wants to see it, I think parents will get enough laughs to make it worthwhile. Dog Man is 2025’s sugar rush movie, in all the best and worst ways, though I had enough fun to give it a slight recommendation.

3/5
-Kyle A. Goethe