Dog Man Review: Comic Book Quest About a Dog Infused with a Man
Copyright © Universal Pictures, DreamWorks Animation
Title: Dog Man
Director: Peter Hastings
Based on: Dog Man by Dav Pilkey
Spin-off to: Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017)
Release Date: January 31, 2025
What if we stitch a dog's head on a man's body? Since Captain Underpants got its movie years ago, it's time for this book series to get its very own movie, too. Today's movie is Dog Man, the new Captain Underpants spin-off! Its source material is about a dog whose head is infused with a policeman's body, as it creates Dog Man, to save the world from supervillain cat, Petey. Surprisingly, it is a story within the Captain Underpants universe. Against a cheap budget of $40 million in outsourcing, this movie became a box-office hit, earning $144.9 million worldwide. Alongside, it gained positive reviews from both critics and audiences, mainly for the animation, story, and voice performances. With vibrant animation telling a silly story of a dog officer, Dog Man is a SUPA awesome start to DreamWorks Animation's new era!
What if we stitch a dog's head on a man's body? Since Captain Underpants got its movie years ago, it's time for this book series to get its very own movie, too. Today's movie is Dog Man, the new Captain Underpants spin-off! Its source material is about a dog whose head is infused with a policeman's body, as it creates Dog Man, to save the world from supervillain cat, Petey. Surprisingly, it is a story within the Captain Underpants universe. Against a cheap budget of $40 million in outsourcing, this movie became a box-office hit, earning $144.9 million worldwide. Alongside, it gained positive reviews from both critics and audiences, mainly for the animation, story, and voice performances. With vibrant animation telling a silly story of a dog officer, Dog Man is a SUPA awesome start to DreamWorks Animation's new era!
Summary
"When a police officer and his faithful police dog get injured in the line of duty, a harebrained but life-saving surgery fuses the two of them together -- and Dog Man is born. As Dog Man learns to embrace his new identity, he must stop feline supervillain Petey the Cat from cloning himself and going on a crime spree." - Google
"When a police officer and his faithful police dog get injured in the line of duty, a harebrained but life-saving surgery fuses the two of them together -- and Dog Man is born. As Dog Man learns to embrace his new identity, he must stop feline supervillain Petey the Cat from cloning himself and going on a crime spree." - Google
Reasons
From Dog Man, the most SUPA parts are the hyper animation, profound message, and cute characters. It's a Captain Underpants spin-off, except with different movement for a story in a story. Even though it is not 100% by DreamWorks themselves, the movie absolutely nailed it with a tight budget. It has a lot of elements put into it, like dialogue, montages, and many other stuff, to function similarly to its book series. Then, you have the message, which was the last thing we expected, to be honest. I mean, the Captain Underpants movie did have a message about strong friendship, albeit being based on a purely humorous book series It's like that for this movie, but it tells us that compassion can transform you into a better person. That message made the third act come off as the most touching moment in the movie. Moving on, the characters are cute and likable. The protagonist, Dog Man himself, may not speak, but his limited intelligence makes him well-written as a character. For Petey, he may be a villain, but his arc is interesting as he goes from villain to hero to anything in between.
Other SUPA parts about Dog Man include the great humor, exciting story, and family-friendly execution. The humor is mostly filled with slapstick and absurdity because that's what its source material has. On the side, though, Dog Man's canine quirks add to it when he is doing his job. Here and there, self-aware comedy also follows to break the fourth wall. Then, outside the message, the story is as exciting as the Captain Underpants film. Just like with Dav Pilkey's book series, it is chaotic and entertaining. In one moment, you have the action. In other moments, you have the sad stuff. Finally, the execution is purely for all ages everywhere. Just like with the Paddington book series, its specific age range is for younger kids, but it does not deter teens or adults from watching the movie. Aside from slapstick and cutesy animation, it also has references, as well as a voice cast that only older people can recognize from the trailers.
Yeah, Dog Man is a fun movie, but it could have had more pacing and a closer connection to the books. A one-and-a-half-hour runtime is not really a terrible idea. However, the character development got rushed thanks to how fast it ran. Also, it needed to keep the toilet humor and puns, instead of aiming for a mainstream formula. This was what Captain Underpants was all about: delivering as many absurd jokes as it could without being too preachy.
Conclusion
Although it has its pretty small flaws, Dog Man is a SUPA fun case to track down the supervillain! This year, DreamWorks Animation made its fresh start by outsourcing from other companies, especially Jellyfish Pictures. It is more than just an extremely funny and colorful mission to stop a cat from doing evil. Underneath, it is a story about how compassion can change villains for the better. As expected from DreamWorks, it does have its typical Hollywood ingredients. Overall, the majority of it is Dav Pilkey characters, jokes, and fights. Whether you have Peacock or not, you can go check this out, especially if you have young kids who like toilet humor or silly mayhem.
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