Dog Man

Although I have several Oscar-nominated films left to watch, I still have time for a few new releases. Last weekend, I made time for Dog Man, a spin-off of the Captain Underpants books by Dav Pilkey. In his books, Dog Man is another creation of Captain Underpants' creators, George and Harold. In his movie, Dog Man fetches us 89-minutes of, to quote his parent series, "Action! Thrills! Laffs!" for everyone.

But mainly kids.

It doesn't dwell too long on his origin story. Officer Knight and his K-9, Greg the Dog, regularly match wits with the evil Petey the Cat (Pete Davidson). One day, Petey decides to blow up an empty warehouse because he's that evil. Knight and Greg try to defuse Petey's bomb, but Knight goofs up and they get blown up. The doctors replace Knight's head with Greg's, and thus, Dog Man is born! 

Over a montage, Dog Man repeatedly arrests Petey, while Petey repeatedly breaks out of "Cat Jail." After a while, the Mayor (Cheri Oteri) breathes down the Police Chief's (Lil Rel Howery) neck and threatens to throw Dog Man off the force. Meanwhile, Petey invests in a cloning machine, but all it gives him is a sweet kitten named Li'l Petey (Lucas Hopkins Calderon). Li'l Petey is soon adopted by Dog Man. Meanwhile, a dead cyborg fish named Flippy (Ricky Gervais) comes back to life and decides to take over the city. Yes, it's that kind of movie.

The film is written and directed by Peter Hastings, who also voices Dog Man and his components. The story bombards its viewers with numerous visual gags and other bits of silliness in its short runtime. For a small taste, we get a “Box of Bs” - not Bees, Bs - thrown around in the opening chase. That visual bombardment can sometimes overwhelm whatever passes for a serious storyline in this film. So, what happens can we understand it?

For starters, we have Dog Man’s origin story. In live action, it would sound like a horror film, but in animation, it’s perfectly silly. I think it helps that we don’t see his creation process. Dog Man only makes dog sounds, but his cheerful personality will win you over in no time. You'll feel for him when he finds out his girlfriend has already moved on, much like in a similar scene in Robocop. It's still moving when the film milks some of its pathos for a few more gags.

Whatever dramatic weight the film has is given mainly to Petey. When he starts out, Petey is a delightfully evil cat who repeatedly pays his sole employee, Butler (Poppy Liu) with anything but money. When Li'l Petey shows up, Petey is frustrated by the kitten's sunny personality. His reluctant parenting is contrasted with the negligent parenting by his even more irredeemable dad (Stephen Root), whom Li'l Petey forcibly locates. It's rather nice seeing Petey become a better cat thanks to his clone son, which culminates in him becoming a hero. It's just as nice seeing Li'l Petey bond with Dog Man. 

What else do we have here? The art style, at times, feels like a CGI approximation of stop-motion, which takes some time getting used to. Once you do that, you'll be charmed by the appealingly simplistic character designs. Flippy, for a final boss, is even more hilariously evil than Petey. His monster buildings are delightfully goofy, while the final battle with them is pretty entertaining. Chief is amusing, though his romantic subplot with reporter Sarah Hatoff (Isla Fisher) is practically background stuff.

 All in all, Dog Man is a fun distraction from the doldrums of the world. It's not as cohesive as Captain Underpants, but it's still a delightfully fun family movie whose gags may take repeated viewings to get. I'm ready to give it a go once it's available on streaming just to see what I missed. It's better than the current news cycle, that's for sure. 

The fun begins with a short starring The Bad Guys, Little Lies and Alibis, which can best be summed up as "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Parole Board." It's an exciting appetizer for The Bad Guys 2, which comes out in August. Believe me, August can't come soon enough. 

And remember, it's Dog Man, not Dogman.