DreamWorks Animation is working on a big movie about a half dog/half police officer sized superhero. It will debut on January 31, 2025. Two years of advertising and we need to order more copies from bookstores. Director Peter Hastings (well-known for his application on Animaniacs) does not add any extra craziness to the drawings. Instead, he has takes from the book and has turned them into pictures, using flipbook tricks for camera shots. The movie is a fun 96-minute ride, that simultaneously makes jokes about the origin story and teaches us some important lessons in loyalty, self-control and the value of timely belly rubs.

Story and tone

The screenplay is based on Pilkey’s first book using a simple guide. When a lab accident puts Officer Knight’s brain onto the body of his dog friend Greg, Dog Man becomes the new police officer in the city. He is fast on his four legs, and is always distracted by everything that squeaks. Hastings writes three short stories featuring Dog Man moving from one dangerous situation to the next. The main bad guy, Petey the Cat (voiced by Sam Rockwell) creates a robot rat army, takes over the city’s traffic lights, and eventually happens to take over a blimp stuffed with squeaky toys. The movie is a mix of adventure, police drama, monster-parody, and skyscraper robberies and still fun like a playground. The jokes are rapid and blend bathroom humor with real-life situations and comic panel allusions. Hastings believes both children and adults will enjoy it.

Visual style

It is a time wherein Dreamworks would change its look from fancy fonts and shiny style of look to hand drawn sketch on ruled paper. The background has soft blue running lines and ‘math homework’ is faintly seen, to balance the rough and crayon-like appearance of the main characters. In chase scenes the camera moves very rapidly for 90 degrees for a limited duration of time, it gives the viewer a quick page turns feeling, as in turning pages rapidly. The lighting is simple and bright, but the textures appear sick – the fur strands look like they are moving with pencil lighting on the screen.

Voice performances

The cast list was only released after the first weekend by DreamWorks. The studio had a pretty smart decision. Pete Davidson provides Dog Man’s silly sniffing voice. Lil Rel Howery plays Chief. Isla Fisher plays Sarah Hatoff – reporter. Ricky Gervais jokes sarcastically in the role of Petey the Cat. The jokes could be bad, but when Petey coughs up a hairball, Gervais’s sigh is what makes people laugh as much as the joke itself.

Music and sound

The music is not big or fancy. It uses short looping sounds that starts over every time Dog Man’s mind wanders. The sound people in the movie add funny little noises – like a rubber chicken chirping for each footstep, and a quick swoosh when the picture changes. Petey’s robo-rats move about as the sounds of a typewriter coming down on keys, a subtle reference to the book’s maker’s very own DIY style. The overall sound is busy, but not so loud. Adults won’t require earplugs and children can become aware of new sounds if they watch a second time.

Themes

The tough part in him is masked by a chaotic outside appearance. At first, his greatest weakness was that he ran straight into everything, but once he learned, this turned out to be his greatest strength. His trouble with concentration is not a joke but a real obstacle which any hero can overcome by studying. Petey also gains sympathy: he is bitter because he has the reputation of being a bad cat, although clearly he is intelligent.

How to watch Dog Man online

Dog Man is now on Peacock for all subscribers after the release on theater on January 31, 2025. If you want to rent or buy it, Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV and YouTube Movies have it in 4K HDR and allow you to download it to watch offline. No other streaming service has so far announced to be available.

Pros

• Hand-drawn notebook drawings are fresher among the uniform computer graphics.
• The music is fun instruments that reflect the DIY nature of the project.
• The jokes popped quickly like machine-gun fire to different ages without smirks.

Cons

• Towards the end Petey’s robo-rat scene comes to an end too quickly and so the tension is lessened.
• It employs bathroom jokes a couple times and may get boring for older viewers.

Final verdict

Dog Man leaps from the drawing pad to the screen and maintains the fun spirit that sustained the popularity of the books at the playground. Instead of smoothing out each line of crayon, Peter Hastings retains the barren edges, thinking that they are charming. A few fast spins are so wild that they are even funnier, but the movie continues. Kids might laugh like crazy at it, adults might see it as a respectful way of nodding to attention problems, and off they will go humming thekazoo hero’s theme. Still, if you catch the film at a busy premiere or watch it a couple months later at your favorite sites, Dog Man is a fun story about bad kids who can make the biggest messes because they try to be clean.