JEANNE’S REVIEW
DOG MAN is based on Dav Pilkey’s wildly popular 13-volume series of books for young readers, which is a product of his other huge book franchise, “Captain Underpants”. Because of DreamWorks Animation’s success producing that movie, Pilkey was eager for them to bring “Dog Man” to the screen.
With the tagline “Part dog, part man, all hero”, DOG MAN tells the story of a dedicated police dog and his owner --- a police officer --- who are injured doing their job. To save them, doctors perform a miraculous surgery which combines the two of them, and --- voila --- Dog Man is back on the force. And now he’s tasked by his Chief (voiced by Lil Rel Howery) to capture the supervillain, Petey the Cat (voiced by Pete Davidson).
Evil Petey wants to double his evilness, so he clones himself. Unfortunately for Petey, his new kitten, Li’l Petey (voiced by Lucas Hopkins Calderon), is totally sweet --- and adorable --- and not at all interested in doing bad stuff. Instead, he forms a rather loving bond with Dog Man. But when the other villain in town captures Li’l Petey, Dog Man and Petey must work together to bring the little kitty home.
DOG MAN is directed by Emmy-winning Peter Hastings, who is also responsible for the adapted screenplay. There are flashes of brilliance --- and humor --- possibly enough for the younger moviegoers, but definitely not for the adults. Poppy Liu, who voices Petey’s never-paid assistant, Butler, and Ricky Gervais as Flippy the fish, provide the comic relief, though their parts --- and talent --- are significantly underutilized.
Pilkey had two requests for Hastings --- Dog Man doesn’t talk and Li’l Petey had to be voiced by a child, which is admirable since Calderon does an epic job. Davidson, on the other hand, falls flat as the cat supervillain. I realize DOG MAN is following a series of books, but I would have been much happier had the storyline simply focused on Dog Man and Li’l Petey’s relationship alone.
Rounding out the voice cast is Isla Fisher as Sarah Hatoff, a dogged reporter with a devoted cameraman, Seamus (Billy Boyd), by her side. There’s also Stephen Root who gives life to Grampa, Petey’s miserable father, who abandoned him when he was little. Rapper Yung Gravy was tapped to create an original song, building upon a James Brown classic, “I Feel Good” --- a fitting end to DOG MAN.
Opinion: Mild See It Now! (for the kiddies)
DAVID’S REVIEW
By today’s standards of feature length animation, DOG MAN would appear to be lacking in several areas. First, the animation is unremarkable, and second, the writing is not particularly clever. Ostensibly a comedy, there was precious little laughter coming from our screening audience which included quite a few children. Only a couple of laughs were elicited by the audience, including Jeanne occasionally. But she can be easily amused.
I mention “children” because this movie is based on a hugely popular book series by author Dav Pilkey which has garnered major book awards. Even some of the cast members reveal their childhood love --- or perhaps their own kids’ love --- for Pilkey’s books.
However, if one is either not familiar with, or not a fan of the books, the movie is not particularly likeable. As for the unremarkable animation mentioned above, this is actually in line with the simplicity of Pilkey’s works. And that was paramount to director Peter Hastings’ interpretation of the books.
Personally, I found the action sequences overly frenetic, and I suspect that even some of the most devoted young readers of the books may have a problem following the goings-on. The voice cast includes household names like Pete Davidson, Ricky Gervais and Isla Fisher, all of whom were excited to be a part of this DreamWorks project.
Opinion: Don’t Bother! (unless you’re a fan)