"DOG MAN" - REVIEW
If you were, or have raised, an elementary school-aged child anytime in the last 30 years, it’s pretty safe to say that Dav Pilkey is on your bookshelf (and if he’s not, he should be).
Dav Pilkey (pronounced like Dave, but spelled thusly from the time the name tag machine broke at his high school job at Pizza Hut) is a cartoonist, author and illustrator, best known for the “epic novel” series of Captain Underpants and Dog Man. His work is crudely drawn (always by George Beard and Harold Hutchins, the childhood best friends and cartoonist protagonists of Captain Underpants, and who bookend each Dog Man novel), undeniably arbitrary, and staggeringly funny, with true wit and observations about life peppered in at just the right times, in just the right amounts. Pilkey’s sense of pacing and comic timing are masterful, often keeping parents laughing as hard as children.
We saw the first feature-length Pilkey adaptation in 2017 with DreamWorks Animation’s CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS: THE FIRST EPIC MOVIE: more fitfully amusing and almost strictly for the kids who read those books, as is its spinoff animated series on Netflix.
Now, we have a new—superior—Pilkey adaptation for all ages in the form of this riotously funny, clever and incredibly sweet adventure, which begins from the ashes of a tragic accident, in which Officer Knight consults his dog Greg (both voiced by screenwriter/director Peter Hastings, already well-steeped in the Pilkeyverse with the CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS series) when trying to dismantle a time bomb (“red wire or green wire?”), only to have it literally blow up in their faces (Knight realizes too late that dogs are colorblind). But have no fear: the surgeons at the Major Hospital in Town have sewed the head of Greg the dog onto the body of Officer Knight (don’t think too hard about this, and no, we don’t see it) to make the ultimate “supa cop,” Dog Man!
Certainly more dog than man, Dog Man adjusts to his new life alone, in his new house (much smaller on the outside); protecting and serving Ohkay City alongside Chief (Lil Rel Howery, GET OUT) and Milly (Luenell, BORAT); getting plenty of press from “world’s greatest reporter” Sarah Hatoff (Isla Fisher, THE GREAT GATSBY) and her cameraman Seamus (Billy Boyd, Pippin from THE LORD OF THE RINGS); and still finding time to play fetch or chase the occasional eastern grey squirrel. The canine crimefighter and company doggedly pursue the “world’s most evilest cat,” Petey (Pete Davidson, THE KING OF STATEN ISLAND), whose schemes and gadget purchases rival that of Wile E. Coyote’s. Petey’s latest plans include reanimating and mutating an evil pet fish named Flippy (Ricky Gervais, THE OFFICE), and cloning himself, but instead results in the creation of the adorable and precocious kitten Li’l Petey (voiced with warmth and gentleness by newcomer Lucas Hopkins Calderon) who, like Dog Man himself, becomes the softness and optimism at the center of the chaos, revealing our own capacities for softness and optimism. You know, like real puppies and kitties do.
Story-wise, prepare for random awesomeness (or is it awesome randomness?). The movie more or less play the hits from the ten Dog Man novels, but reshuffling them and seasoning them with some truly riotous genre filmmaking in-jokes (there are clever nods to ALIENS and DIE HARD, and an absurdly funny aspect ratio joke that made this Movie Friend—coughcoughNERDcoughcough—laugh out loud). Rounding out the voice cast in bit parts are the most welcome Kate Micucci, Cheri Oteri, Laraine Newman, Melissa Villaseñor, and the great Stephen Root.
The energy flags a bit toward the end of its 89 minutes, and there were times that I wish the voices were—honestly—more like the way I read them, to serve as grounded counterpoints to the insane antics… but who cares? Bottom line is that DOG MAN fans can rejoice: the film is fast-paced, hilarious and lovingly rendered in three dimensions, while being playful with and remaining faithful to its 2-D source material. So, if you like action… and if you like laffs… and you like awesomeness… then the movie DOG MAN IS GO!!
(“Dog Man is Go?!”
“That don’t make no sense!”
“But WE LIKE IT!!”)
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#IslaFisher
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Zach is a proud member of the Minnesota Film Critics Association (MNFCA). For more info about Zach, the organization, or to read other great reviews from other great Minnesota-based film critics, click here: https://mnfilmcriticalliance.wordpress.com/