Overview
When a faithful police dog and his human police officer owner are injured together on the job, a harebrained but life-saving surgery fuses the two of them together and Dog Man is born. Dog Man is sworn to protect and serve—and fetch, sit and roll over. As Dog Man embraces his new identity and strives to impress his Chief, he must stop the pretty evil plots of feline supervillain Petey the Cat.
I’ll admit to not being too bothered with going to see Dog Man. Captain Underpants was okay at best, but clearly aimed at a much younger audience than me, so the thought of sitting through another story like that didn’t appeal. However, I gave it a shot to see what the fuss is, and suffice to say I’m pretty glad I did.
Based on the graphic novels for young readers by Dav Pikey, Dog Man rapidly introduces up to famed officer Knight, the best cop the force has, and his dog Greg, who are constantly at odds with the villainous cat Petey, before they fail to diffuse a bomb. Unable to save the officer’s head, or his beloved pet’s body, the surgeons decide to combine the two, stitching Greg’s head on Knight’s body to let them live on as Dog Man! Don’t worry, I’ve not given any spoilers there as all of this happens within the first 5 minutes of the film, before this bizarre mix of Robocop meets Naked Gun slams into overdrive with one of the most bizarre and chaotic-energy filled animated 90 minutes I’ve seen in a long time!
There’s just so much going on at all times here, with a scattershot approach of slapstick humour, scenery details, quick quips, and sub plots galore that shouldn’t work as well as they do together. About 20 minutes in, I’d already found a lot of moments that elicited laughter from me, but I did wonder if it would all be a tad too much over a full film – and then the film suddenly became a story of Petey and his abandonment issues due to his fractured relationship with his father, and pulled me back in to enjoy the rest of the ride.
This is absolutely bonkers from start to finish, with fourth wall breaks, meta humour galore, and some slick animated moments that reminded me to some degree of the vibes that The Bad Guys had. I’m still not a fan of the general character designs, but I grew to accept them, and grew to love Dog Man and Petey as the film progressed.
Yes, this is a film aimed at a young market, but I’m glad I checked it out as it really connected with the big kid in me, and with so much going on in it I’ll surely be checking it out again to see the things I maybe missed. Dog Man is definitely a good boy!