The chaotic fun of ‘Dog Man’ is best enjoyed by its target audience.
By Ethan Warren/Boston Movie News
In 1997, author/illustrator Dav Pilkey published “The Adventures of Captain Underpants,” launching a series of a dozen junior novels focused on the troublemaking adventures of pre-adolescent George Beard and Harold Hutchins. As it happened, George and Harold were interested in writing and illustrating their own comic books, including the crude (in both the artistic and comedic sense) stories of Dog Man—as the slogan goes, part dog, part man, all hero.
By 2016, “Captain Underpants” had hung up his tighty-whities, and Pilkey had pivoted his attention to a series of standalone “Dog Man” graphic novels, a property that’s now been adapted as a CGI feature by writer/director Peter Hastings. The gimmick to these books has always been that they are written and illustrated by George and Harold themselves, allowing for a charmingly sketchy art style and loose approach to grammar and spelling (nothing in the world of Dog Man is “super” only “supa”).
In 2019, “Dog Man” was adapted into a stage musical, which rather charmingly used George and Harold as narrators, providing justification for the fact that this story’s world seems to operate on child logic. Adapted for the screen by veteran cartoonsmith Hastings (Pilkey has no writing credit on the film), “Dog Man” stands on its own two paws. George and Harold are nowhere to be seen; instead, we are immersed in the “supa” world of Dog Man from the jump, and the silly putty logic of this universe is simply a fact of CGI life.
The prologue gets straight to the point: a brainless cop and an exceptionally smart dog are wounded in their effort to apprehend the world’s evilest cat, Petey (Pete Davidson). The dog’s body is dying, as is the cop’s head, but a quick-witted nurse proposes a solution: suture the dog’s head onto the cop’s body. And so begins the story of Dog Man, the “supa” cop.
As of this writing, there are 13 “Dog Man” books, with another on the way, and their mythology has grown dense over what now amounts to thousands of pages. “Dog Man” (the movie) makes a valiant effort to cram as many of those books as feasible into one feature film, ultimately settling on a hodgepodge of at least four, with some excess material being blasted through in a comically byzantine catch-up monologue. The effect is dizzying and provides a certain barrier of entry for the uninitiated. I heard audible bafflement as we received a breathless download on the backstory of Flippy, the evil psychokinetic fish (Ricky Gervais), but “Dog Man” has too much incident to bother with storytelling.
Of course, as my 8- and 6-year-olds would be happy to tell you, the narrative sprint of “Dog Man” serves a necessary purpose: it brings us up to the third book’s introduction of Li’l Petey (Lucas Hopkins). Nefarious Petey’s kindhearted pint-sized clone is the breakout character of the “Dog Man” series and a reliable source of both humor and pathos—without Li’l Petey, “Dog Man” in any form doesn’t really work. So, naturally, the “Dog Man” screenplay moves as swiftly as possible to introduce the twee mini-tabby. In his film debut, Hopkins acquits himself adorably enough, but Li’l Petey is, like many of the film’s myriad characters, underserved by a (blessedly) swift 89-minute runtime.
To the “Dog Man” faithful reading this review (or, more likely, the parents of the “Dog Man” faithful) rest assured: intrepid reporter Sarah Hatoff (Isla Fisher) and irritable Chief (Lil Rel Howery) are present and accounted for alongside robotic do-gooder 80-HD, nefarious Grampa (Stephen Root), and even lunkheaded Big Jim (Hoppy Hopkins). “Dog Man” is bursting at the seams with figures and focal points, and the effect is pleasantly overwhelming to fans, at least the ones I attended with.
It might be, though, that this is a work of fan service first and foremost. “Dog Man” does little to distinguish itself as a work of family filmmaking, like the best adaptations. You don’t need to think of something transcendent like “Where the Wild Things Are” or “Fantastic Mr. Fox”; think of something as seemingly simple as the 2006 “”Curious George,” which built out its plainspoken story with heart and smarts. Instead of reaching for the moon, “Dog Man” settles for a carbon-copied rendition of several of the title character’s most popular exploits. I was pleased to see the film end with some effort at the unfeigned cosmic grace (yes, really) that Pilkey brings to the climax of many of his “Dog Man” books, but the effort felt rote. Petey said the lines, but (perhaps due to a badly miscast Davidson) they lay there rather than singing the way they do on the page.
Coincidentally, the “Dog Man” press screening at the Boston Common AMC ended approximately 90 minutes before the curtain rose on another Dav Pilkey adaptation, “Cat Kid Comic Club: The Musical,” at the Emerson Colonial Theatre. Spun off from “Dog Man,” volumes of “Cat Kid Comic Club” tell the story of Li’l Petey and a gaggle of young frogs as they collaborate on rude, crude, and socially unacceptable comic books. “Peanuts” this is not. But at its best, Pilkey’s work does possess a heartfelt buoyancy and surprising literacy (volumes of “Dog Man” often end with a key explicating tossed-off references).
Unfortunately, the lack of Pilkey’s writing credit is felt in this by-the-numbers adaptation, which immediately breaks the hot streak Dreamworks began building with last year’s superlative “The Wild Robot.” Roz, the titular character of that latter film, appears in an indulgent studio title card montage, and it’s hard not to pine for the plainspoken charms of such a subtle, moving film. “Dog Man,” by comparison, is “supa” noisy and “supa” chaotic. But it’s also “supa” entertaining to its target audience, and I’d be meaner than Petey if I begrudged them such a faithful and loving adaptation of their favorite property.
‘Dog Man’
Rating: PG for some action and rude humor
Cast: Pete Davidson, Isla Fisher, Lil Rel Howery
Director: Peter Hastings
Writers: Peter Hastings, based on the books by Dav Pilkey
Running Time: 89 minutes
Where to Watch: In theaters
Grade: B-
Boston Movie News 