The Classic has had press credentials to view Universal Studios movies at advance screenings for over ten years. I have been the newspaper advisor for all that time, but I have never attended one of those screenings until we received passes to Dog Man, which opens everywhere this Friday. My students would probably be surprised that this movie was the one that finally enticed me to attend one of the screenings. I went for two reasons. First, the screening welcomed families and my children have been dying to see this movie. They love the Dog Man graphic novels by Dav Pilkey, which they read after devouring the Captain Underpants books by the same author. I appreciate any books that encourage my children to read, which brings me to the second reason for wanting to see this movie. When I was a middle school teacher, I remember Captain Underpants and similar series (like the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books) being helpful when encouraging reluctant independent readers to actually read something. So, although I entered the Dog Man screening with little knowledge of the stories beyond what I’ve occasionally seen while reading with my kids, I did enter with a lot of gratitude for these kinds of books, as a teacher and a father.
My students know me to be critical of lots of books and movies, and over the years, we’ve disagreed on many of them. Dog Man and Captain Underpants are not the books I’d necessarily teach to a class, but what I can say is that they have three qualities I admire: they are visually enticing, unapologetically silly, and endlessly entertaining.
Does the movie translate those three traits to the big screen? With regard to the first two, the answer is absolutely yes. The animation itself does an impressive job of making Pilkey’s drawing style work as a big budget 3D animated movie without trying to overcomplicate things. Pilkey’s drawing style is purposely childish — after all, the whole idea behind Dog Man is that the comics are written not by Dav Pilkey but by George and Harold, the protagonists of Captain Underpants who spend as much of their time as possible writing and illustrating comic books. That child-like simplicity is appealing in the books and in this movie. It never aims to look like an immaculately animated Pixar movie that’s been painstakingly animated for five years. Rather, it looks both professional and yet still like a comic created by children come to life–and I have no doubt that nailing that balance between looking polished and looking childish is the product of years of painstaking animation work.
In the same vein, the movie is also unapologetically silly: it rightly feels like two kids are telling us this story–even if it doesn’t come out and tell you that Dog Man is a George and Harold production. Buildings are named for their narrative purpose. An expendable warehouse that exists to set up Dog Man’s half-man, half-dog origin story is literally called the “Expendable Warehouse.” Petey, Dog Man’s feline arch nemesis, has a Secret Lab in a building with a giant neon sign that reads “Petey’s Secret Lab.” My children tell me that this is straight out of the books, but it works just as well in the movie. I can imagine George and Harold adding in all of these little details, and it gives the movie a layer that you might not appreciate if you didn’t know that it’s all supposed to be their comic book. I understand why the filmmakers might want to avoid too much about George and Harold, but just a little more acknowledgment that the story is the work of children would have enhanced the experience for all viewers. It makes the jokes funnier, and it makes that simple animation style look cleverly childish rather than just childish.
So, yes, the visuals are strong and the silliness is certainly there, but what about “endlessly entertaining”? This is the area where I’m not sure it quite hits the mark. In some ways, I feel similarly about this movie as I do about Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, the 2017 adaptation film adaptation of that book series. That movie was fun, my kids enjoyed it, and since it’s clearly not made for me, there’s not much I can say beyond this: it was an entertaining enough few hours to spend with my kids. There never ended up being a second epic movie, but Netflix did produce a number of seasons of a Captain Underpants show that I think was far superior. My children have watched each episode over and over again, and there are moments in it that I find truly funny. I love everything from its running jokes about guacamole and the inherent scariness of clowns to its moments that depart from the animation style in unexpected ways (this clip of Gigglenose the Clown from the series will give you a good example of these kinds of departures and of the show’s repeated fascination with frightening clowns). The show is inventive, and yes, endlessly entertaining.
Peter Hastings, who wrote and directed Dog Man, was not involved in the original Captain Underpants movie, but he was the showrunner for the Netflix series (he also voices Dog Man, though Dog Man does not say much more than a few barks here and there). This movie, however, is not quite as funny or inventive as the Netflix Captain Underpants series. Silly, yes, but on the whole, I found it more, well, cute and sweet than funny. My family tells me that that’s true to the books themselves, which they say are all more sincere and heartwarming than Captain Underpants. At its core, the movie is about a kitten that melts the hearts of everyone he comes in contact with, and it doesn’t depart much from that. That kitten, named Li’l Petey, is primarily interested in changing the heart of his villainous “papa,” Petey (voiced by Pete Davidson). I haven’t seen Pete Davidson in much beyond some skits from SNL, but he clearly put everything he’s got into this role and it helps the character stand out. Since Dog Man rarely speaks, Petey ends up feeling more like the central character. My family has nothing against dogs, but we are definitely cat people, and I think (save for Gromit of Wallace and Gromit) cats make the more entertaining cartoon characters. It certainly is the case here, and though I found Petey enjoyable to watch, I can’t say the movie itself was as funny and entertaining as I’ve found some of the other Captain Underpants Netflix episodes. It’s a nice, simple story. That’s all.
But like Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, this movie was not made for me. My children, particularly my youngest (who is in second grade), all enjoyed it, and I’d rather the filmmakers keep it simple than try to make this into something it’s not. It’s a movie called Dog Man about a man with the head of a dog — what more should it be than a silly, sweet adventure?
