Jeri Jacquin
Police Officer Knight and sidekick dog Greg are severely injured and in order to save them both, the doctors create Dog Man! Quick healing puts Dog Man back on the streets to try and capture Petey the Cat (Pete Davidson). Dog Man’s boss Chief (Lil Rel Howery) knows that the town’s mayor (Cheri Oteri) is becoming frustrated and makes it clear to get that cat!
Petey (Pete Davidson) is wreaking havoc and with each capture, he realizes that its time to be more creative. Deciding to double himself, what actually happens is the creation of Little Petey (Lucas Hopkins), an adorable child version of big Petey. Not happy with the outcome, in one moment he becomes happy when little Petey goes missing.
Not really missing really, more like left and Dog Man finds him! Taking him home, the two become attached to one another. Keeping up on the news of what Petey is doing is Sarah Hatoff (Isla Fisher), the local news reporter and her trusty cameraman Seamus (Billy Boyd). To add more mischief and mayhem Petey has created a robot and manages to bring Flippy the Fish (Ricky Gervais) into the chaos.
So now Dog Man, must find a way to stop the madness created by Petey while also keeping Chief and the mayor happy and not crushing Little Petey’s spirit. That’s a tall order for a small Dog Man but nothing that he can’t handle without a little surprising help.
Writer/Director Hastings has decided to be the barking voice of Dog Man and there certainly isn’t anything wrong with that. He is able to provide the right emotions for this animated creation and it did look like fun. Davidson as Petey the Cat is a bit psychotic, a bit maniacal and a bit misunderstood. It takes a duplicate to test what he believes about himself but doesn’t stop the creation of more problems.
Howery as Chief tries to deal with Dog Man and the mayor giving him more headaches than he knows what to do with. There is a little jealousy about all the attention Dog Man is getting so there’s that issue to deal with. Fisher as Hatoff had me cracking up with her reporter skills and with the help of Boyd as Seamus, these two characters are perfect together and these two actors gave perfect voices to them.
Gervais as Flippy the Fish has us rolling with laughter and the lines delivered had Gervais all over them. The craziness is there and we were loving every moment. Hopkins as Little Petey is charming, adorable and almost made me want an orange cat – almost. His voice gives us reason to believe that a character can be a little bad even if he’s all good.
Other cast include Stephen Root as Grandpa, Poppy Liu as Butler, Luenell as Milly, Melissa Villasenor as the Realtor, Brian Hopkins as Big Jim, Yung Gravy as Mr. Whiskers, and Karen Foster as the Robot.
DreamWorks Animation brings amazing, animated entertainment to films, television specials and series for the young and young at heart audiences around the world. For more of what they have to offer please visit http://www.dreamworksanimation.com.
Universal Pictures has amazing films in their library. There are films of every genre available from scary to drama to family films. For more of what they have to offer please visit www.uphe.com.
Dav Pilkey is the creator of Dog Man but this isn’t his first works to go from book to screen. He is also responsible for Captain Underpants books that also made it to the screen successfully. Pilkey has written 12 Dog Man books, several in the Dragon series, Dumb Bunnies books, Cat Kid Comic Club, Ricky Ricotta’s Mighty Robot, Big Dog & Little Dog and other books.
First of all, DOG MAN is one of my granddaughters all time favorite books to read and she can not get enough of them. When I told her that Dog Man had been made into a film, she was thrilled beyond belief and made sure that I took her to see it. Her favorite character is Petey and she was so happy from beginning to end.
The film is funny with the zany story and it even had references that are meant to make the adults laugh. DOG MAN is so colorful and the animation is well done to the point where I could hold up one of the books next to the film poster and there is hardly any difference. That’s what made it so excitable to watch, keeping the characters as they have come to be loved by kids and probably a few adults.
Decompressing from the rush of the holidays, DOG MAN is the perfect family film to go to the theatre, grab popcorn and laugh together without the stressors. It is so well animated, colorful, fun and full of laughter from start to finish.
In the end – part dog, part man and all hero!
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