Don’t worry, this is spoiler free for all the fans out there.
DreamWorks has officially released Dog Man, based on the highly successful graphic novels by Captain Underpants creator Dav Pilkey, and the first of the studio’s four major releases this year. Financially, the movie has been a success so far, it made $36 million on just the opening weekend. But the real question still remains: is it any good?
I didn’t read any of the Dog Man books growing up, so I knew nothing about the character. I did read Pilkey’s other popular series, Captain Underpants. Also luckily for me, I know people who did read titular canine cop’s adventures, so I took them with me.
The biggest takeaway is that this movie is very clearly meant for two audiences: small children, and people who grew up with the books. Should you or someone you know fall into either of these groups, I’m sure you will get a good time out of it.
There are a lot of direct references to small details in the books, as well as Pilkey’s other works. The people I watched it with found these small details to be the highlights of the movie. Despite not reading the books, the movie did feel faithful to Pilkey’s works, with the humour feeling right at home. Characters such as Petey and the Chief in particular were comedic standouts.
In terms of the filmmaking perspective, the animation itself was incredibly well done. It has an almost clay-like aesthetic, with colours that pop off the screen, combined with good lighting and framing. The editing was incredibly fast and snappy, which fit the tone of the movie very well, and felt faithful to the stories Pilkey wrote.
The plot is as simple as Kraft Dinner and as subtle as a gunshot, which is to be expected of a movie targeted primarily for children, and although some elements do get lost in the shuffle created by the fast pace, it does just enough to get most through the brisk 94-minute runtime.
At the end of the day, Dog Man knows exactly what it’s trying to do, and does it well, even if the goal isn’t exactly ambitious. It doesn’t reach the peaks of DreamWorks’ standouts, such as The Prince of Egypt, How to Train your Dragon, or The Wild Robot, but it really doesn’t need to. If you have kids who want to go see it, they’ll have a great time, and it isn’t unbearable for parents.
I heard quite a bit of laughter coming from both the kids and the adults in my theatre. Long story short, take the kids and/or fans of the books you know, I’m sure it’ll be a fun night at the movies.
Rating: 7/10
