 Director: Peter Hastings Studio: DreamWorks Animation Genre(s): Comedy Rated: PG (For some action and rude humor) |
As a spin-off of DreamWorks underrated "Captain Underpants: The Epic First Movie," you would think that I would have known what I was getting myself into with "Dog Man." A spin-off of the previously mentioned film (the movie is one of the stories that the characters created), "Dog Man" has a cheap animation style that is unpolished and simple; a fact that would normally bother me if it wasn't clear that this is supposed to be a story told by kids for kids. From that perspective, "Dog Man" is about as clever as one could hope, even if by the very nature of the premise the adults are left to fend for themselves.
There may not be too many adults in the theater who will appreciate the fact that the main character is a man who has his dogs head put on his body, but most kids love the premise even though the science is so preposterous that I suspect we'll be hearing Neil deGrass Tyson making a podcast episode explaining to kids why scientifically none of this makes sense. Maybe he would at least acknowledge it makes more sense that the big baddie of the film is Petey, a diabolical cat who wants to take over the world (also the mayor would rather blame Dog Man for Petey always escaping prison rather than throw her brother - who runs the joint - take the fall)?
Why am I even discussing Tyson in the first place? Never mind, let's get back to 'Dog Man." It's, um...a fairly funny film for kids. Many of the jokes are obvious and in-your-face, but if we are to believe this is being told by two kids who still find whoopie cushions funny, it all makes a bit of morbid sense. While it would be easy to look at the film and question why DreamWorks is aiming so low after they just released "The Wild Robot," you still have to acknowledge that their approach to genre-hopping is certainly more interesting than Illumination essentially making the same movie every year.
Ironically, this makes "Dog Man" a tough nut for me to crack. I personally wasn't too enthralled by the experience, but I laughed enough to know that I've seen far worse kids' films. The young ones at my screening seemed to get a kick out of it, and it is a safe movie for kids of all ages despite what the PG rating suggests. On any other day, I might have gone easy on it and given it three stars. However, I also just saw an early screening of "Paddington in Peru," which was also made with young kids in mind but was a significantly better film. It's hard to recommend a struggling family pay to see "Dog Man" when a much better option is right around the corner. If you can afford both, this wasn't terrible. If you're on a budget though, "Dog Man" is a better fit for Netflix.
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