I was so happy when I saw that DreamWorks was making a Dog Man movie! There were a couple of years where for my son the books of Dav Pilkey were the most awesome thing going. His two favorites were Captain Underpants, which got a fun movie adaptation, and also Dog Man which I thought my son would not want to see as he is older. However, he actually surprised me and said that he would watch it and we both got a real kick out of it.
How to Download Dog Man
Dog Man was released on January 31, 2025. You can expect to be able to download or stream the film from Peacock or other digital platform in 2-3 months from that date. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and check the current availability.
Dog Man Movie Review
I will admit, even though Dog Man and the work of Dav Pilkey is popular, for some reason, I had a bad feeling that Dog Man was not going to do well at the box office. Well, I am very happy to say that this has done well at the box office. If your kids love the books, they will love them. However, I would also say that this movie could serve as a great way to get your kids more interested in reading if they have never read any of the Dog Man books or the other stuff from Dav Pilkey, this will make them want to.
The Story of Dog Man: A Unique Superhero
The premise of Dog Man is that in the city of Ohkay City, a crazy and evil cat called Petey is always causing trouble. Evil kitty, Petey has put a bomb in an old building and Officer Knight along with his partner, his dog called Greg shows up to try and stop the bomb. Well, the bomb explodes and both Officer Knight and Greg get hurt and hurt pretty badly.
Thankfully, two very talented doctors manage to save Officer Knight and Greg. However, they save them by stitching Greg’s head onto Officer Knight’s body, thus creating Dog Man, the ultimate cop and protector of Ohkay City and the foil for Petey’s evil schemes. This is such a fun premise and I love how it has a bit of Robocop about it as well as some other action movie cliches as well.
A Villain with a Twist
Petey decides that he needs some help so he creates a clone of himself called, Lil’ Petey, but Lil’ Petey does not want to be evil and wants to be good, much to the annoyance of Petey. So much so that Petey ditches Lil’ Petey and Dog Man saves him and kind of adopts him.
Now, Petey decides that he is going to resurrect this old fish villain called Flippy which does not exactly go to plan. Turns out that Flippy is even crazier and more evil than Petey is and Dog Man is really going to have his work cut out for him trying to save the day this time around. They have taken a few elements from a couple of different books and stitched them together here and I think that they told a good and fun story.
More Than Just a Kids’ Movie
What could have been just a silly and fun kids movie, has far more substance than you may think. Petey is such a great character with a ton of depth and the way his character grows through the movie is done very well, especially the stuff with Lil’ Petey and Petey’s jerk dad! Then we also have the stuff with Dog Man who loves to save the day, but he is also sad about losing his life as both a person and a dog.
Stunning Animation and Fantastic Voice Cast
Dog Man looks incredible, it has that same kind of style as the Captain Underpants movie and I do not know how they could have brought the work of Dav Pilkey to life better than they did here. It also has a great voice cast with Pete Davidson as Petey being the major highlight for me.
Final Thoughts on Dog Man
I so wanted this to be good and it ended up even better than I thought it would be. If you have kids and want a fun day out at the movies, it does not get much more fun than Dog Man. While I hope tons of kids go and see this and love it, I also hope that it inspires a bunch of kids to read the books and the other stuff that Dav Pilkey has done over the years. Let me tell you, it is going to be hard for an animated movie to top what DreamWorks have done here!
