Director: Peter Hastings
Actors: Pete Davidson, Isla Fisher, Lil Rey Howery, Ricky Gervais
Genre: Animation / Comedy
Rating: G
‘Dog Man’ is in the school holidays with the nephew and
nieces – surprisingly better than I thought it would be! The other surprising
bit – I didn’t realise it’s actually supposed to be a dog’s head on a man’s body!
Very fast-paced start, as we’re introduced to the animation style, Dog Man (director
Hastings puling double-duty and vocalising Dog Man’s barks/howls), his boss,
the Police Chief (Howery), reporters Sarah (Fisher) & Seamus (Boyd) and the
bad guy, Petey the cat (Davidson).
The plot is quite simple, similar to ‘Despicable Me’ in
parts (and Godzilla!), as Petey creates Lil Petey and starts to develop a heart
– but not before multiple attempts to hurt Dog Man, where he’s thwarted, in
montage. There’s a fun little backstory to Flippy the fish (Gervais), before he
becomes key to the final act – always good to hear Gevais’ voice! Lots of
visual gags, not least the descriptions on the building – I assume these are borrowed
from the books.
At a tight 85min (plus the 5min ‘Bad Guys’ short film at the
start), it’s pretty vibrant and funny, with quite a few laugh-out-loud moments
for the adults (I loved the “yippee-ki-yay-flippy” joke) and lots of silly
jokes for the kids. Importantly, there’s plenty of heart thanks to Lil Petey
and Dog Man and their “do-gooding”, and Petey’s arc. Not the best kids movie
ever, but enjoyable.
Overall: Bumped up from a 3, as the kids said 4 stars.
Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars
