Once upon a time, there was a kid in Ohio named Dav Pilkey. He had ADHD and Dyslexia, and while that didn’t make him a Half-Blood demigod, did make school hard for him. It also didn’t help that his teachers kept saying the comic books he loved making were trash. Nor did it help that they said he’d never make a living making books. Thankfully, Dav didn’t listen, made Captain Underpants, Ricky Ricotta, Dumb Bunnies, and Dog Man, and became a bestselling kids author. Then in 2017, Dreamworks gave Captain Underpants his own movie, and everyone loved it. Fast forward to 2025, and Dreamworks gave Dog Man his own movie, with this longtime Pilkey fan seeing it on opening day. Why? Because despite being outside the demographic, I can’t pass up a chance to see Dav Pilkey’s silliness at work.
It was worth the price of admission, even if it was a little all over the place.
The Story So Far…
Officer Knight and Gregg the Dog were the two best cops in Ohkay City. But then one day, they got blown up by a bomb thanks to their nemesis Petey, the world’s most evilest cat! The cop’s head was no good, and the dog’s body was no good. So the nurses decided to something crazy. They sewed the dog’s head onto the man’s body, creating the ultimate fusion of man and dog: Dog Man! Thus began the war of cat and dog. Dog Man would lock Petey in jail. Petey would escape within days, and then the whole process would repeat itself.
Then one day, Petey decided he needed to make an evil clone of himself, but the clone was a little kid and super nice. This Lil’ Petey would end up changing the lives of Dog Man and Petey forever!
Dog Man has a lot to dig up…
If that sounded like a lot to have thrown at you, that’s because it is. Like the Captain Underpants film, Dog Man isn’t adapting just one book from the titular series. It’s taking elements from the first five or six books and trying to mesh them all together. The result feels like a super-abridged retelling of some of the key moments from Dog Man. Whereas the Captain Underpants film managed to maintain a largely coherent story, though, Dog Man’s story feels more…all over the place. Like it’s trying to fit in multiple stories that could take up a few movies into one.
For example, despite his importance to the series, Lil’ Petey doesn’t actually appear until the third volume of Dog Man. And it’s not until a few books later that Petey truly starts to bond with his son/clone, as well as open up about the personal issues that led him to become a villain. Plus, there’s also the appearance of another villain that Dog Man stopped in one of his earlier books, but whose defeat isn’t even shown in the film. It’s told solely through exposition.
The people who made this movie must have thought they weren’t going to get a sequel. Thus, they decided to throw in as much possible. The end result is something that, while entertaining and silly enough for its target audience, can feel disjointed to adults watching it.
Good thing it makes up for that with the characters.
…but it’s also deeper than you think
Captain Underpants is infamous for the amount of hate it gets from adults who say it’s not appropriate for kids. They take one look at Captain Underpants, Super Diaper Baby, and Dog Man and think they’re just silly stories that make their kids act sillier (like me.) While books like Dog Man are undeniably silly, underneath that, you can find some pretty profound messages and depth to the characters.
For example, as cool as it is to be a half-man, half-dog supa cop, the movie pulls no punches on hard it is for Dog Man. He’s not even out of the hospital yet, and his girlfriend’s already sold their house. And left with another man, to boot! Plus, there’s also the underlying dread of the fact that he’s a fusion of two separate beings. How much of Officer Knight or Gregg the dog is still part of him? The implication that he has to live with the fact that one or both individuals sacrificed themselves to give Dog Man life is terrifying.
Source-Universal Pictures.com, Dreamworks.com, Dav Pilkey, Treehouse Comix, George Beard and Harold Hutchins, Scholastic Books
And then, there’s Petey. He acts like he’s a cold-hearted villain, but once Lil’ Petey comes into place, you start to see the cracks form. Then you learn the reason he turned out like this is because his deadbeat dad abandoned him and his mom as a kitten. Anyone who has had an abusive relationship with a parent can relate to what Petey went through. Tragically, he almost repeats history when he tries to abandon Lil’ Petey. It’s a vicious cycle that happens too often in the real world.
Which makes the messages behind Dog Man all the more important.
Dog Man. It’s a very funny movie.
Many of Dav Pilkey’s books share two main themes: silliness and a conflict between cynicism and idealism. The latter relates to his own life, where plenty of people cynically told him he wouldn’t amount to anything with his talents. Rather than listen to them, though, he chose to keep being optimistic, allowing him to find success. Captain Underpants exemplified this with George and Harold, and Dog Man does the same with Dog Man and Lil’ Petey. Ultimately, kindness goes way further than being mean, and it’s important that kids see this firsthand at a young age.
So, in the end, is Dog Man a perfect movie? No; it’s got some real pacing issues and tries to do too much at once. At the same time, though, I can’t deny that at least it’s enjoyable, especially if you’re a kid. Or if you’ve been a fan of Dav Pilkey since reading his books as a kid. If you want to get the full enjoyment out of Pilkey’s creations, though, I highly recommend you check out his books. Who cares if you’re an adult? They’re still genuinely funny!
A ‘Dog Man’ mascot cuddling with dogs in new video.
