Dog Man released on January 31st, 2025, and instantly received acclaim from fans with a score of 87% rotten tomatoes 2 weeks after release. The Dog Man movie jams all of the first four books into a single highly edited story that covers all the main villains and events from the books.
It was made by the same company who animated and wrote the beloved Captain Underpants movie. With a good movie from the same universe under their belt, most expected Dog Man to be a box office slam.
Having grossed $104 million dollars in the three weeks it was shown with a $40 million dollar budget, the film has raised money, but not nearly to the extent of Captain Underpants.
The movie starts off the same way as the books. A police officer named Officer Knight and his dog named Greg were chasing a thief. They then lost the thief, and the Chief called them the “worst cops ever,” which makes them sad. They then climbed upstairs to a building rooftop. Then, they found a bomb at the top planted by the movie’s main villain, Petey.
Upon finding the bomb had two wires, they had incorrectly guessed the correct wire to snip, so it exploded on them. Greg’s body is rendered useless along with Officer Knight’s head. Acting upon this, the nurses have sewn the dogs head to the man’s body, having created: Dog Man!
Then, a montage of the epic Dog Man stopping crime is shown. After this slideshow we were properly introduced to the main villain of this movie; Petey. Petey is an anthropomorphic cat whose father left him as a mere wee kitten.
Petey planted the bomb to get rid of Officer Knight as he was too good at his job. However, he created Dog Man on accident by detonating this bomb. So, Petey had sworn himself to DESTROYING Dog Man! To complete this task, he employed a large variety of devices; including but not limited to the Giant Vacuum 2000, Robo-Dee 2000, and 80-HD. None of these inventions end up working and Petey got arrested, re-thrown in jail and then escaped jail several times.
During these escapes, Petey bought a cloning machine online to make another one of him. However, upon using the machine, he realized it made a baby version. He then ordered an undo button online for his cloning machine to undo the newly named clone, Lil Petey.
Once he escaped the 5th time, he cooked up his most evil and convoluted plan yet. He planned to take the dead body of the villain from the third book; Flippy. He took him to the living spray (spray that makes things live) factory and threw it down the pipe on top to get him covered in the spray. However, in the middle of this plan, Dog Man messed up Petey’s shot and Flippy got stuck in the air duct. Petey ran off and Dog man was rewarded for saving the day.
Throughout the movie, the chief called in Dog Man several times to his office. Chief had no actual major plot relevance, but he is good comedic relief and did initiate some of Dog Mans antics. With an obvious crush on the news lady, Chief isn’t delved into very deeply in the movie, but I wanted to mention him here just because he was a decently notable character.
At this point, Petey sadly and heartlessly abandoned Lil Petey in a box on the side of the road. After some strangely introspective and seriously sad dialogue from Lil Petey about the situation, he went to sleep before having been found by Dog Man. Dog Man took Lil Petey to his doghouse home where they stayed comfortably for the night.
While Petey continued to craft up a plan, Dog Man and Lil Petey got into some non-notable shenanigans as plot filler. Eventually Petey started to miss Lil Petey and went out looking for him with 80-HD. Petey found him and took him back home from Dog Man. Dog Man looked everywhere and couldn’t find Lil Petey and ended up accepting that he may never find him.
Just then, a loud BOOM from across town; Petey’s hatched another plan! However, during this plan, there was a huge accident in the living spray factory and Flippy fell into the spray! Not only this, but the gas leaked to all the surrounding buildings, and made them all alive angry buildings!
Dog Man and Petey realized their situation, and both decided that Petey needed to be arrested later. Then, the cop statue in town came to life to help fight Flippy and the evil buildings! The statue took out all the extra buildings with ease, until Flippy and the big buildings teamed up to take down the robot cop. Just as Dog Man and Petey were about to be defeated, Lil Petey entered with 80-HD and struck down the building at the perfect time!
However, Flippy was still left standing, and none of the good guys could fight! Petey took Lil Petey’s place in 80-HD, and told Lil Petey and Dog Man to run.
Flippy came in and scooped up Petey, took him to a volcano and tried and drop him in! Right as Flippy was about to drop him in, Lil Petey showed up with a hand drawn book he made of him and Flippy. Lil Petey showed Flippy that all he needed was a friend, and that everything will be ok if that is made true.
Flippy gave up and allowed Dog Man to arrest him, and Petey was acquitted of all his crimes for having helped save the day with Dog Man.
Bazinga enthusiast, Xavier Cordova, said it was a “delightfully beautiful show”, stating that “I loved [petey] the most, I’d make a return to the theatre with him in the next movie if that ever happened.”
All in all, this movie was incredibly funny, well-paced, lighthearted but had some serious genuine moments with Lil Petey and storytelling of abandonment and the cycle of abuse. Dog Man was a great follow up to a movie in the same universe by the same company, having held up to the same standard as the original in every category. I give Dog Man an 8.5-9/10, a very enjoyable movie.
