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Director Peter Hastings als voices the title character in "Dog...

Director Peter Hastings als voices the title character in "Dog Man." Credit: Universal Pictures / DreamWorks Animation

 

PLOT Following a terrible accident, a cop and his canine partner are fused together.

CAST Voices of Pete Davidson, Lil Rel Howery, Isla Fisher

RATED PG (mild rude humor)

LENGTH 1:29

WHERE Area theaters

BOTTOM LINE The animated adaptation of Dav Pilkey’s wild-and-woolly book series is a bit ruff around the edges.

Few children's authors understand the mind of a grade schooler like Dav Pilkey. His stories are pun-filled, potty-humored romps populated by characters like Captain Underpants and Bionic Booger Boy, while his accompanying illustrations are near-doodles. Pilkey's signature narrative device, the two-page flipbook, has helped him sell at least 150 million copies of more than 70 books, according to his publisher, Scholastic. For my own two sons, I personally bought at least a million.
“Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie,” a 2017 animated adaptation from DreamWorks, suggested a strong start for a potential Pilkey Cinematic Universe. Now the studio is tackling his other best-known creation, Dog Man. The premise: In Ohkay City, a cop and his canine partner survive a terrible accident – but only after quick-thinking doctors fuse them together. In other words: classic Pilkey.
Alas, “Dog Man” isn’t arf the movie that its predecessor was. There’s plenty of nonsensical humor in the screenplay, by director Peter Hastings (who also growls and howls in the speechless title role), and there are some jokes to keep the grown-ups awake, including a couple of cleaned-up versions of R-rated lines from “Aliens” and “Die Hard." Overall, though, this scattered and frenetic film feels as hastily stitched-together as its hero.
It certainly moves fast: We barely get to know Officer Knight and faithful Greg before they merge and begin chasing after Petey, a super-villainous tabby cat voiced by a rather good Pete Davidson. From there, the story quickly splinters: Petey hatches two plans, one involving his cloned son, Lil’ Petey (Lucas Hopkins), the other involving an evil fish named Flippy (Ricky Gervais, briefly). In what passes for a subplot, the police department’s Chief (Lil Rel Howery) is in love with local newscaster Sarah Hatsoff (Isla Fisher).
“Dog Man” tries to channel Pilkey's knack for piling one gonzo idea on top of the next, but it doesn’t quite work. When several buildings come to life, Dog Man invents a giant robotic mailman to fight them. Er, why a mailman? Just as dubious are the movie’s attempts to tug our heartstrings, as when cranky Petey abandons his sweet little son on the street. Really? Only a real villain would do that.
To its credit, “Dog Man” has an appealing animated style, with characters and sets that look almost hand-crafted. That, and a current shortage of kiddie fare in theaters, might make “Dog Man” worth a Saturday matinee. As for me, I’ll stick with the flipbooks.

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