Dog Man (Christian Movie Review)
Bursting with creative energy, clever humor, and wholesome themes, Dog Man is a delightful animated tale.
About the Film
Watching a family film these days can feel like competing on an episode of Wipe Out, as parents simply try to reach the end without their children sporting bruises or getting covered in too much mud. Thankfully, Dog Man, an adaptation of the wildly popular graphic novel series by Dav Pikey, is a film that younger viewers and their parents can enjoy together. Bursting with creative energy, clever humor, and wholesome themes, Dog Man is a delightful movie.
Animated family films typically fall into one of two categories: those that aim low by offering a sugar rush of diverting entertainment (the Minions movies) and those that aim high by presenting thematically mature, “make-grown-adults-cry” stories (The Wild Robot and Pixar at its best). Dog Man leans toward the former but ultimately lands somewhere in the middle. On the surface, it is unabashedly silly with a nonstop bombardment of gags. Yet amid the zany plot and goofy humor, the film contains some surprisingly mature messages.
Despite existing in a world where some animals can talk, Dog Man cannot. Featuring a non-verbal protagonist is an amusing storytelling exercise, and he is an endearing character largely because of that limitation. To compensate for its hero’s inability to speak, the film provides a collection of quirky side characters, such as Petey (Dog Man’s feline arch-rival) and Li’l Petey (his cute child clone). In fact, Dog Man may be the title character, but the two cats often take center stage. In one amusingly meta moment, after analyzing a chart of the story’s characters, a man asks, “Which one is the hero!?” Another character responds, “They all are.” Despite its crowded cast, Dog Man feels cohesive due to its overarching themes of love and companionship (see below).
As expected, Dog Man is hilarious. It may not trigger frequent belly laughs, but it will keep viewers grinning from start to finish. The frequency of the jokes can become exhausting at times, but the humor itself is clever. Yes, there are some potty gags. Yet most of the comedic elements reflect the sharp and dry wit people expect of author Dav Pikey.
Briskly paced and bursting with creative ideas, there is a lot happening on screen—for better or worse. The film utilizes its soft color palette and charming claymation aesthetic to great effect. Nearly every scene throws a new visual idea at audiences, translating the graphic novels onto the screen in consistently inventive ways.
The plot could have been kept on a slightly tighter leash, as Dog Man attempts to incorporate a slew of characters and plot elements from across the sprawling 13-book series. Much like the Minions movies, the story works best as a sequence of funny moments rather than as a traditional three-act plot.
Overall, Dog Man is the type of animated family film many parents have been wanting to see from Hollywood. It boasts plenty of silly entertainment that will delight younger viewers as well as enough wholesome messages to please their parents.
For Consideration
Language: There are several uses of filler words, like “jeeze,” or “this sucks.” A character declares, “Flippy ki yay, flippy floppers,” a play off of Die Hard’s famous—and more profane—quote.
Violence: The central gimmick of a dog’s head being sewn on a man’s body is an obviously gruesome concept, but it is portrayed playfully in the film.
Sexuality: None.
Engage The Film
Power of Love and Friendship
Dog Man conveys a simple but wholesome message about positive thinking and the importance of love and friendship. Dog Man struggles with loneliness, having lost his best friend during the process of being surgically combined with him. Li’l Petey is a “mistake,” an unwanted child. The midpoint introduction of Petey’s deadbeat, hyper-critical father exposes how Petey’s villainous ways and self-professed “miserable” existence have been shaped by his unpleasant upbringing. Even Flippy—an evil, telekinetic fish—reveals that his actions are the result of anger he harbors due to painful experiences of being bullied.
The film encourages viewers to show people grace, because we don’t always recognize the root cause of their behavior. The film also demonstrates how experiencing love and friendship can positively alter someone’s perspective. In an early scene, Petey is on a walk with Li’l Petey. While the younger cat sees pretty flowers and a beautiful lake, Petey sees only weeds and pollution. While walking the same path at the end of the film, Petey pulls a trash bottle from the lake to use as a vase for the weeds. The action demonstrates how he has chosen to focus on the goodness in his future rather than on the painful parts of his past.
The film’s message reflects the biblical exhortation, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8). Parents can use the film to talk to their kids about how even amid the difficulties of life, there is beauty in the world if we choose to notice it.
