Dog Man (2025)

Apparently a Captain Underpants spin-off and also the subject of a series of kid's books, I went into Dog Man knowing absolutely nothing about it bar seeing the frankly insane looking trailer. It was a Saturday Morning screening with my daughter, and the cinema was pretty full with the children amongst them seeming pretty excited for what was about to unfurl in front of us.

I suppose that the pre-credits sequence is something of an origin story, explaining how Dog Man used to in fact be two separate people- a policeman and his pet dog, who have an accident and are both left in critical condition (it's a bold and bleak beginning to what is very much a young children's film), and the only way to save both of them is to sew the dog's head onto the man's body.

So Dog Man is born, and continues to work for the police, spending all of his time repeatedly arresting his arch nemesis Petey, the most evil cat in the entire world. Every time Dog Man puts Petey in jail, Petey escapes in increasingly ridiculous ways, gloriously bringing to mind the Batman television series from the 1960's. In fact, considering the lunacy that's unfolding at a frenetic pace before our very eyes, Dog Man dramatically surprises in its quickfire comedy that successfully appeals to children and adults alike.

Petey, it turns out, isn't the big bad after all- that persona non grata eventually comes in the form of Ricky Gervais as mutant fish Flippy, doing perfectly fine work in his voice role. Unfortunately certain critics seem to have taken against his voice performance seemingly because it's Ricky Gervais and they don't like him; presumably because he frequently speaks the truth in real life and that's simply not on of course.

Dog Man is utter madness from beginning to end, and the amount that it packs into its short running time is hugely impressive. It's well written, wonderfully animated, and generally just a blast. It undoubtedly lacks the nuance or meaning of Pixar's work, or perhaps more pertinently The Wild Robot (2024, also Dreamworks); and it's also a world away from Flow (2025) but- it has no desire to be either of these things.

Dog Man stands on its on feet/paws rather admirably, and for someone who knew absolutely nothing about it going in, the assault on your eyes that unfolds is very much something to simply embrace- and go along with the bonkers roller-coaster that Dog Man throws at you. It's really quite something, and although I can't really put my finger on what that thing might be, I would be lying to myself and everyone else if I tried to claim it wasn't any good. Because it really is. 7.2/10