The Easter school holidays have arrived in Australia and with it, a new animated feature provides an option for parents looking to entertain their children.  The film’s origin takes a bit of explaining.  Captain Underpants is a long-running book series about two fourth grade students who write their own comics.  It was adapted into a 2017 animated feature.  Dog Man was one of the comics the two kids created within the Captain Underpants universe and hence, making that into a movie is described as a “story within a story”.  Make sense?

A short introduction expounds the background to the titular character.  A successful police officer and his loyal dog arrive on a rooftop and try to defuse a bomb left by a nasty cat, Petey (Davidson).  They are unsuccessful (a wild plot point) and badly injured in the subsequent explosion.  They won’t survive individually and so the doctors at the hospital have no choice but to sew the dog’s head onto the human’s body and we have… drumroll please… Dog Man!

It sounds perverse but writer-director Peter Hastings, adapting from the works of author Dav Pikey, taps into the humour of the situation.  Dog Man still serves as a shrewd police officer trying to apprehend bad guys, but he demonstrates the traits of a playful, easily distracted dog.  As an example, an annoyed real estate agent is quicky able to dispense of Dog Man by throwing a tennis ball outside and having him instinctively run after it.

The crux of the film is centred on Dog Man’s attempts to apprehend the villainous Petey before he can further wreak havoc on the city.  Other key players include an intrepid news reporter (Fisher) looking to cover the story, a police chief (Howery) wishing he was more popular in the community, an adorable cloned cat (Calderon) trying to find their place in the world, and a reinvigorated fish (Gervais) with psychic skills.

A modest hit in the United States when released back in January, Dog Man is fast-paced fun.  It has a sense of humour reminiscent of television shows such as The Simpsons and Family Guy.  It’s joke after joke with some targeted at adults and others targeted at a younger crowd.  When you throw in the distinctive voices of Pete Davidson and Ricky Gervais, you’ve got the right ingredients to bring the comic books’ pages to life.  Dog Man himself is the only character who doesn’t speak (he can only bark) and that adds another memorable layer with audiences trying to interpret his physical expressions and movements.

Wrapped up inside of a tight 89 minutes, Dog Man comfortably won me over.  Hope there’s future instalments!