Dog Man

As we continue in the 'dead zone' film season, we have an animated film, which is typically offered in the summer film season, in the offing, Dreamworks Animation's "Dog Man". Obviously, the premise is impossible and absurd, but this is clearly why you're not seeing this film. This film hinges on teamwork and the message of unity in the disguise of an animated movie. 

When a faithful police dog and his human police partner, Officer Knight (Peter Hastings) owner are seriously injured together on the job, a harebrained but life-saving surgery fuses the two of them together and Dog Man is born. Dog Man (Peter Hastings) is sworn to protect and serve--and fetch, sit and roll over. As Dog Man embraces his new identity and strives to impress his Chief (Lil Rel Howery), he must stop the pretty evil plots of feline supervillain Petey, the Cat (Pete Davidson). Petey's latest plan is to clone himself, creating the kitten Li'l Petey (Lucas Hopkins Calderon) to double his ability to docrime stuff. Things get complicated, though, when Li'l Petey forges an unexpected bond with Dog Man. When Li'l Petey falls into the clutches of a common enemy, Dog Man and Petey reluctantly joins forces in an action-packed race against time to rescue the young kitten. In the process, they discover the power of family (and kittens!) to bring even the most hostile foes together. 

Others to round out the cast are Ilsa Fisher as Sarah Hatoff, a reporter, Billy Boyd as Seamus, the cameraman, Stephen Root as Grampa, Ricky Gervais as Flippy, Poppy Liu as Butler, Cheri Oteri as Mayor, Luenell as Milly, Rahnuma Panthaky as Doctor and Maggie Wheeler as Nurse. 

This was entertaingly well directed by Peter Hastings ("The Country Bears" '02) plus a short and a video. The encouraging aspect of this film is the fact that not only is this well animated (hey, it's Dreamworks), but it houses an incredible message of unity and teamwork. He truly knows how to delineate his characters to strive to this point--and he only has one feature film otherwise to he credit. It was also cleverly written by Peter Hastings ("Tiny Toons Spring Break" (TV movie) '94, Tiny Toons' Night Ghoulery" (TV movie)'95) plus TV, based on a book series by Dav Pilkey. Again, considering this filmmaker has only two TV movies, as films, to his credit amazes me. This was simple in its presentation, however, it is geared toward kids so simple was integral. There were a couple of small areas of choppiness, otherwise was a bright and exciting script for kids and families as a whole. This isn't Dreamworks Animation's typical style of their work, but I believe it was purposed in that they strived to give the look of the film a childlike presence so as to attract that demographic. What also made this a unique film was that after the fused surgery, Dog Man didn't speak, except typical dog sounds, i.e. barks, howls, whining, etc. Nut in the process, the way this was writte, that dog spoke volumes--more than a lot of people.

Certainly if you like animation films, you'll love this. As aforementioned, its message and it humor will capture kids and families alike, and this definitely is something we need to see more often, since so many films out there are geared mostly to adults, whether younger or older. This is a fun flick for all to enjoy for the 90 minute running time! This running time is actually 94 minutes if you include a 5 minute "Bad Guy" animated cartoon prior to the film.

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                                      Rated : PG                                       94mins.