Directed by Peter Hastings and the voice of Dogman, the movie is truly phenomenal and brings a beautiful atmosphere to theaters on January 31, 2025.
The movie is based on the Dogman comic books written by Dav Pilkey. The entire franchise consists of 13 books and many more to come.
In summary, Dogman is about a police man and his police dog being injured during a mission, and after a life-saving surgery, they are fused together, and become Dog-Man, with the head of a dog but the body of a man.
As Dog Man learns to embrace his new identity, he must stop feline supervillain Petey the Cat from cloning himself and going on a crime spree.
I can’t describe how much I loved the acting like how Petey the Cat was voiced by Pete Davidson, which was completely ironic. I also loved how Chief was voiced by Li’l Rel Howery, an American comedian and actor. Something about Lil Rey Howery’s voice playing the Chief Officer added a comedic aspect to the movie. Another insanely adorable character was Lil Petey, voiced by Lucas Hopkins Calderon. Originally cloned to aid Petey’s evil plans to take over the world and eliminate Dogman, he took on a life of his own after Petey had decided to abandon him in a box in the street.
Dogman saves Li’l Petey from getting hit by a car, and from that moment on, Dogman and Li’l Petey become best friends as Dogman takes care of him. What I find beautiful about Dogman is that he may not be able to talk, but his actions can speak for his kindness and bravery.
My favorite overall part of the movie is when Petey and Dogman realize that Li’l Petey is in danger from an evil telekinetic fish named Flippy who was voiced by comedian and actor Ricky Gervais, to discard all “do-gooders” which was supposed to be targeted at Dogman.
As Petey and Dogman go after Flippy together, they learn how to stand each other and understand how one person can make a difference in a relationship.
In the end, they save Li’l Petey. Which makes everyone now see Petey as a good person for once. Flippy goes to prison for his crimes and Petey takes Li’l Petey and him home only to realize that Li’l Petey has gained a relationship with Dogman and he begins to miss him. Petey goes back to Dogman’s home and asks if Li’l Petey could come over sometimes.
For a PG movie, I walked in fully expecting this movie to be like any new family-friendly movie: predictable, where there’s a good guy and a bad guy, and the bad guy always gets defeated. However, this movie did not follow that norm. I love movies where the good and bad guys have to team up because it is a way of showing the audience that they are human regardless of their doings because, in reality, Petey is just someone who is hurt because of the harshness of the world who only knows how cause destruction to make himself feel better.
This movie provides a worldly perspective, and multiple themes that connect to circumstances in our own lives. Throughout the movie, Petey argues that there is no good in the world and that there is only hate, pollution, and weeds pretending to be flowers, which labels him as a do-gooder.
I have always loved animated movies about friendship and character growth. The movie in all was a 10/10 plus the animation is completely adorable as well as the humor.
