Whether or not you’ll enjoy the “Dog Man” movie is sort of dependent on how much you’re a fan of the graphic novels. I was split — like its wordless hero.
Creator Dav Pilkey’s quirky, kinetic world has nicely made the visual leap to the big screen, but something is missing. The Hollywoodization — like a ray blasted from a typical Pilkey lumbering robot — has leveled-out the idiosyncrasy and overstuffed the narrative. Newcomers may be stunned — and not in a good way.
The movie version has celebrities — Pete Davidson, Lil Rel Howery, Isla Fisher and Ricky Gervais — less toilet humor, less puns and really no jokes for parents, despite a few references to “Die Hard” and “Apocalypse Now.” Other studios have managed to keep the folks who buy the tickets at least entertained with some sly adult things to snack on.
The guerilla feel of the books has given way to a blockbuster, explosion-filled, deep message film about fatherhood, optimism and love. What once was created in a school hallway because its creator was disruptive in class is now enjoying a marketing campaign that involves digital billboards, costume character tours and changing the color of the Empire State Building’s lights. Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” is on the soundtrack. It’s subversive no more.
Peter Hastings, director, screenwriter and animal voice of Dog Man, has had a hand in Pilkey’s much better adaption of “Captain Underpants,” but this time smashes together characters and plot lines from several of the books in a way that is hard to follow even for fans.
It starts as the origin story — a policeman’s body is sewed onto the head of his faithful dog after a bomb blast — and then we get the supervillain Petey the Cat, his adorable clone Li’l Petey, the chief of police and the mayor, the psychokinetic fish Flippy, the 80-Hexotron Droid-Formigon robot, a pushy TV reporter and buildings coming alive. It leans a lot on 2017’s “A Tale of Two Kittens,” the third book in the Dog Man series.
The spareness of the graphic novels is gone and we get an interior life for Dog Man, including a sort of weird tangent about his depression over losing his past life. Fans get a look inside his doghouse — who was expecting a piano, a grandfather clock or a gramophone? — and there’s lots of licking and chasing squirrels. Typical humor: A sign at an active volcano that reads: “No lifeguard on duty.”
At the movie’s heart is a story as old as time — good versus evil — and which will Li’l Petey pick. His father, Petey, is a supervillain who needs Prozac — “The world is a horrible place. That’s just reality,” he tells his son — but Dog Man offers a sweet alternative. Will Li’l Petey chose blood over stability? Will love turn Petey to the good side?
The filmmakers try to capture some of the anarchic qualities of the comics, like adding “Dun, Dun Dunnn” in large letters on the screen at a dramatic moment, but they’re trying too hard and the humor is restrained. It needs more zany.
None of the voice actors cover themselves in glory except Gervais, as the demonic fish, who comes closest to stealing this movie. But it’s a bewildering adaptation. A line from Petey may sum up what this all really feels like — a bit of a cash grab: “So long, suckers.”
“Dog Man,” a Universal Pictures release in theaters Friday, is rated PG for “some action and rude humor.” Running time: 89 minutes. Two stars out of four.
