Displaying items by tag: Ricki Gervais

DOG MAN

US, 2025, 89 minutes, Colour.

Voices of: Pete Davidson, Lil Rel Howery, Isla Fisher, Billy Boyd, Peter Hastings, Lucas Hopkins Calderon, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Root.

Directed by Peter Hastings.

Since 2016, there have been at least 13, books about Dog Man, written by Dav Pilkey, who also wrote the Captain Underpants series (one of which was filmed).

This is an animation film, with quite a high-powered voice cast, directed by Peter Hastings who also provides the sounds for Dog Man, which is very much geared to a younger audience. With the strange story of Dog Man and his origins, as we watch the film, we will be wondering who is the target audience. A quick enquiry on Google offers some informative help: The series features a half-dog, half-human police officer who fights crime and saves the day in the city. Written in a graphic novel format with comic-style illustrations and speech bubbles, these books are popular with children aged 6-9.

So, there is the answer. Perhaps too much action for the under 6s, perhaps not enough sophistication for the 10s and overs – and, probably a warning that parents and grandparents, unless they are kindly and an demanding, probably will not enjoy the antics so much.

As indicated, the premise seems quite improbable, the officer and his pet dog, Greg, are severely hurt in an accident, the man surviving only by having the transplant of Greg’s head onto his body! He is expected to go into action against the villainous cat, Petey, who wants to eliminate all do-gooders, has his own laboratory and assistant to create menacing machines, but also a little clone cat, Little Petey.

So, a villain, a little cat seeking affection, dog man in action, hounded by the chief of police, and all kinds of chases and mayhem. However, rather a surprise, a cantankerous fish starts to exercise power and menace over all of them (voiced by Ricky Gervais, in villainous English) which leads them to an alliance of Petey  and Dog Man.

So, there we are, possibly for excitable 6 to 9s, probably not so much for the rest of us.