Dog Man

Rated PG • Theaters 

DreamWorks Animation’s latest film is Dog Man, based on the popular children’s books of the same name by Dav Pilkey, who’s best known for creating Captain Underpants.

The story begins with Officer Knight and his canine sidekick Greg in pursuit of the supervillain Petey the Cat. The two heroes make a formidable team. Officer Knight knows kung fu and has a strong body, but he’s also pretty dumb. Greg isn’t strong but he’s got brains. Officer Knight and Greg are both mortally wounded after falling into Petey’s trap, and the doctors decide the only way to save them is to sew Greg’s head onto Officer Knight’s body. Thus, the supercop Dog Man is born!

In case you were still left wondering, Dog Man is a very silly movie. This isn’t the kind of story in which someone would question the ethics behind sewing a dog’s head on a human body. Dog Man proves to be great at everything—except talking—but the rest of the good guys make blunder after blunder. The bad guys in turn cook up overly complicated schemes with vague goals that don’t seem to benefit them.

Pilkey’s style of illustration can be described as childishly cartoonish and a little bit ugly. DreamWorks nails the feel of the graphic novels with bold and kinetic animation. It’s still a little ugly, but it’s also charming in a somewhat crude way. The fact that DreamWorks gives the movie its own distinctive visual style is a definite plus.

The movie’s theme is a little more of a mixed bag. The denouement embraces a simplistic kids-media trope that doesn’t really understand sin and wickedness: People do bad things because bad things have been done to them, and if we all just show each other a little kindness the world will be OK. On the other hand, the movie offers a better definition of love than we usually get from Hollywood: Love is something you do, not something you feel.