Movies with Dad: Dogman

Movies with Dad: Dogman


My daughter has discovered her love for the movie theater. Unfortunately she hasn’t discovered a love for good movies yet, which is why I have found myself at screenings for Madame Web, Sonic 3, and now the new Dogman movie in the last year. I will be writing about all the movies she wants to see on the big screen, but I hate that you’ve all missed out on my other reviews so real quick:

Madame Web: Dakota Johnson is best known for the Fifty Shades of Grey movie series, yet I’m the one who feels fucked watching this film

Sonic 3: Jim Carrey is back and sillier than ever. He shows he is still a master of physical comedy, strange voices, and over the top acting. Also there’s a cartoon Hedgehog

Dogman comes from the hand of Dav Pilkey, also known for Captain Underpants, a series reviled by religious groups because of fart jokes, so you know it’s good. Dogman is created after an explosion kills a cop and his dog, but only to a point where the dog head can be grafted onto the body of the cop. I’m sure there’s a forum post dedicated to arguing if this is copaganda or not.

I am told by my daughter this movie covers the first seven Dogman books. If you’re looking for a lot of plot, you aren’t going to find it. What you will find is a story that weaves together the trauma of Dogman and Petey, two characters who are struggling to find where they fit in an uncaring world. Dogman loses his house and girlfriend after the accident and we often find the movie lingering on his loneliness and abandonment. Dogman is only ‘happy’ when he’s on the chase, but his evenings alone are filled with pain.

Petey struggles with acceptance due to his own father abandoning him when he was younger, and finds himself repeating the same mistakes with his own (clone) son. After reconnecting with his absent father, Petey is not given a happy ending with love and acceptance. His father steals everything from his lab and dips out in the night. Anger, depression, abandonment, it’s all here to trigger some core memories in the kid you didn’t know you had.

Overall, good movie if you have to watch it. Movie runtime is around ninety minutes, which should be legally required for all kids movies. The artistic direction and animation pulls directly from the pages of the book, so your own pint sized Dogman fan will see the pages come to life. A competent movie that I will probably get sick of after the seventh viewing.

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