Spinning off from a story within the story in Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (also produced by DreamWorks), this animated film of Dav Pilkey’s graphic novel character is made up of the manic energy of a five-year old — jacked up after a round of sugary treats.

For older folks like us, the over enthusiasm on the screen quickly becomes a throbbing headache, as all logic escapes to cower at the dark crevices of one’s noggin.

So, that makes Dogman a different kind of evil: the overbearing, overly blaring one of the cute kind that’s understood by parents of toddlers. Little of it makes sense. But then again, it is not meant to.

In the film, a villain orange cat by the name of Petey (Pete Davidson) terrorises Ohkay City — a place where no one can drive or park a car without toppling it over. One of Petey’s evil plans ends up mortally wounding the idiot ‘supa cop’ Officer Knight and his much more intelligent cop-dog Greg (both voiced by writer-director Peter Hastings, who also directed Captain Underpants). The doctor, noting that Knight’s head and Greg’s body are no longer serviceable, join the dog’s head on the man’s body (don’t ask me how), and behold, “Dogman” is born.

Dogman has the draining manic energy of a five-year-old but one almost warms up to it by the end

After a series of failed attempts to destroy Dogman and the city, Petey decides to buy a cloning machine for himself and ends up with a cute, innocent 10-year-old version of himself called Li’l Petey (Lucas Hopkins Calderon).

Li’l Petey and Dogman become friends, and Petey ends up resurrecting the evil dead fish Flippy (Ricky Gervais) that has telekinetic powers, which ends up bringing the city’s buildings to life in the big climatic finish.

The story also has a minor love story between the news reporter Sarah Hatoff (Isla Fisher) and the police chief named Chief (Lil Rel Howery), and Petey’s own tragic but touching father-son story, which links to the main story about the relationship between Petey, Li’l Petey and Dogman.

Dogman actually becomes likeable — dare I say, even enjoyable — after its messy and loud first quarter. The volume and the manic energy levels tamp down and the film becomes somewhat sombre, but not at the expense of boring its young audience (the three-year-old in our house didn’t blink away for a microsecond).

One can also credit that to DreamWorks’ preferential style of painterly, cartoon-inspired rendering, which makes their films more appealing to children (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, The Bad Guys and The Wild Robot all have this painterly rendering style).

By the end though, one grows warm to the idea of an eventual sequel. With author Pilkey belting out 14 kiddie books in the last 10 years, one can see that the series has legs.

Rated PG and released by Universal, Dogman is playing in cinemas worldwide, while also simultaneously available to rent or buy from most streaming services

Published in Dawn, ICON, March 2nd, 2025