Is it a Yes or a No, ‘Dog Man’?

January 29, 2025

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What’s up, Dog (Man)? (CREDIT: Universal Pictures/DreamWorks Animation)

Starring: Peter Hastings, Pete Davidson, Lil Rel Howery, Lucas Hopkins Calderon, Isla Fisher, Ricky Gervais, Cheri Oteri, Billy Boyd, Stephen Root, Poppy Liu, Laraine Newman, Melissa Villaseñor, Kate Micucci, Maggie Wheeler, Pearce Bunting, Max Koch, Rahnuma Panthaky

Director: Peter Hastings

Running Time: 89 Minutes

Rating: PG for The Typical Animated Mayhem

Release Date: January 31, 2025 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Officer Knight and his canine companion Greg are one of the best crime-fighting duos in the city. That is, until a major accident renders Knight’s head and Greg’s body unusable. So their doctors decide to make lemonade and fuse the two of them together to form the titular Dog Man (barks and whines provided by writer-director Peter Hastings)! That would seemingly make him the perfect foil for the incorrigible feline criminal Petey (Pete Davidson), but alas, Dog Man gets off on the wrong foot with his Chief (Lil Rel Howery) and the Mayor (Cheri Oteri) and ends up having to stay on desk duty. Meanwhile, Petey obtains a clone of himself named Lil’ Petey (Lucas Hopkins Calderon), who may just soften his heart and convince him to become a doting father instead of a criminal mastermind.

What Made an Impression?: You Got to Be Silly: Dog Man is based on the graphic novel series of the same name by Dav Pilkey, who’s probably best known for Captain Underpants, which got its own big-screen adaptation back in 2017. I’m familiar with Pilkey’s output via pop culture osmosis, but this is my first time actually diving into what he has on offer. And now that I’ve been exposed, I must say: I hope I have kids soon so that we can fully explore the Pilkey-verse together. Simply put, this is silly sophomoric humor done cleverly and colorfully. Dopey wordplay and visual gags abound, befitting a world in which a canine-human hybrid is the hero.
Family Matters: Considering all the unabashed silliness on display, you might be surprised to learn that Dog Man also isn’t afraid to get heavy. To be clear, it’s not like it’s an unrelenting tearjerker about cancer and/or addiction. Nevertheless, you might find yourself shedding a tear or two. For example, after Officer Knight and Greg become Dog Man, they’re unceremoniously abandoned by Greg’s wife, who apparently couldn’t bear to ever see her husband and fur baby fused together. Meanwhile, Petey’s villainy seems to be entirely fueled by his abandonment issues with his own deadbeat dad (Stephen Root). These themes don’t weigh down the wackiness, but they certainly make themselves known. So if you want a steady stream of ultra-silly laughs with a side of genuine family therapy, Dog Man has you covered.

Dog Man is Recommended If You Like: Weird Al, Looney Tunes, “Cat’s in the Cradle”

Grade: 3 out of 5 Copz

Doggone It, ‘Paws of Fury’ Insists That You Laugh at Its Self-Aware Samurai Animals

July 13, 2022

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Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank (CREDIT: Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies)

Starring: Michael Cera, Samuel L. Jackson, Ricky Gervais, Aasif Mandvi, Djimon Hounsou, Mel Brooks, Gabriel Iglesias, George Takei, Michelle Yeoh, Kylie Kuioka

Directors: Rob Minkoff, Mark Koetsier, Chris Bailey

Running Time: 97 Minutes

Rating: PG for The Type of Shenanigans You’d Expect in a Place Named “Kakamucho”

Release Date: July 15, 2022 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: What if feudal Japan had been populated entirely by anthropomorphic cats? Do you think that dogs would be allowed to visit? Of course not, right! And those pooches certainly couldn’t be samurai in this scenario, now could they? But what Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank dares to ask is: what if they could? And that’s how eager beagle Hank (Michael Cera) finds himself under the tutelage of reclusive sensei Jimbo (Samuel L. Jackson) in the village of Kakamucho. But it’s all a setup! You see, Hank was given the assignment of village samurai by the sneaky Ika Chu (Ricky Gervais) as a ploy to lay waste to the land. But this is an animated Nickelodeon movie, so we can rest easy knowing that the doggo and the kindhearted kitties are going to rally together in the end.

What Made an Impression?: Paws of Fury delivers all the typical slapstick gags and generally silly vibes of your average talking animal movie. But it distinguishes itself with a thorough strain of meta humor, as characters assure us that the running time is long enough to fit in the big finale and the action of a major set piece spills out into a virtual theater. At first, I thought those gags were all just done to honor the presence of Mel Brooks, who voices Shogun, the leader of Kakamucho. But then when I saw the late Richard Pryor’s name listed in the “Story By” credits (alongside Brooks and a few others), I realized it ran deeper than that.

As it turns out, Paws of Fury has had quite the winding pre-production history. Loosely inspired by Brooks’ indelible 1974 western sendup Blazing Saddles, it was originally known as Blazing Samurai before it arrived in its more generic cats-versus-dog setup, though the fourth wall breaking still remains. That made this thirtysomething viewer perfectly happy, but I wondered if any of the kiddos were picking up on those riffs. It’s not like they needed to, as there are also plenty of scatological jokes and bright colors to keep them otherwise occupied. But hey, I first fell in love with Brooks and his ilk when I was in this movie’s target age group. So yeah, Paws of Fury isn’t exactly revolutionizing anything the way that Saddles did, but it might just point some budding comedy nerds in the right direction.

Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank is Recommended If You Like: Various shades of red and orange, Kid-friendly versions of sophisticated humor, George Takei shamelessly saying “Oh my” as often as possible

Grade: 3 out of 5 Blades