Dog Man: A Vibrant Animated Outing with a Simplistic Plot (Blu-ray)

The Film:

When it comes to films for kids, you have to expect a more simplified story for the young ones to keep up with, but even then, is there a point at which the story can get a little too simple for the film's own good? It's a line that writer/director Peter Hastings straddles with his new animated feature "Dog Man," based on the series of graphic novels by Dav Pilkey, in which we watch the titular hero take on his top adversary, with a number of wild hijinks along the way. It sounds like a fairly-solid setup, but will it be enough to make for a fun & satisfying animated outing?

As the film opens, we find Officer Knight (Voice of Peter Hastings) and his canine partner Greg going after their nemesis, Petey (Voice of Pete Davidson), an evil orange cat who plans to blow up a warehouse. Knight & Greg arrive and try to deactivate the bomb, but accidentally cut the wrong wire, causing it to explode. This injures Knight's head and Greg's body, which causes the surgeons to stitch Greg's head onto Knight's body to save them, and therefore creating Dog Man. Continuing his job, he arrests Petey a number of times, but he always manages to escape. Petey eventually attempts to clone himself, but all this does is create a sweet kitten version of him dubbed Li'l Petey (Voice of Lucas Hopkins Calderon). This forces Petey to move on to a plan involving a telekinetic fish, who's powers could cause a lot of trouble for the city. Could this be the plan that finally works?

As you can see, there is indeed not a whole lot to the story, which isn't always necessarily a bad thing, but in this case, it feels as though Hastings really went for the bare minimum of plot necessary to hold the film together. We have our hero, and we have our villain(s), who continually clash over and over in a rather repetitive fashion throughout. Naturally, this does make it a little difficult to get into the story, but at least he had the good sense to include the cloned kitten to give it a sweet, emotional note for the audience to engage with, though even that doesn't do much to offset the rather basic set-up.

While it may not be much of a success as far as its story goes, it's still a pleasing film to look at. The animation is vibrant, colorful, and has an intriguing aesthetic to it, which will likely please both kids & adults in the audience. There are times when it seems to be a bit overly-flashy, and indeed there is a lot of this film that is rather hectic (as if trying to make up a little for the minimalist plot), but it still looks just fine as it hurtles along for its brief 80-ish minutes.

Overall, I'm reminded a fair amount of the recent "The Garfield Movie," where we had another animated outing that looked decent, but needed a little more effort put into the writing. Again, it's understandable that you'd want to simplify things a bit for the kids in the audience, but even Hastings seemed to realize that he perhaps simplified it a little too much, causing him to throw in the aforementioned hectic elements. However, just like with "Garfield," it's hardly a bad effort, and will likely be enough to please younger kids, but as for everyone else, it'll simply depend upon how much a rich, satisfying storyline means to you.

Video/Audio:

"Dog Man" comes to Blu-ray in a 1.85:1, 1080p High Definition transfer of excellent quality. The image is perfectly sharp & clear throughout the film's entire duration, highlighting its vibrant animation. Likewise, the 7.1 Dolby TrueHD audio track is marvelous, giving you all of the dialogue, sound effects, and music in outstanding quality. Overall, Dreamworks Animation has done a wonderful job in both departments for the film's Blu-ray release.

Special Features:

Feature Commentary with Screenwriter/Director Peter Hastings

Meet the Pack (5 Minutes): A brief featurette that focuses on the vocal cast.

The Making of Dog Man: A Sarah Hatoff Exclusive (6 Minutes): A featurette that goes behind the scenes of the film with the cast & crew.

Deleted and Extended Scenes (8 Sequences, 11 Minutes)

Howl to Draw - Flip-O-Rama Style (12 Minutes)

Howl to Make Doughnuts for Dogs (5 Minutes)

Conclusion:

Peter Hastings' "Dog Man" features vibrant, colorful animation that has an intriguing aesthetic to it, but also a storyline that feels as though he went for the bare minimum of plot necessary to hold the film together, as evident by its rather hectic elements and breakneck pace. This ultimately makes for an animated outing that's pleasing to look at, but which could've used a little more effort put into its overly-simplistic narrative.

Score: 3/5

Available on Blu-ray starting today.

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