Dog Man Review

Illustration by Tate Stephan

Only four months after the release of “Wild Robot”, DreamWorks has released another highly stylized, action-packed, book-based film filled with 89 minutes of excitement: “Dog Man”.

While I never read the “Dog Man” books growing up, I was excited going into this movie nonetheless. “Dog Man” is a light-hearted and overall silly movie that is filled with nostalgia even if you didn’t read the source material. However, I was admittedly surprised at some points when a film that I expected to be primarily a comedic rivalry between a canine cop and an evil Petey the Cat developed to show themes of fatherhood, abandonment, and the cycle of neglect.

While unexpected, I found that the film handled these topics fairly well for such a young audience, representing them through Petey the Cat’s own father/ son relationships. It felt as if the concept was framed in a way that children could understand and acknowledge, but kept a positive perception of how to overcome it, and did not let it dull down the overall excitement. The humor throughout is cute and quirky, and the character of Dog Man was fleshed out very effectively despite the character not saying a word (aside from some barks and whines).

Two of my draws to this film were its technical and production sides. Stylized films are becoming more prevalent in the animation industry, especially from DreamWorks, it seems. The style of this film really caught my attention. The design of the world is done in such a colorful, fun, and appealing way that greatly succeeds at translating the silly storybook feel of the novels into a 3D environment. The characters all maintain a 2D appearance, especially Dog Man himself, who maintains his silhouette no matter the camera angle.

One of my favorite artistic aspects of this film was the lighting. Throughout the film, it was used extremely in tune with the stylization to compliment the different eccentric environments and the cartoonish shapes of the characters and world. The lighting contributed greatly to the cozy, nostalgic feeling, and helped not just mimic an illustrated world, but enhance it.

On the production side, the topic of discussion has been surrounding the means of its animation. “Dog Man” was outsourced for animation services (in this case, to Jellyfish Pictures). In an industry prone to changes, outsourcing seems to be one of the more popular ones as of late and something young artists should be aware of and keep an eye on as they enter the industry. Nonetheless, the effort from the artists at both studios to breathe life into this story certainly paid off.

Overall, “Dog Man” was an adorable, action-packed film that successfully utilized recent technological capabilities of stylization. With its colorful, upbeat, and cartoonish visuals, as well as its silly youthful humor, “Dog Man” was a refreshing lighthearted film perfect for either a younger audience, or some older filmgoers looking for nostalgia.