‘Dog Man’ Reviewed By a 9-Year-Old Superfan

I’m not going to say my nine-year-old daughter is a better film critic than I am. First of all, can you imagine the disses social media would send me way if I admitted that? Plus, I don’t think that’s necessarily true. (You should see what she wrote about Last Year at Marienbad. She didn’t get it at all!)

Nevertheless, I’ve reached a point in my life where I am far more interested in my daughter’s thoughts about kids movies than my own. She is the target audience for these films, not me, and she’s also an extremely thoughtful and articulate little person. In 2023 (when she was still only seven) I realized our post-movie conversations were becoming far more enjoyable than the films we talked about. So I began turning them into articles, starting with Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie, and continuing through all the 2024 kids movies we saw together (along with her younger sister) like Despicable Me 4, Wicked, and Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

I was especially interested in her thoughts on the Dog Man movie because we have read every single Dog Man book together. For a long stretch of 2023 and 2024, they were our bedtime stories of choice. The Dog Man graphic novels by artist Dav Pilkey are filled with juvenile humor and silly jokes — and surprisingly personal messages about goodness and kindness and pain. I read all the Dog Mans out loud to the kids, and they liked them so much they’ve since gone back and re-read most of them on their own. They genuinely love Dog Man.

So after the press screening of the Dog Man movie, over some hot dogs at Gray’s Papaya, we discussed our personal reactions to the film. Did it capture the flavor of the books? Did it get anything wrong? What does this movie have to say about do-gooders and bad guys?

At times the conversation involved my nine-year-old savagely roasting me for my stupidity. (I’m used to that at this point, sadly.) At others, it evolved into a surprisingly serious discussion about grief and loss. What follows is a very lightly edited transcript of what was said.

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DAD: So what did you think of the movie?

It was super good.

But was it “supa” good?

“Supa.” [Laughs]

Did you think that they did a good job capturing the books?

Yeah. They, like, they showed it all. Everything that was important. They might have left a few things out, like seeing more of Li’l Petey’s grandpa. The books, as you read them, he comes up a lot. But I liked it. It’s really good.

Yeah, I liked how they captured the feel of the books. It looked like the books, they had some dialogue straight from the books. Is your hot dog okay? You’re not eating.

Yeah. It’s just hot.

Oh okay. I also liked they had so many of the characters. They really crammed a lot of the characters from many books into one movie. Li’l Petey wasn’t in the first couple novels. 80-HD wasn’t in the first couple novels.

The first two books were all about Dog Man.

Right.

And then Li’l Petey comes along and steals the show. I feel like once Li’l Petey comes along he makes everything better.

He’s kind of the best character.

[with mouth full of hot dog] Mmmhmm. [imitating Li’l Petey] “Whyyyyyyyy?”

They did that multiple times. One of our favorite running gags from the books.

Yeah, that’s really funny.

Not when you do it to me.

Yes it is. You know it is.

Okay, it’s a little funny.

Now when we read the books, we do our own voices for all the characters. I always thought I did a very good Petey especially. What did you think of the voices in the film? Were they good?

A few of the characters had accents. Like Sarah Hatoff. [Voiced by Isla Fisher]

And Flippy. [Voiced by Ricky Gervais]

I feel like Petey’s voice was a little different than how I imagined it. But in the books you kind of make up the character’s voice yourself. It doesn’t have to be the exact same as how you’d do it. I think they did a really good job. I liked Chief [voiced by Lil Rel Howery] a lot.

You liked Chief’s voice?

In every book, Dog Man jumps on Chief and Chief’s always like “No, get off me! Bad Dog Man!”

And that was in the movie too.

I really liked that.

One question I had was about “Living Spray.” In the film, there is this Living Spray factory where they make some kind of Living Spray which brings things to life. And of course then it brings all kinds of evil monsters to life; it brings Flippy to life and then it even brings buildings to life. Why would you make Living Spray?! All it does is create monsters that destroy the city! Isn’t that a bad idea?

[sigh] Dad. This is a book, a made-up book. Living Spray isn’t real.

Oh.

Also, what else would make Flippy alive?

That’s true.

Speaking of Flippy, in the beginning they don’t really talk about Flippy — [getting more animated]

Just be careful. Don’t, don’t —

[waves hot dog more dramatically] He’s a dead fish, but like —

You’re waving around your hot dog. I just don’t want you to drop it before you can finish it.

[Puts down hot dog] They don’t even explain what happened to Flippy.

They sort of explain it, but I agree with you; that was a little hard to follow. They just kind of rush through who Flippy is. He needed his own movie, instead of being part of a movie where he’s thrown in as the bad guy as an afterthought.

It’s like if you didn’t read the books, it’s kind of like “What?” [At this point, her mouth was entirely full of hot dog, but I think that is what she was trying to say.]

Right … if you didn’t read the books, I do think a lot of Dog Man would be a little confusing. The movie flies very fast through a lot of plot and characters. Here’s something I feel, and I want your opinion about it. Even though it’s called Dog Man, Dog Man is not the best character. Is that fair? I feel like Petey is much more interesting.

Petey and Li’l Petey. I think this is because you can’t always see how Dog Man is changing.

Well, he can’t talk.

Yes. But he howls. He whimpers. You can see how he’s feeling. But seeing a character who’s gone through so much…

Sure, Dog Man was a man who had his head replaced with the head of a dog. That’s a lot to go through, you’re right.

No! I mean how much Petey has gone through.

Oh.

His Dad left him!

Yes, you’re right. That’s a lot to go through also. He’s a tragic figure.

His story is so hard. Not every part is happy, but it’s so interesting to see a character like that. And Li’l Petey, he is a do-gooder. He’s very heroic and generous. I think it’s just called Dog Man because the first book was all about him.

One big difference I noticed between the books and the movies is that the books have what’s called a “framing story” where you see that Dog Man is actually a comic book that’s written by these two kids, George and Harold. The movies ignore that aspect completely. Did it bother you that that wasn’t a part of the movie at all?

Well, I didn’t read the Captain Underpants books until after I read Dog Man. I didn’t really care about the George and Harold part. [George and Harold were introduced in the Captain Underpants books.] It’s a Dog Man movie. What would they even include? Like, George and Harold flipping pages?

They could. It would explain why the world of Dog Man is so silly and strange and kid-like.

Meh. It’s great as a movie.

So you didn’t miss them.

No. The story is really the thing that I care about. I don’t mind if George and Harold aren’t there. When I read the books, I sometimes might skip the beginning —

[Exaggerated gasp] You … skipped … the George and Harold parts, didn’t you?!?

[Laughs] Well…

You’re in big trouble.

When we read it all together the first time, we definitely read that stuff. But now that I’m familiar with them, and it’s not important to the story, I might skip ahead.

So that’s why they could cut them out.

Yeah, or maybe they said “This movie is long enough.”

Did you have a favorite part in the movie?

I liked it all.

You liked it all?

I really liked it when Li’l Petey says “Whyyyyyyy?” I feel like that’s Li’l Petey’s catchphrase.

Is there any part of the movie you didn’t like?

I didn’t like how it didn’t explain Flippy at all. What did you think about the movie? You keep asking me what I thought.

I liked the movie fine when it started, but I thought once they introduced Li’l Petey it got better. Kind of like the books, actually. The books are cute at first, but once Li’l Petey comes along and Petey becomes a more complicated character, then they’re not just silly or funny they also have a nice message. Like, did you notice the thing that Li’l Petey uses to help save the day?

I’m not sure…

What does he always give to people to cheer them up?

[Laughs] Comic books.

Comic books are like a secret weapon in this movie. And I think that’s really cool, that the thing that helps people deal with their problems, or figure out their lives, or understand how other people feel, are these comics. I love that idea that these seemingly silly little comics can actually help people. Because when I was a kid, that’s what comics were for me. They helped me a lot. And it doesn’t have to be a comic; a movie can do that, a book can do that. But because Dog Man is based on these very sweet comics for kids, that idea works even better.

I feel like now we’re getting into the lessons of the movie. Another lesson that shows up that I really like is — they don’t really explain this in the movie but it’s in the book — but Petey’s mom died when he was young and his dad leaves him, and he gets kind of lonely and it’s hard for him. It’s hard when people leave you. But we have to move on in life, and we have to know that these things happen and the memories of our loved ones are never going to be gone.

That’s very true. Is there a character that you relate to or you feel like was close to who you are and how you feel?

I feel like everyone can relate to Petey in some way, where they might lose someone or something that is very close to them and it changes them in a negative way. And I feel like that happens to all of us at some point in our life, where someone’s very close to us, and something happens to them. We can all relate to that. And it’s okay to feel the things we feel.

I agree with you. It is okay to feel the things we feel. Feelings are important. Okay, is there a character who reminds you of me?

Chief.

Chief? Why Chief?

He’s so funny and you’re so funny.

Oh, thank you. It’s not because he yells at Dog Man all the time?

He doesn’t yell at him all the time. I feel like it’s more of a protective thing.

Ah. Well then maybe he is like me. Maybe Chief is yelling at Dog Man because he loves him very much.

You and mom tell me and my sister things like “No no no, you can’t do that! That’s not safe!” And we sometimes think that’s unfair. But I kind of feel like that’s for our safety?

Now you’re getting it.

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