Dog Man (2025) (Collector’s Edition 2000) [Blu-Ray]

Director: Peter Hastings

Cast: Pete Davidson, Lil Rel Howery, Isla Fisher (VOICES)

Release Date: April 1, 2025

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 8/10
Disc Rating: 7.5/10

Synopsis:

From DreamWorks Animation—creators of How to Train Your Dragon and The Wild Robot—comes the canine crime-fighting film adaptation of Dav Pilkey’s literary phenomenon: Dog Man. Part dog, part man, all hero! When a faithful police dog and his human police officer owner are injured on the job, a harebrained surgery fuses the two of them together and Dog Man is born! As he embraces his new identity and strives to impress his Chief (Lil Rel Howery, Get Out), Dog Man must stop the villainous Petey the Cat (Pete Davidson, Saturday Night Live) from cloning himself and creating an evil kitten, doubling his evil abilities. The story takes a turn when the kitten forges an unexpected bond with Dog Man and in the process, they discover the power of family to bring even the most hostile foes together.

‘Dog Man’ tells the story of the half man, half dog police officer who is created following a horrible accident that sees a dedicated human and dog police duo put together into a heroic new breed of cop. As the hero begins to adapt to his odd new life as parts of two different individuals, he quickly shows off his talents while repeatedly capturing and re-capturing the diabolic villain known as Petey the Cat and his new kitten clone who doesn’t quite work out the way he hoped and throws things for a loop when he bonds with Dog Man. But when Dog Man is illogically blamed for problems by the mayor, he will have to step up his game and prove that he’s truly the best of both man and dog.

Directed by Peter Hastings (The Country Bears) from a screenplay also written by Hastings and based on the book series by Dav Pilkey, Hastings does a great job at the helm of ‘Dog Man’ guiding along the animated fun with heart, humor and style. The film’s voice cast includes Pete Davidson (Transformers: Rise of the Beasts), Lil Rel Howery (PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie), Isla Fisher (Strays), Poppy Liu (The Tiger’s Apprentice), and Billy Boyd (The Lord of the Rings trilogy) along with more who each offer fitting and solid voice performances for the most part in their respective roles.

‘Dog Man’ is an absolute delight. A fun, somewhat goofy and incredibly enjoyable ride that isn’t afraid to throw some mildly twisted humor into the mix which helps to make it the perfect animated movie combination that young and older viewers alike should have a blast with. It tells the splendidly over the top story of two friends who are joined after a horrible accident and the resulting struggle for the now individual to adapt to their new life, while also trying to maintain their place as a heroic police officer amid a few unexpected changes and alterations to personality and legible speech. Based upon the popular kids book series and coming to spectacular animated life courtesy of DreamWorks, the movie is jam-packed with heart, action and quite a few twists, turns and surprises along the way.

The ‘Dog Man’ movie unsurprisingly shares more in common with ‘Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie’ than it does most other DreamWorks titles (Captain Underpants of course also hails from a book series by the same author as the Dog Man books) with its goofy fun and snarky attitude as well as it’s offbeat humor and stories which are equally silly in the best way possible. ‘Dog Man’ is certainly unusual and unique and that’s undeniably a huge part of its charm, as well as the film’s ability to make it all work so well and make the viewer quickly feel for these somewhat ridiculous characters.

Overall, ‘Dog Man’ delivers an incredibly fun and fast paced animated adventure that’s packed with humor, heart and plenty of excitement; with some notable animation and a style that allows it to come to gorgeous life while still honoring its literary roots at least to a degree. ‘Dog Man’ is definitely recommended for anyone that enjoys a silly, yet massively enjoyable animated feature that isn’t afraid to take things to some ridiculous places and wears its goofy tone on its sleeve. Anyone with younger viewers at home that are fans of the book series or just enjoy similar animated fare will also probably want to at least rent this one if not purchase a copy (depending on your kids repeat viewing habits naturally) but either way, this one has plenty that should appeal to both kids and adults and is well worth giving a chance.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Dog Man’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the film’s original 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks pretty marvelous as a whole and it provides a sharp, clean and nicely detailed presentation from start to finish that’s rich with vibrant coloring and never suffers from any unexpected issues along the way. Detail is great down to almost every animated line within and everything from character specifics to the animated backgrounds and interiors look splendid and are perfectly balanced by rich colors and capable black levels throughout. Overall, this is a fantastic high definition presentation that looks tremendous and holds up capably at every turn.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 7.1 channel Dolby TrueHD soundtrack. This multichannel soundtrack is quite a treat itself and it offers a crisp, clean and consistently immersive audio presentation throughout. It takes advantage of all seven available channels fairly regularly in order to send music, action and vehicle effects, plus a great deal more consistently zipping throughout the various speakers at every fitting opportunity, while always making certain that any dialogue or other audio elements that might be occurring simultaneously remain clean and fully audible. Overall, this is a great 7.1 Dolby TrueHD soundtrack that repeatedly complements the onscreen fun and goofiness and should not disappoint.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Dog Man’ features a few fun extras. Included on the release is an ‘Audio Commentary with Screenwriter/Director Peter Hastings’, along with a collection of ‘Deleted and Extended Scenes with Intros by Hastings’ (running approximately 10 minutes in length altogether). Also included are some Featurettes and other fun videos including ‘Meet the Pack’ (running approximately 5 minutes), ‘The Making of Dog Man: A Sarah Hatoff Exclusive’ (approximately 6 minutes), plus a collection of ‘How to Draw – Flip-O-Rama Style’ guide videos (approximately 12 minutes combined) and a fun guide for ‘How to Make Doughnuts for Dogs’ (5 minutes).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Film Rating: 8/10
Disc Rating: 7.5/10

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‘Dog Man’ is Now Available to Own on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital from DreamWorks Animation & Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

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You can purchase ‘Dog Man’ on Blu-ray at Amazon HERE!

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