Story

When Officer Knight (Peter Hastings) and his dog Greg are injured after a valiant attempt to capture the evil supervillain Petey the Cat (Pete Davidson), they’re joined together in a life-saving surgery. With the head of a dog and the body of a man, they become Dog Man (Peter Hastings), a crime-fighting super-cop! Shenanigans ensue as Dog Man chases down and tries to catch his nemesis Petey, making unlikely friends along the way.

Themes

Violence; police as protectors; found family; slapstick comedy; neglectful parents

Violence

Dog Man has some violence. For example:

• There is slapstick violence throughout the movie, although no characters are seriously injured or killed.
• Characters drive recklessly in fast-paced car chases.
• Characters crash their cars regularly but aren’t injured.
• Characters are blown up in explosions or with lasers but aren’t injured.
• Characters run into things and fall over.
• Petey creates inventions that are designed to kill Dog Man. He attacks Dog Man with his inventions.
• A character verbally berates their subordinate, telling them they’re bad at their job and useless.
• Characters often yell at Dog Man for being excited and licking their faces.
• An adult character verbally berates their child, suggesting they’re a loser.
• Giant robots fight each other and try to tear each other apart.
• There are many comic fighting scenes. No characters are permanently injured or killed.
• A character says he has been bullied. He says that nobody likes him and his peers called him ‘fatty dish face’. He gets emotional and starts crying.

Sexual references

Dog Man has some sexual references. For example, 2 characters say that they’re in love with each other and hug briefly.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

There’s no use of substances in Dog Man.

Nudity and sexual activity

There’s no nudity and sexual activity in Dog Man.

Product placement

Dog Man has a ringtone of the song ‘Flowers’ by Miley Cyrus.

Coarse language

Dog Man has some mild coarse language, name-calling and insults, including ‘dingdong’, ‘jerk’, ‘suckers’, ‘suck it’, ‘losers’, ‘butt-sniffer’, ‘poo-poo head’ and ‘idiot’.

Ideas to discuss with your children

Dog Man is a fun adaptation of Dav Pilkey’s graphic novels of the same name. Filled with slapstick comedy and comic action, Dog Man has a simple yet surprisingly funny and wholesome storyline.

Because of its mild animated violence, coarse language and scary scenes, Dog Man is best suited to children aged 6 years and over. We also recommend parental guidance for children aged 6-9 years.

The main messages from Dog Man are that kindness can transform even the most difficult situations and that working together is often critical to achieving goals.

Values in Dog Man that you could reinforce with your children include kindness, family, teamwork, forgiveness and second chances.

Dog Man could also give you the chance to talk with your children about real-life questions and issues like the following:

• Petey blames his negative outlook on life on his difficult upbringing. Does this justify his actions? What could he do differently instead?
• There is a lot of violence in this movie, and the city is destroyed as a result. What are the real-world consequences of violence?
• Petey discusses his father’s abandonment, but he abandons his own son. You could talk with sensitive or older children about the effects of generational abandonment.