Part dog, part man, all hero.
From DreamWorks Animation, creators of the beloved blockbuster franchises Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon and The Boss Baby, comes the canine-crime-fighting film adaptation of Dav Pilkey’s New York Times bestselling literary phenomenon: Dog Man.
When a faithful police dog and his human police officer owner are injured together on the job, a harebrained but life-saving surgery fuses the two of them together and Dog Man is born. Dog Man is sworn to protect and serve – and fetch, sit and roll over. As Dog Man embraces his new identity and strives to impress his Chief (Lil Rel Howery), he must stop the pretty evil plots of feline supervillain Petey the Cat (Pete Davidson). Petey’s latest plan is to clone himself, creating the kitten Lil Petey, to double his ability to do crime stuff. Things get complicated, though, when Lil Petey forges an unexpected bond with Dog Man. When Lil Petey falls into the clutches of a common enemy, Dog Man and Petey reluctantly join forces in an action-packed race against time to rescue the young kitten. In the process, they discover the power of family (and kittens!) to bring even the most hostile foes together.
Launched in 2016 by Dav Pilkey, the #1 global bestselling author and award-winning illustrator of the Captain Underpants books, the Dog Man Scholastic series now includes 12 books. The series has more than 60 million copies in print and has been translated into 47 languages. And bringing Pilkey’s unique voice to the big screen for a whole new audience to enjoy is director Peter Hastings, whose credits include the groundbreaking animated series Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain.
As the anticipated trailer for Dog Man releases online ahead of its January 2025 release, Peter Gray spoke with the Emmy winner about how his background in comedy helped inform his career, crafting the feel for the books on screen, and finding the dynamic with his voice cast.
Before I delve further into Dog Man, I wanted to know if, for you, there’s an animated film that you look to as the pinnacle of the genre, or the one movie that got you into the field on animation?
I’m pretty weak on Top 10 lists, and because there’s so many things that can influence (me)….I’m looking at the way (Hayao) Miyazaki animates water, or the story of the first Kung Fu Panda movie, or the way those drawings move in Bambi. You know, all of those things are inspiring to me.
I got into animation a little more sideways. I was working in a sketch comedy theatre, and somebody asked me if I wanted to assist on Spielberg’s Tiny Toons Adventures. I had never really planned on it, and I’m not so much a cartoon guy as I am someone who likes to make stuff. And over time I’ve really honed my knowledge of animation, and my appreciation just continues to grow over time.
Was the sketch theatre you mentioned The Groundlings?
Yeah. I took kind of a windy path…I studied music in Boston, and then came to Los Angeles as a musician. I just kind of got involved in The Groundlings by taking one of their classes. And it was as one of their members that I started to write. The Groundlings is a great training ground in comedy. There’s a type of person who end up there though. Usually extroverted hams (laughs). The types that would do skits in front of their parents at home. And I was definitely that kid. But the comedy and performance (training) helps me in every thing that I do. I did some acting, so that always really helps me when I’m working with actors. And I use my music education in a really broad sense all the time (too). All of the disciplines come together when you’re making a movie.
On the mention of all of those disciplines when making a movie, the animated style of Dog Man is so unique. How was that particular style of drawing decided upon as to this is how this film should look?
I wanted this movie to feel a certain way. That feeling was inspired by the books, and the books are written off the idea that they’re designed by two 10-year-olds, so there’s an innocence and charm about it. Dav Pilkey wrote these books, but there’s a comedy (from the 10-year-old character) in how these books are drawn, and I wanted to know about that feeling. Even the way the text is written is part of the feeling of the books, so we wanted this style of what I call “high end handmade”, which has this high quality polish to it. We kept elements of the book, like the drawings’ crooked lines and how only some of the buildings have windows. But, at the same time, we implemented CGI to bring another level on top of that. We married those two animations together, but it’s all driven by the feeling we wanted.
Dav Pilkey, the author, loves stop-motion. And we knew we weren’t going to make a stop-motion movie, but we wanted to know what it was about that style that was so charming. The film is primarily animated on two frames per picture. It makes it feel like the hand of the artist is more (involved).
And obviously with animated films we get these incredible voice casts. Dog Man is no exception. I hear an Aussie in there with Isla Fisher. How did it come to be with this cast? Do you hear these actors voices with the characters?
There’s so many variables in that process. Sometimes you really want an actor and they’re not available. Or they don’t want to (do it). You have to consider that you may not get your first choice. Typically what happens is the actors come in and read the lines as written. You see what they are really good at, and then you start to write to what they’re good at. They then start to see what’s written, and you both start to cohesively work together to a joint whole that you built together.
With the character that Ricky Gervais (voices), we considered all types of people. We knew Ricky was going to be great, but, of everyone, he was the most skeptical. But he really got into it. What happens so many times with animation is you’ll show (the actor) the animation with their voice, and that gets them excited. And the Aussie character you mentioned is Sarah Hatoff, “the world’s greatest reporter.” In the books she’s Australian, and we originally thought because you never hear her speak, does she need to be Australian? Dav Pilkey said “Oh, yes she does!”
These books are very popular in Australia, and Isla has kids, so she was very excited about it. That’s always another factor too, for actors, whether or not they have kids.
Mentioning Ricky Gervais and how his excitement grew, when you’re watching them record in the booth, do you take note of their gestures to bring certain mannerisms or personality traits to the characters through the animation?
You have the freedom to use any of their actions for reference. Sometimes the actor will raise their eyebrow and you’ll think “Oh, my God, that’s perfect (for the character)”, and sometimes you’ll think it doesn’t work at all. It tends to be more an inspiration than a direct copy of what they’re doing. I’m doing the voice directing, so I’m usually right there with them. I’ll tell them that they can do it wrong. If they have trepidation, that rapport with them in the book can really help them.
Does any of that stem from you being an actor and knowing how you’d want to be directed in that situation?
Yeah, but I also think I’ve just learned a lot over the years. Some people want me to leave them alone. Some people I need to take by the hand. Some of them will tell me not to tell them how to do it. Others will happily take any line reading. It’s a mixed relationship and you have to figure out how it’s going to work to get the best results. Ultimately (though), I’m the director and I have control over what I’m going to use (laughs).
Dog Man is scheduled to be released in Australian theatres on January 9th, 2025.
