Where are all the animations? Inside Out 2, Despicable Me 4 and Moana 2 all featured in the top 5 biggest movies of 2025 but Hollywood doesn’t seem to have got the memo that there’s a pot of gold for any half-decent animated movie. Especially ones conveniently timed to fill some of the approximately 730 weeks of school holidays parents need to fill each year.
A big hooray, then, for Dog Man, a new animated adaptation of Dav ‘Captain Underpants’ Pilkey’s bazillion-selling graphic novel series and the potential saviour of the half-term holidays. The stories follow an eager police man Officer Knight and his Gromit-smart dog Greg who get sewn together (dog’s head, man’s body… go with it) after a mishap involving a time bomb.
Directed with madcap flair by Peter Hasting, one of the brains behind properly deranged cartoon Pinky and the Brain, it’s a wild ride from start to finish. Here’s why booking tickets is a must for half-term.
1. The plot is completely bananas
With Knight and Greg becoming the hybrid Dog Man, the set-up is basically Frankenstein meets RoboCop, only with more face-licking and bone-chasing. The canine part of Dog Man runs the show as this cunning but easily distracted crime fighter goes paw-to-paw with Petey, ‘the world’s most evilest cat’, and his adorbs clone Li'l Petey. Do not spend too long pondering the whereabouts of Officer Knight’s consciousness. Therein madness lies.
2. It’s this year’s answer to The Lego Movie
Like Lord and Miller’s improbably awesome Lego films, Dog Man combines a winningly meta streak with plenty of self-aware montages. It’s a whoopie cushion of rude jokes, too – and obviously kids love rude jokes, so that’s a win. The voice cast all understand the assignment, with Saturday Night Live’s Pete Davidson as the cocky Petey, Ricky Gervais voicing an evil fish and Lil Rel Howery channelling ’80s action-movie police chiefs as Dog Man’s shouty boss Chief.
3. It’s giddy fun for kids (and grown-ups) of all ages
Dav Pilkey’s book series is well-thumbed by the 6-12 age group, but this zippy movie version works as well for kids still at the Goodnight Moon stage, as well as tweens demanding a more mature brand of immaturity. It’s rated ‘U’, and while its certification promises ‘upsetting scenes’, my seven-year-old was only upset when the end credits rolled. And for any grown-up chaperons? Well, with its endless stream of silly jokes, ‘high-end handmade’ animation style and a touching tale of parenthood snuck in too, it had me hooked too.
4. It’ll get them reading, too
To paraphrase the old adage: take the kids to a movie and you amuse them for an hour or so; borrow the entire book series that the movie is based on from the library and they’ll be delighted for days. Good news, then, because Dav Pilkey has written 13 Dog Man books, with a fourteenth to come this year, as well as 12 Captain Underpants books for when those are completed.
5. It’s fast and furious
Much as a meaty runtime and leisurely intermission can be brilliant, not everything needs to be The Brutalist – especially when you’ve got youngsters with limited attention spans. Happily, Dog Man clocks in at a pacy and rambunctious 89 minutes – or 0.4 of a Brutalist – and thanks to the sugar-rush editing, not a second of it drags. On the downside, it gives you more half-term to fill. Maybe head to the nearest bookshop and buy the books?
Dog Man is in UK and Ireland cinemas now.