Great Animation Is Its Own Reward
Although 'Dog Man' will not earn the same box office as 'Moana 2' or 'Despicable Me 4', it looks much better than either sequel.
While I don’t think casual moviegoers are necessarily indifferent towards animation, there are two key factors to consider when looking at the medium. First, animation is costly and time-consuming. Even though so many filmmaking tools have become cheaper and more egalitarian over the past few decades, making a full-length animated feature still requires several years of massive teams working together.
This leads to the second point, which is that due to its expense, mainstream animation in the U.S. typically has to reach the widest audience possible and that means families. Therefore, animation is almost always relegated to family fare, and parents, who are desperate for anything that can entertain their kids, will show up for animated movies and hope for the best. It’s not surprising that four of the Top 10 highest-grossing movies of 2024 were animated sequels.1
And yet even under these conditions, animation feels like it’s undergoing a resurgence right now where studios feel so comfortable with the tools at their disposal that they can reinject a distinctive style into their artistry. While some studios consistently reject such an approach (Disney/Pixar, Illumination), others are showing some delightful style not only to channel the source material but because they need a way to differentiate themselves from other animated features.
Look no further than this weekend’s surprisingly delightful new release, Dog Man. A spinoff of the popular Captain Underpants books (a title charmingly adapted into an animated feature in 2017), Peter Hastings’ adaptation of Dav Pilkey’s graphic novels follows a dog and his human who, after an explosion, are sewn together to make Dog Man. Dog Man has the body of a human, but the head of a dog, and he largely behaves like a dog (no dialogue, has a favorite tennis ball, etc.), but also works to solve crimes.

Although the film’s plot is a little ramshackle (even though Dog Man is ostensibly the main character, all the character growth belongs to his arch-nemesis, “the world’s most evilest cat,” Petey voiced by Pete Davidson), it works because the whole movie feels like a seven-year-old telling you a story. It has that stream-of-consciousness, rambunctious flavor unencumbered by the tenets of a neat three-act structure.
That anything-goes approach carries over to the animation, which is where Dog Man shines. While Hastings carries over Pilkey’s art style, there’s far more at work than making sure the characters resemble the ones on the page. Frames are packed with visual gags. The whole animation style seems to dance on the edge of looking stop-motion, which accentuates a hand-made feel. Dog Man never looks sloppy, but it also studiously avoids looking overly polished. Again, leaning into the idea that this is a kid telling you a story, the film uses that notion as texture rather than attempting to iron out every bump and ridge.
Watching Dog Man, I kept thinking, “Pixar could never.” Part of that is Pixar doesn’t do adaptations, so they’ve never had to consider a pre-existing art style. But while Pixar movies certainly don’t look “bad,” there is a sense of stagnation where the studio can make strides on photorealism, but wouldn’t attempt a look that’s radically different between pictures. To put it another way, while Inside Out 2 and Elemental came from different directors, there’s no question they came from the same studio. Compare that to DreamWorks Animation’s film before Dog Man, the Oscar-nominated The Wild Robot, and the two pictures are so distinct that we’re now a long way from DreamWorks Face.
Audiences won’t necessarily reward these deviations because it’s parents buying the tickets and parents just want to know that the film will keep the little ones entertained for 90 minutes. But it’s nice to know that it’s not just indie studios in Latvia that are working to make distinctive, exciting animated projects. Dog Man is a family film, but it doesn’t take that as a license to deliver the lowest common denominator to a desperate audience. Instead, it shows that even if the higher grosses go to straight-laced CGI animation, other animation studios will make sure the medium continues to expand and thrive.
Dog Man opens in theaters on January 31st.
Recommendations
My pal Dave Chen (whose newsletter Decoding Everything is one I proudly contribute to) has launched a second Substack: Dave Chen Poker. Playing Poker is one of those things I love to do and yet seem to never do it. It doesn’t even matter that I’m not any good at it; sitting around a card table with a group of friends on a long game of Hold ‘Em is my idea of a good time. Dave is a little more professional at it than I am (he’s won money in Vegas tournaments), so I’m eager to keep up with his thoughts on the game (and maybe one day I’ll get around to starting a home game of my own).
What I’m Watching
This weekend sees the release of You’re Cordially Invited on Prime Video. It’s the new film from Nicholas Stoller, the director of Neighbors, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and Platonic. Stoller is one of the best comedy directors around, and this one has a fun premise: doting father Jim (Will Ferrell) books a wedding venue for his beloved daughter Jenni (Geraldine Viswanathan) at a wedding venue that can only accommodate one wedding per weekend. Unfortunately, that venue also booked that weekend for a wedding for Neve (Meredith Hanger), whose hard-charging sister Margot (Reese Witherspoon) wants the best for her sibling. While Jim and Margot try to share the weekend, slights both intended and unintended cause them to try and ruin each other’s special day.
This is not Stoller’s sharpest script; it almost feels like he tried to find what worked best in the editing room and reshoots. And yet I can’t deny I was laughing throughout. Part of that is Stoller knows how to utilize a deep bench of talent, so while Ferrell and Witherspoon are reliable anchors, you also get laughs from Viswanathan and Hanger as well as co-stars Keyla Monterroso Mejia, Jimmy Tatro, Leanne Morgan, and Rory Scovel. If you’re looking for some good laughs this weekend, You’re Cordially Invited delivers.
You’re Cordially Invited arrives on Prime Video on January 30th.
Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night is now on Netflix, so I finally gave it a go, and despite having an impressive cast (Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd is unreal), it’s largely a flop. The idea to compress the story into the 90 minutes leading up to the first episode of Saturday Night Live is neat, but Reitman only uses it for speed rather than vision. The film sweeps you up in a series of walk-and-talks but never has a clear idea of what it wants to say. We know that SNL is going to work out, and I suppose it’s neat that there was a point in time where everyone doubted it, but those aren’t stakes. Is this the story of Lorne Michaels (Gabrielle LaBelle) learning to let go of his perfectionism and idealism? Is it about changing the face of comedy from guys like Johnny Carson and Milton Berle to a new generation? Is it about how people find working with Chevy Chase to be intolerable? It’s kind of all of these things and none of them.
What’s more bizarre is the current direction of Reitman’s career. After landing critical acclaim with his first three features (Thank You For Smoking, Juno, and Up in the Air), he now seems to be immersing himself in his father Ivan’s work and generation with The Front Runner, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and now Saturday Night. It’s weird to see Reitman grow older and have less of himself in his movies, instead ceding ground to a time he was never a part of and with nothing to say about his own time.
What I’m Hearing
I’m listening to myself! I had the pleasure of joining The Morning X with Barnes & Leslie to talk about the recent Oscar nominations, so give it a listen!
What I’m Playing
I didn’t expect Sleeping Dogs to be a good game to play while listening to podcasts, but it’s oddly soothing to go beat up a bunch of gang members while Karina Longworth tells me about all the inaccuracies and falsehoods in Hollywood Babylon.
Inside Out 2, Despicable Me 4, Moana 2, and Kung Fu Panda 4.