How kids’ book sensation “Dog Man” is proving a hit at the box office
Multi-generational family unity — check! High-concept narratives that challenge and shape young minds — check! Groovy, graphic–novel style illustrations that are at once classic and cutting edge — check!
All this and more now at both bookstores and cinemas near you thanks to “Dog Man,” the children’s literary phenomenon whose first film iteration was finally released last week.
Despite sharing the stage with the Super Bowl this weekend — which tends to depress cinema attendance — “Dog Man” is expected to pull in another $20 million by Monday and lead America’s box office for a second week in a row.
This after already raking in $36 million in its opening week. Having cost DreamWorks Animation just $40 million to make — and with an international theatrical release still to come — “Dog Man” is well on its way to proving as fierce on big screens as it is on pages.
The film is based on the first three books in the “Dog Man” series, whose titular character is literally sewn together from the body of a police officer and the head of his beloved dog after both are severely injured in the line of duty.
In the movie Dog Man (who is voiceless) clashes with feline super villain Petey the Cat (voiced by Pete Davidson) before he manages to clone himself and wreak havoc upon the world.
Petey is joined on his adventures by both his father (who abandoned him and is voiced by “King of the Hill” actor Stephen Root) and the son he made via cloning. The charming, humorously absurd set-up allows kids to experience both familial reconciliation as well as disappointment.
If none of this sounds familiar, that’s because you’re probably not a parent, or at least not a parent to elementary school-age kids.
For that demo, “Dog Man” — along with its companion series “Cat Kid Comic Club” and “Captain Underpants” — are what Harry Potter was to earlier generations.
The influential cinema website ScreenRant recently crowned the titular character “the biggest comic book hero in years,” besting long-time classics such as Super-Man and the Hulk.
Author Dav Pilkey, 58, who penned “Dog Man,” “Cat Kid” and “Captain Underpants,” may be less famous (and certainly less controversial) than Potter scribe J.K. Rowling. But he’s no less beloved or talented. Pilkey both writes and illustrates all of his books, and has his own unique back story.
Diagnosed with attention-deficit disorder and dyslexia as a kid growing up in Ohio, Pilkey views these conditions not as disorders but as his superpowers.
“I think my dyslexia helps me to be a more effective writer,” he said in a 2019 interview. “When people are writing, they’re focused on the story, the plot and the emotions — which I am as well — but I’m also focused on the effort it takes to read.”
Indeed, the genesis for “Captain Underpants” — which along with the “Dog Man” series has sold over 100 million copies worldwide — came from Pilkey’s elementary school days.
“My teacher didn’t know what to do with me. So she was sending me out into the hallway,” he said recently on the “Today” Show. It was during these lonely and frustrating time-outs that the original idea for “Captain Underpants,” which follows the foibles of two trouble-making fourth graders, was born. The book series first debuted in 1997.
The stories are filled with kid-friendly — yet boundary-testing — bathroom humor as well as words spelled phonetically rather than according to the dictionary (such as “bayke” rather than bake).
This is both fun for kids — who love and learn from finding and correcting the “mistakes” — as well as parents excited to see their children’s vocabularies grow.
“Parents enjoy reading [Pilkey’s books] with their kids because there is a level of sophistication and broad appeal. There is lots of humor, but also strong messages of friendship and kindness,” said Ellie Berger, executive vice president, trade publishing at Scholastic, which publishes Pilkey’s books.
A “Captain Underpants” film was released in 2017, just a year after the debut of the first “Dog Man” book as a spin-off.
There are now 13 “Dog Man” books, and they’ve been translated into 47 languages worldwide.
As Scholastic’s Berger states: “These are stories that are full of heart.”
One of the most recent “Dog Man” books, last year’s “Dog Man: The Scarlet Shredder,” immediately became the top-selling book in the world — in every category, both adult and children — when it was released in April 2024.
Today, along with the first “Dog Man” film, there are Dog Man Book Clubs, a live musical that toured the nation and “Dog Man Day” events at bookstores across the globe.
Dog Man and Pilkey (along with Davidson) even recently lit up the Empire State Building to celebrate the film’s release. In January, the author was feted with an event at the Library of Congress, which even included a make-your-own comic station.
For Pilkey, whose creativity was almost squandered as a kid due to his dyslexia, the goal is to both entertain, as well as encourage children evolve into their true selves.
“Dog Man is kind of like me when I was a kid,” Pilkey said in an interview earlier this month. “Sometimes I got myself in trouble, but I usually had good intentions.”
