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Dog Man is a 2025 American animated action comedy film based on Dav Pilkey's children's graphic novel series of the same name. Produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures, it is a spin-off and story within a story of Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017) and the second film in the Captain Underpants franchise. The film was written and directed by Peter Hastings, and stars the voices of Pete Davidson, Lil Rel Howery, Isla Fisher, Poppy Liu, Stephen Root, Billy Boyd, and Ricky Gervais, with Hastings providing vocal effects for the titular character. The film loosely adapts the first, the second, the third, and the seventh Dog Man books.

DreamWorks Animation announced a film adaptation of Dog Man in December 2020, with Hastings set to direct after his experience with Pilkey's works from The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants (2018–20). Karen Foster joined as a producer in January 2024, and the cast was announced that September.

Dog Man premiered at the 2025 edition of the Festival de l'Alpe d'Huez in Alpe d'Huez, France on January 15, 2025, and was theatrically released in the United States on January 31. The film received positive reviews from critics and has grossed $77.5 million worldwide, becoming the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2025.

Plot

A villainous orange cat named Petey constantly terrorizes Ohkay City, with one of his schemes involving planting a bomb to destroy an abandoned warehouse. Famed cop Officer Knight and his dog Greg arrive to defuse the bomb, but it explodes, severely injuring Knight's head and Greg's body. Two surgeons save Knight and Greg by stitching Greg's head onto Knight's body, creating the dog-human hybrid Dog Man. Dog Man quickly becomes beloved for his repeated arrests of Petey, creating a heated rivalry between the two, but becomes lonely and depressed due to the loss of his owner, girlfriend, and house. He takes a tennis ball he used to play with and moves into a doghouse on the city outskirts.

After firing his assistant, Petey decides to clone himself to create an assistant just like him. Because Petey misread the instructions, it creates a copy of him as an innocent child with no interest in evildoing, whom he calls Li'l Petey. Petey steals the corpse of an evil telekinetic fish named Flippy and plans to use Living Spray to resurrect him and defeat Dog Man, but Li'l Petey interferes. Petey decides to abandon him in a cardboard box in the middle of the city, where Dog Man finds and decides to adopt him.

At his lair, Petey discovers a picture book drawn by Li'l Petey depicting both of them as a family. Feeling guilty, Petey uses his orb-shaped mech, named 80-HD, to kidnap him. Petey reveals to his clone that his abusive father abandoned him as a child. In an attempt to cheer him up, Li'l Petey uses 80-HD to bring Petey's father, called Grampa by Li'l Petey, to his lair. Grampa immediately starts berating Petey, revealing that he has not changed despite Li'l Petey's hopes.

Flippy is resurrected at the Living Spray factory after being mishandled by the factory employees, which also causes the factory itself to come to life. Having been reprogrammed by Petey to destroy all do-gooders, he targets Dog Man and his friends, who fight a horde of buildings affected by the Living Spray. Petey reluctantly decides to team up with Dog Man, swapping out Li'l Petey inside 80-HD with himself. Flippy decides to drop him into a volcano, but Li'l Petey arrives and shows him a comic book depicting them as friends, making him drop his evil ways. Dog Man sacrifices his old tennis ball to save Petey from falling in the lava.

While Flippy gets arrested, Petey is pardoned as a do-gooder for his actions. Refusing to be considered a do-gooder, he and Li'l Petey return to their lair to find that Grampa took everything except for Li'l Petey's books. Petey decides to share custody of his son with Dog Man, and he heads back with a new outlook on life.