Universal Pictures dropped a trailer for Dog Man, its upcoming animated film adaptation of Dav Pilkey’s series of children’s graphic novels.
Pilkey’s series, which kicked off in 2016 with Dog Man, is a spinoff of his popular Captain Underpants books. The Dog Man books follow a police officer with the head of a dog who has sworn to protect his city from evildoers, including his archnemesis, a cat named Petey.
The film adaptation is directed by Peter Hastings, who worked as an executive producer on the Netflix series The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants, another Pilkey adaptation. It features the voices of Pete Davidson as Petey, Lil Rel Howery as the police chief, Isla Fisher as a news reporter, and Ricky Gervais as a telekinetic fish.
The trailer begins with a voiceover saying, “When the streets are held hostage, two of the city’s finest must come together and fight as one,” as a police officer and a dog attempt, unsuccessfully, to defuse a bomb. It cuts to both cop and canine on an operating table as doctors decide to fuse the dog’s head onto the human’s body.
Later, Petey is shown reading a newspaper, saying, “Enough about this Dog Man! It’s time to stop this supa cop!” (The use of supa for super is a trademark of Pilkey’s books.)
The trailer ends with Dog Man enthusiastically jumping on the police chief, giving him a sloppy puppy kiss. “Stop it! Why do you always got to lick the inside of my mouth?”
Dog Man is scheduled to open in theaters on Jan. 31, 2025.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
