Dreamworks Animation has laid quite a groundwork for itself. There are so many of their projects that have gravitated into my favorites list, including the entire How To Train Your Dragon trilogy, Shrek, Shrek 2, The Prince Of Egypt, Kung Fu Panda, Rise Of The Guardians, and even Mr. Peabody and Sherman. After adding one more last year with the excellent The Wild Robot, their next project could have built on the momentum. Well, their next project is Dog Man.

I immediately need to admit I’m not familiar with the source material at all, so it felt a little like how I went into the Captain underpants movie. The premise seems absurd, yet I think there are people who will like it. Mainly, those people being little kids. Dog Man, more than most Dreamworks Animation films really does play like it has a target demographic of “under 10”, but clashes with the random adult reference, like one to Apocalypse Now (or Heart Of Darkness). The story is silly, an accident ends up in the necessary merger of a dog and a man, who then becomes the leading crime fighting detective. The problem is that Dog Man has a nemesis, Petey (Pete Davidson), who is always trying to do something evil. he even clones himself, which results in a very tiny child-like Little Petey, who immediately steals the adorable right out from underneath everyone. This is the cutest character, with a perfect voice actor. Though, the film follows a pretty typical plot, and does feel like the kind of thing parents would check out during, instead of something truly engaging that adults will enjoy as well.

it does have audio description, and the track does a nice job with some of the more random choices the movie makes. Dog man doesn’t technically speak, so capturing how he communicates is important and necessary for the audio description. It also has a comic book superhero style, which also is visual in nature, and another reason to have solid audio description. The rest of the voice cast features a lot of former SNl cast members like Cheri Oteri and Melissa Villasenor as well as comedians like Ricky Gervais and Lil Rel Howery.

Dreamworks has made better films, but this one I think actually will entertain the kids. They certainly have made worse, like last year’s Megamind Vs the Doom Syndicate, but this is on the lower end of their output. I think critics without kids have to lean a little on the concept that the target demographic for the film will likely have fun, and measure that with the adult experience, which often is just looking for a time waster or babysitter for their kids. This is not great cinema, but it might distract your kids for 90 minutes. It also feels like a hundred different films, so planning a double feature to keep your kids engaged longer shouldn’t be too hard.

Fresh: Final Grade: C+, Audio Description: B+