Dog Man

image for Dog Man

Short takes

Not suitable under 6; parental guidance to 8 (animated violence, mild coarse language, scary scenes)

Age
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
classification logo

This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Dog Man
  • a review of Dog Man completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 8 April 2025.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 6 Not suitable due to animated violence, mild coarse language and scary scenes.
Children aged 6–8 Parental guidance recommended due to animated violence, mild coarse language and scary scenes.
Children aged 9 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Dog Man
Classification: G
Consumer advice lines: Very mild themes, animated violence and coarse language
Length: 95 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

When policeman Officer Knight (Peter Hastings) and his dog Greg are injured due to a valiant attempt to capture the evil supervillain Petey the Cat (Pete Davidson), they are joined together in a life-saving surgery. With the head of a dog and the body of a man, they become ‘Dog Man’ (Peter Hastings), a crime-fighting super-cop! Shenanigans ensue as Dog Man chases down and attempts to catch his arch nemesis Petey, making unlikely friends along the way.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Violence; Police as protectors; Found-family; Slapstick comedy; Neglectful parents.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • There is near constant slapstick violence throughout the film, with no characters getting seriously injured or killed.
  • Characters drive recklessly in fast-paced car chases.
  • Characters crash their cars regularly with no injury.
  • Characters are blown up in explosions or with lasers, with no injury.
  • Characters run into things and fall over.
  • Petey creates inventions that are designed to kill Dog Man, and attacks him with them.
  • A character verbally berates their subordinate, telling them they’re bad at their job and useless.
  • Characters often yell at Dog Man for being excited and licking their faces
  • An adult character verbally berates their child, insinuating they’re a loser.
  • Giant robots are shown fighting each other and attempting to tear each other apart.
  • There are many comic-style fighting scenes, where no characters are permanently injured or killed.
  • A character is said to have been bullied, stating that nobody likes him and his peers called him “fatty dish face”, before becoming emotional and crying.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Greg the dog and Officer Knight are involved in an explosion and rushed to the hospital, where it is suggested that they sew Greg’s head onto Officer Knight’s body. This surgery is not shown on screen but Dog Man has stitches on his neck.
  • Petey attempts to scare or hurt Dog Man with increasingly scary and large inventions, often with teeth and snapping jaws, but Dog Man outwits him and no injury occurs.
  • Buildings are transformed and become large, scary and anthropomorphic with large arms and sharp teeth. This is accompanied with a loud swell of foreboding music. The buildings are then shown attacking the main characters, attempting to hurt them.
  • A small child character is almost hit by a car.
  • A character is shown being dangled over a volcano.
  • A character is revived from the dead and programmed to be a supervillain who is to wipe out all “do-gooders”.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Petey expresses that his dad abandoned him and his mother as a child, which he thinks caused him to become an evil villain.
  • Petey’s dad abandons him a second time and takes all his stuff, which causes a child character to feel upset and distressed.
  • Petey abandons his child character in the street, who is shown to be sad and distressed.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Dog Man has a ringtone of the song “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Two characters express that they are in love with each other, and they briefly hug.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • A character calls another a “dingdong”.
  • Jerk
  • Suckers
  • Suck it
  • Losers
  • Butt-sniffer
  • Poo-poo head
  • A character calls another an “idiot”.

In a nutshell

Dog Man is a fun adaptation of Dav Pilkey’s graphic novels by the same name. Filled with slapstick comedy and comic-style action, Dog Man has a simple, yet surprisingly funny and wholesome storyline. This film is best suited for children aged 6 and up, due to the animated violence, mild course language and some scary scenes. Parental guidance is recommended for children under 9.

The main messages from this movie are that being kind can turn the tide in even the hardest situation; and that working together is often crucial to achieving your goals.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Kindness
  • Family
  • Teamwork
  • Forgiveness
  • Second-chances.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Petey blames his negative outlook on life on his tough upbringing. Why do you think this does not justify his actions? What do you think he could have done instead?
  • There is a lot of violence in this movie, and the city is destroyed as a result. Parents may want to discuss with their children the real-world impacts of violence, even if it is animated.
  • Petey discusses his abandonment by his father and then abandons his own son as well. Parents may want to discuss with more sensitive or older children the impacts of generational abandonment.