The hero of the animated function “Canine Man” has his origin in a twisted little bit of enterprise that wouldn’t be misplaced in “RoboCop”: A bomb injures a policeman named Officer Knight and his canine companion, Greg. To make the very best of the organs which might be nonetheless working, the medical group sews the canine’s head onto his human buddy’s physique. Canine Man, as he’s now recognized, returns residence to an deserted home. His girlfriend has left him for a brand new man — and a brand new canine.
Nothing that follows in “Canine Man” is almost as grim as that setup may recommend, and admittedly neither is that setup, which traffics within the sort of body-twisting absurdism that will likely be acquainted to any devotee of Wile E. Coyote cartoons. However, that kickoff affords a foretaste of the movie’s demented humorousness, derived from the wildly profitable graphic novel collection of the identical title by Dav Pilkey, the creator of “Captain Underpants.”
On this display adaptation, written and directed by Peter Hastings, jokes fly with the bouncy randomness of Canine Man’s favourite tennis ball, and there are such a lot of {that a} truthful variety of them would land even when they weren’t fairly good. Largely, it’s a visible pleasure: The pc renderings have simply sufficient texture, and the actions sufficient jittery tactility, to offer the movie a home made really feel. The splashy coloration palette retains the attention engaged.
The plot entails the seemingly intractable rivalry between Canine Man (voiced by Hastings, however he speaks in barks) and Petey (Pete Davidson), “the world’s most evilest cat,” who — in a montage explicitly labeled a montage — breaks out of jail every time Canine Man arrests him. An Australian-accented reporter (Isla Fisher) supplies operating commentary on Canine Man’s derring-do. A police chief (Lil Rel Howery) is sympathetic to his efforts, however the mayor (Cheri Oteri) isn’t.
The pop-culture shout-outs (Canine Man howling alongside to Hank Williams) and bids to look present (Petey’s henchgirl saying “bee-tee-dubs”) are gratifyingly few. It’s arduous to hate a movie through which a cloning machine is an abnormal e-commerce buy, a robotic contraption has the title 80-HD (say it aloud) or a hotline exists particularly to inform callers that life’s not truthful. Even the operating gag of giving buildings on-the-nose names (“Petey’s Secret Lab” “Deserted Expendable Warehouse”), which ought to get outdated, doesn’t overstay its welcome: A film with a real comic-book sensibility should have some love for onscreen textual content.
Canine Man
Rated: PG. Operating time: 1 hour 29 minutes. In theaters.
