I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this cutie compared to his book counterpart.
| “ | Petey: Why did you bring him here? Ugh. Li'l Petey: I'm sorry, Papa. I just wanted you to have your papa back. Petey: My papa? My pa- that guy abandoned me! Do you have any idea what that feels like? Li'l Petey: Yes. And I forgave you. |
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| ~ Two elementary schoolers wrote this by the way. |
I've never been in a theatre with such a loud audience before. That's all I'm gonna say.
Anyways... DOG MAN!!! I never thought this little gremlin from the comics would become my second favourite character in the film, but here we are.
What's the Work?
Dog Man is a 2025 film by DreamWorks based on... Dog Man. It is based on the first three (and seventh technically) books of the series. It follows the titular lead on his mission to arrest Petey the Cat for his villainous schemes. However, a magical fish named Flippy came to life and started terrorizing the town, forcing Dog Man and Petey to set aside their difference to stop the new threat.
Who is He/What has He Done?
Li'l Petey (who I'll refer as LP) is the tritagonist of the movie. He is the "son" of Petey the Cat, the former arch-nemesis of Dog Man.
When Petey tried to clone himself using the Super Clone-ator 3000 or whatever it was called, it came with an unintended side-effect of creating a baby version instead of an exact copy. The new kitten is sweet, lovable, and caring, the exact opposite of his creator. Now stuck with a literal kid, Petey tries to go about his daily life, but the needy child makes it impossible. He reluctantly took LP for a quick adventure, but he screws it up. After coming back to headquarters, Petey decides to abandon LP on the sidewalk, leading to Dog Man finding him. The canine cop decides to adopt the kitten and bring him back home. They spent the next few days or weeks living together, becoming best friends. On the other side of town, Petey realizes his mistake of abandoning his child and creates 80-HD, a robot that can seemingly do anything it's master requests. Petey uses it to track LP's location, which much to his dismay, ends up being Dog Man's house. With 80-HD's extendable arm, he retrieves a sleeping LP. The kid wakes up as if getting kidnapped was normal and walks home with Petey.
From there, LP learns about how his abusive Grampa abandoned his father as a kitten, so he gets 80-HD to find him with hope that he changed for the better. The next morning, Petey is reunited with Grampa, but the old geezer has barely changed. LP apologizes for bringing back Grampa, but Petey brushes it off and leaves to execute his next evil plan; defeating Dog Man for good. The Cat and Dog get into a fight, but they are interrupted when Flippy the Fish shows up with his new body and henchmen called the Beasty Buildings. After realizing his best friends were in danger, LP shows up to the scene, but gets unexpectedly targeted by Flippy. Fortunately, he was freed, which gave him a chance to return home and hop into 80-HD like a suit to fly into battle, putting up a good fight until he gets knocked out. Petey took LP's place in 80-HD in order to get the kid to safety. As a result, Flippy flew over a volcano in an attempt to kill Petey, but he was interrupted when LP asked what was wrong. LP read Flippy an inspiring comic, which makes him lose his telekinetic powers. Once the fish was arrested and Petey was brought to safety, everyone returned home. Unfortunately, it is revealed that Grampa stole all of Petey's belongings and only left LP's comics, a devastating scene. Realizing this was no place for a kid to live, Petey shows up to Dog Man's door and allowed him to temporarily take care of LP until he gets his house fixed up.
Admirable Standard
This might sound crazy, but LP is the most admirable character in the movie. Thanks to his quick thinking, he destroyed the last Beasty Building, stopping their destructive city rampage and saving the heroes. More importantly, he redeemed Petey and Flippy the Fish. Both were seemingly heartless villains who attempted to "destroy all do-gooders" (a family friendly way of saying "killing everyone"), but LP was able to see through their hardened exteriors and realize they are broken people who had a tough past. With his loving support, LP convinced the two to change their ways. In the end, Flippy willingly turned himself in and Petey became the heroic do-gooder he once hated so much.
Mitigating Factors
He's even canonically considered PG lol
LP's character is supposed to be this ray of sunshine that nobody would ever hate, and while that's mostly true, his book counterpart falls short due to some questionable decisions. On the other hand, Movie LP actually fits the bill, although there are similarities to Book LP that should be addressed.
- Jerkish Moments/Incompetence - Book LP is infamous for relentlessly annoying Petey, even during serious moments. It gets so bad that Petey literally yells and crashes out while his son just rolls around in laughter. It was honestly the reason why I didn't like the character. However, Movie LP knows when it's appropriate to joke and get serious. He irks Petey by constantly asking "why?", but it's just only because he was genuinely curious and never has the intention of bothering him. Bringing back Grampa is not mitigating since LP thought he had changed for the better. Whenever the moment gets serious, he stops with the jokes and tries to make others around him feel better.
- Lethality - Book LP almost killed innocent tadpoles when they were brainwashed, but Movie LP hasn't done anything that serious. While he does kill a Beasty Building, that is justified since they were a serious danger to the city and followed Flippy on his mass-murdering plot, not to mention they were mostly mindless monsters.
- Moral Agency - Yeah, he's less than a month old, but he was created with a functioning agency, judging by the fact that he could immediately talk and express complex emotions. Besides, the ending makes it clear that he can tell what's right and wrong, even though he started off pretty naive.
Final Verdict
Li'l Petey is honestly the last character I thought would be PG, but he gets a solid yes from me. He really is a Supa Do-Gooder!