\u201cDog Man\u201d<\/a> has his origin in a twisted bit of business that wouldn\u2019t be out of place in \u201cRoboCop\u201d: A bomb injures a policeman named Officer Knight and his canine partner, Greg. To make the best of the organs that are still working, the medical team sews the dog\u2019s head onto his human buddy\u2019s body. Dog Man, as he is now known, returns home to an abandoned house. His girlfriend has left him for a new guy \u2014 and a new dog.<\/p>\nNothing that follows in \u201cDog Man\u201d is nearly as grim as that setup might suggest, and frankly neither is that setup, which traffics in the kind of body-twisting absurdism that will be familiar to any devotee of Wile E. Coyote cartoons. Nevertheless, that kickoff offers a foretaste of the film\u2019s demented sense of humor, derived from the wildly successful graphic novel series of the same name by Dav Pilkey, the author of \u201cCaptain Underpants.\u201d<\/p>\n
In this screen adaptation, written and directed by Peter Hastings, jokes fly with the bouncy randomness of Dog Man\u2019s favorite tennis ball, and there are so many that a fair number of them would land even if they weren\u2019t pretty good. Mostly, it\u2019s a visual pleasure: The computer renderings have just enough texture, and the movements enough jittery tactility, to give the film a handmade feel. The splashy color palette keeps the eye engaged.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n