What to know:
- Dog Man has received a mix of Fresh and Rotten reviews from critics, making it unlikely to reach the high bar set by its predecessor, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (87% on Rotten Tomatoes).
- Recent animated films have had Rotten Tomatoes scores ranging from as low as 37% (The Garfield Movie) to as high as 97% (The Wild Robot)
- Kalshi users have been betting on Dog Man’s Rotten Tomatoes score since Jan. 11, with over $700,000 in trading volume.
Will Dog Man have a ruff time with critical receptions? So far, it’s unclear. Dog Man is the latest animated movie coming to theaters on Jan. 31, 2025.
This new protagonist has top prediction markets like Kalshi forecasting the movie’s Rotten Tomatoes score. The trading volume sits at over $700,000 and its highest predicted score was 83.1 and the lowest was 64.
Before betting on Dog Man, let’s dive into what it is about, how animated movies perform on Rotten Tomatoes, and early reactions.
What is ‘Dog Man’?
Dog Man is an animated film directed and written by Peter Hastings. This film is an adaptation of the best-selling scholastic series of the same name. Dog Man is a spinoff from the popular children’s graphic novel Captain Underpants.
It is the second film in the Captain Underpants franchise after 2017’s Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie. The film follows:
When a faithful police dog and his human police officer owner are injured together on the job, a harebrained but life-saving surgery fuses the two of them together and Dog Man is born. Dog Man is sworn to protect and serve—and fetch, sit and roll over.
The film’s cast includes Pete Davidson, Lil Rel Howery, Isla Fisher, Poppy Liu, Stephen Root, Billy Boyd, and Ricky Gervais. The film began development back in 2020 and will be released at the end of January.
Critical reception of animated movies
Every year there are countless animated movies released from a variety of large and small studios. Let’s look at 2024’s top 10 highest-grossing animated movies and their respective Rotten Tomatoes scores.
| Movie | Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer Score |
| Inside Out 2 (2024) | 91% |
| Moana 2 (2024) | 61% |
| Desipicable Me 4 (2024) | 56% |
| Mufasa: The Lion King (2024) | 58% |
| Kung Fu Panda (2024) | 71% |
| The Wild Robot (2024) | 97% |
| Boonie Bears: Time Twist (2024) | N/A |
| The Garfield Movie | 37% |
| Transformers One (2024) | 89% |
| Detective Conan: The Million Dollar Pentagram (2024) | N/A |
The range is extremely wide for these movies with scores from 37 to 97. Although the average of the eight available scores is a Fresh score of 70.
However, three of the eight films are Rotten scores and Moana 2 is right on the boundary between a Rotten and Fresh score. While some movie genres tend to have an overwhelming bias in their scores with a higher or lower average, animated movies seem to vary across the board.
For director Hastings, the only project he has with a Rotten Tomatoes score is 2002’s The Country Bears which has a 29 score. This is not a great indicator, but it is more than two decades ago and probably not a good predictor of his current abilities.
However, the first film in the Captain Underpants franchise – Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie – performed well with critics. The film was Certified Fresh with a score of 87.
Early reviews of ‘Dog Man’
Dog Man currently has 15 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes scores and six of them are from Top Critics, which are special reviewers who are well-established and have written many reviews.
The Top Critic reviews are split down the middle, with three Fresh reviews and three Rotten reviews. For Associated Press, Mark Kennedy wrote, ‘Newcomers may be stunned — and not in a good way.”
Hollywood Reporter’s Frank Scheck says, “Writer-director Hastings, who also provides the voice, or rather the sounds, of Dog Man — including, naturally, “ruff,” and howling along to the song “I’m So Lonely I Could Cry” — infuses the film with clever touches.”
Dog Man is vibrant, fun, and packed with heart, humor, and heroism! The character designs are spot-on, and the laughs are nonstop. Kids will be hooked, and adults will be chuckling along.
— Nerdtropolis (@Nerdtropolis) January 29, 2025
It's cute, heartwarming, and everything you could want from a family film based on the… pic.twitter.com/yOAVexXZw1
So far, the film’s reviews seem mixed and will unlikely meet the heights of the predecessor’s 87 score. Despite some ruff reviews, it is unlikely Dog Man will have a low score.
