Mr. Wolf vs Dog Man Update - 05/19/2025

(DISCLAIMER: NO WORK SHOWN IS FINAL. WORK SHOWN MAY BE FROM AN EARLIER STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT AND MAY USE PLACEHOLDER ASSETS THAT MAY NOT BE IN THE FINAL VIDEO.)

Sorry for the delay! Here's this week's update on Mr. Wolf vs Dog Man. As a quick reminder, every week until the video comes out, I will be doing a short update video and writeup to keep the patrons informed of the progress and give them a little bonus content for their support.

One of the main questions that I had to consider when writing this project was "how do I make Dog Man talk?". I have made plenty of characters who don't speak in their home franchise speak in AvA, but Dog Man specifically is tricky because his inability to speak becomes a narrative weakness that led Dav Pilkey to pivot the Dog Man book series to be more about Petey and his family than Dog Man himself. This sentiment is echoed in the movie, where Pete Davidson as Petey has top billing and Dog Man still doesn't speak. So I considered a couple things - maybe Ms. Tarantula would make a translator so Mr. Wolf could understand him. Maybe Dog Man's friends and adversaries rapped for him. Maybe I just ignore it completely and hope people don't mind. I ultimately decided to go with something similar to the latter, mainly because I think any alternative explanation would needlessly convolute the song aspect, but the idea of having other characters rap for him also appealed to me on paper, and after watching the movie, I decided having Sarah Hatoff, the news reporter and supporting character in the series, introduce Dog Man would be a good idea. She gets a new design and special focus in the movie, and while there is a lot of material in the project that is book-only, Sarah's inclusion and her design (as shown in this week's teaser clip) are the most direct nod to the movie. I figured it would be a good way to get people newly familiar with Dog Man through the movie on board and it also served as a fun bait-and-switch for the clip I uploaded on YouTube. People want to know what Dog Man sounds like, and once he's supposed to start rapping in the clip, it's Sarah instead?? Much love to KingSpirals, a very talented actress whom I have not worked with before now but did an excellent job and is absolutely on my radar for a full role in the future.

There are a lot of different backgrounds in this project, and I showed a couple of them off in this week's clip. I previously hired external artists specifically for backgrounds in Cartman vs Charlie and Doof vs Doom, but this is the first project where I asked for applicants to help on my Instagram page. I got a lot of very talented people's applications and selected a couple. The first background in the clip, outside the award show in The Bad Guys where Mr. Wolf (disguised as Oliver Poodleton) meets Diane for the first time, is from one of these external background artists. Between these artists, TerminalRepo on animation, LongestSoloEver as Mr. Wolf, KingSpirals as Sarah Hatoff and the background artists i've hired, there are more people involved in this project that I'm working with for the first time than any other in recent memory. I hope you enjoy their work!

Compositing and editing should begin properly this week as animation wraps up, and if enough presentable material is ready by the 26th, I will show it in next week's update. Otherwise, it'll probably just be more clips of animation and backgrounds. We are working very hard to meet the May 30th release date. There is unfortunately a non-zero chance that it gets delayed at this point - and if it does, I will probably be letting you guys know in the next update. But we are still trying. Animation is hard! Thank you again for all of your continued support.

See you on the 26th for the next update!

Eddie