Dog Man Director on Casting "Great in Manic Situations" Pete Davidson
From Captain Underpants to Dog Man, director Peter Hastings loves playing in Dav Pilkey's world.
Writer/director Peter Hastings might have the coolest job in the world, especially for fans of author and illustrator Dav Pilkey's Captain Underpants and Dog Man graphic novels. Since 2017, Hastings has spent most of his recent work life bringing Pilkey's characters to life in animated form.
First, Hastings developed and then executive produced the DreamWorks Animation television series, The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants (2018–20). Next, he was hired to write and direct Dog Man (now in theaters; get tickets here), the second feature film in DreamWorks Animation's Captain Underpants film universe.
RELATED: Where to Watch Dog Man: Is the New Movie in Theaters or Streaming?
A wildly funny, CG animation adventure based on Pilkey's origin story for the Dog Man character, Hastings told NBC Insider that getting to bring this character to life (and voice him!) was a perfect fit for his own love of all things silly and emotional.
"I really wanted to do it because, for one thing, my personal sensibilities both with doing comedy and with emotional stuff, is very similar to Dave Pilkey's," Hastings shared. "I'm totally at home working off of his material, so that's really fun. And I think one of the big hooks for me is where Dav goes emotionally with some of these stories that's surprising."
In our exclusive conversation with Hastings, the writer/director shared how Pilkey feels about his work being adapted, casting his perfect villains with Pete Davidson and Ricky Gervais, and the challenge of translating Pilkey's visual style into an "intelligently silly" cinema.
Director Peter Hastings says he's "nervous" about Dav Pilkey seeing Dog Man
Hastings said he first met Pilkey when he was developing The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants as an animated streaming series. Unlike some creators who like to be hands on with all adaptations featuring their characters, Hastings said that Pilkey was the opposite.
"He's very much about letting people that he trusts run with it," Hastings explained. "We kind of built up that trust doing a Captain Underpants television series that he was really happy with. And Dav is very much interested in inspiring other people. Then, he also enjoys seeing what happens, to the point of, [saying], 'I don't want to read it. I don't want to see it.'"
RELATED: What Is Dog Man Rated? Parents Guide Explained
And that includes Dog Man. Hastings confirmed to NBC Insider that Pilkey had seen "little bits and pieces" of the finished movie, but he was holding off for the big world premiere screening. "He was like, 'I want to see the finished movie in a theater with people.'"
Asked if that made him more nervous to screen it with the creator, Hastings laughed and said, "No, it's like, good fear. It's the fear where it's like, 'I'm not scared you're gonna yell at me. I'm scared that I just want to do right by you, because I like you.' It's a good motivator."
Finding Dog Man's perfect Petey the Cat: Pete Davidson
Hastings said one of his favorite parts of this directing gig was getting to cast the voice performers who populate Dog Man's home turf.
"A lot of those people are friends of mine that I've worked with," he said of the impressive list of comedians, many who are alumni of Saturday Night Live. "Laraine Newman, Melissa Villaseñor, Cheri Oteri, Kate Micucci, Steven Root, I've worked with all of them mainly in television. I know what they can do. I know how they are and and they're all super fun and funny. So, it's just nice to be able to bring your friends who are capable to come in and work on your project."
However, when it came to casting the pivotal role of Dog Man's arch nemesis, Petey the Cat, Hastings said he didn't have a prior relationship with frontrunner, Pete Davidson.
RELATED: Who Is Pete Davidson Playing in DreamWorks Animation's Dog Man? His Role Explained
"When Pete came up, I started listening to a lot of his stuff, watching different things," he explained. "The main thing that I was struck with was how he could be great in manic situations, and things that are sort of out of control, and then there was always this sweetness that came in. It just sort of slid in there and there was a warmth to him."
As the character who speaks the most in Dog Man, Davidson has to do a lot of heavy-lifting playing both the villain who wants to take over the world (one complex gadget at a time) and the reluctant father to his clone/son, Li'l Petey (voiced by Lucas Hopkins Calderon). Hastings said he was impressed with Davidson's commitment to land both facets of his character's personality.
"When we got into the recording [phase], we worked together, so I'm with him and reading with him and discussing [the character] like, how big is this supposed to be?" Hastings explained. "He just really delivered. And then it was good when he comes back and sees himself animated later on in the process. There's a whole other level of desire to really nail it.
"The same thing was true with Ricky Gervais," Hastings said of the comedian who voiced Flippy the Fish, who runs amuck with telekinesis powers. "He really got into the character when he found that this character actually goes somewhere and has an arc to it."
Bringing Dav Pilkey's artistic aesthetic to Dog Man's CG animation
A defining feature of Pilkey's graphic novels is the kid-centric art style that reflects the unpolished look of most child generated art work, especially comics. Hastings said it was imperative that they retain the look and spirit of Pilkey's books in every frame of Dog Man.
"The way that the books are drawn... the innocence and the style and the simplicity is part of the charm of the books," he said. "You don't want to make the Chief some chiseled guy that looks totally different, because it would fall apart."
RELATED: Dog Man: Cast & Characters Guide to DreamWorks Animation's Captain Underpants Spinoff
Hastings said that he and Dog Man's production designer, Nate Wragg, coined two terms that helped them stay true to Pilkey's vision. "We came up with this term — 'high-end, handmade' — with the idea that it almost has an aesthetic like a stop motion movie. It's something that's very tactile, where they see the artist's hand yet it maintains the innocence of the books and does it seriously.
"Another key phrase we always talked about is 'intelligently silly,' where we really wanted to keep the crooked lines and the paint strokes," Hastings continued. "Like, the buildings don't all have windows and all that kind of stuff. It's a huge contextual part of the movie that really has a lot to do with its charm. You see all the brush strokes. You see the pencil lines, but then it also has reflective qualities of the actual material. It a really sophisticated look. I remember when we started getting there [with the look], I was like, 'Oh, this is like those cakes you see, where you think you're looking at a car, and you just want to grab it!'"
Dog Man the movie is now exclusively in theaters. Grab your tickets here!
