Dog Man ending explained: Does Petey become a do-gooder?

Dog Man is an animated comedy film that follows a dog-human hybrid police officer who tries to save his city from the terror of a villainous orange cat.

Peter Hastings has written and directed this film based on a book series by Dav Pilkey. It serves as the second film in the Captain Underpants franchise after 2017's Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie. Its voice cast includes Pete Davidson, Poppy Liu, Lil Rel Howery, Stephen Root, Isla Fisher, Ricky Gervais, and Billy Boyd, besides Hastings himself.

The film's official logline, per IMDb, reads:

"Dog Man, half dog and half man, he is sworn to protect and serve as he doggedly pursues the feline supervillain Petey the Cat."

The film premiered at the L'Alpe-d'Huez Film Festival in France on January 15, 2025, ahead of its US theatrical release on January 31. This action-adventure flick has already become one of the highest-grossing films of 2025.

At the end of the film, the Dog Man and Li'l Petey save Petey's life. Flippy gets arrested for his crimes while Petey gets pardoned. Petey has a change of heart about his outlook on life.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for DreamWorks Animation's Dog Man. Reader discretion is advised.

What is the story behind Dog Man?

The new DreamWorks Animation film revolves around the Ohkay City Police Officer Knight and his dog Greg. They try to stop Petey, the self-proclaimed "world's most evilest cat," from planting a bomb in a local warehouse.

Knight and Greg arrive at the crime scene to defuse the bomb. Instead, it explodes and severely injures both. Greg is left with his head while Knight is with his body. So, two surgeons decide to patch Greg's head on Knight's body. It turns them into a hybrid form, which they call Dog Man.

The hybrid cop soon becomes famous in town after repeated arrests of notorious Petey. It doesn't bode well for Petey, who plans to seek revenge with a new plan.

Who is Li'l Petey and how different is he from Petey?

Petey the Cat (Image via YouTube/@UniversalPictures)

Petey creates a clone of himself, called Li'l Petey, and hopes he becomes villainous. Instead, Li'l Petey becomes kind like Dog Man. Li'l Petey tries to transform Petey into a do-gooder, but Petey remains stuck in his old ways.

Petey eventually admits that his father abandoned him as a child. It put a strain on their relationship, which made him evil. Around this time, Flippy, an evil telekinetic fish, gets resurrected. It gets programmed to kill all the do-gooders like Dog Man.

What happens to Petey in the end?

Flippy puts the lives of the do-gooders in Ohkay City at risk. Li'l Petey makes him drop his evil ways. The final moments of Dog Man show Flippy getting arrested, but Petey gets pardoned for his crimes.

Petey rethinks his life choices and decides to be a do-gooder instead of letting his negative past dictate his behavior and make him villainous. He shares Li'l Petey's custody with Dog Man.

When speaking about this heartwarming ending, writer-director Peter Hastings told NPR,

"The ending of the movie, those last five minutes, I just love it. It's so rich. I just had this desire that somebody sitting in a theater with their kid would watch that and then just look and smile, thinking, 'It is going to be okay.' "

He further adds,

"That sentiment at the end, I love, because things can be difficult and things can be hard. But it's going to be okay. I always pitched that moment and the thing I love about that is that it works on a good day and a bad day."

As Hastings mentioned, the film uses an empathetic tone to portray the power of goodness over evil, borne out of negative circumstances.