Peter Hastings: Well, I had done tons of TV stuff, as you know, and I'd also done the Captain Underpants series, based on Dav Pilkey's books, for DreamWorks that's on NetFlix. I was familiar with those books and had a blast doing that series, and Dav Pilkey loved it, so when the studio was interested in doing Dog Man, I ended up pitching it to Dav and he said "yes." So it was a really smooth move for me.

Peter: The executive producer and showrunner job in TV, basically [when] I tell people [about it], they go 'What does that mean?' It's basically what you think a director does. You're the creative boss of the project. So you're working for the script, you're working with the actors, the animators, the storyboard artists, taking it all the way through music, sound effects, and all that stuff. So it's actually very similar. It's just that you get to dig so much deeper in a feature film in terms of story, in terms of quality, in terms of fixing and refining. So I was very prepared to do the movie, just after doing so many years of TV. Cuz it's kind of similar. You really get to work it, y'know, which I enjoyed a lot.

Peter: Yeah. It's so funny, because some really care and some people don't care at all about breaking up the books. But it's mainly like the first three books, and then there's one thing from a much later book involving Grandpa, Petey's Dad. It's pretty hard, actually, because - for a few things. I mean, if you read the whole books, the stories really aren't about Dog Man in the same way that Captain Underpants is not really about Captain Underpants. But the movie's called Dog Man, so I needed to make Dog Man more present, and also, Dav just told me this recently - that he doesn't really know the story when he starts writing the book. He just starts and he lets it work out. And so they're kind of nutty. So it's tricky, and there's SO many great moments in the books, that you're like "Oh! I want to use that! I want to use that! I want to use that!" and then it's like - how can I *makes a struggling movement motion with his arms* fit them together and make it play through? I'm sort of getting away with some stuff, because the tone of it is so sort-of wacky that it doesn't have to be a totally clean, super smooth ride.

Peter: Y'know, Dav and I are kind of the same age and we both loved Monty Python, and stuff like that when we were young, and it's this style of comedy I call "intelligently silly," and it's something that I love. And it's very much like the tone of Pinky & The Brain, for example.

Peter: I used to always describe Pinky & The Brain as intelligently silly. I used to say that Pinky & The Brain is serious people in a silly situation, and Animaniacs - Yakko, Wakko, and Dot - is silly people in a serious situation. And I love the serious people in the silly situation, which is really kind of what Dog Man is. Everybody takes their world very seriously. So it's a comedy style that Dav is already doing that I've done a lot, so it was pretty easy to just amplify that.

Peter: That is what happens in the books. In the third book, Little Petey shows up and the whole series takes another turn because big Petey has to deal with having a kid - how does he feel about it, how he gets used to it, he finds love... the big emotional story in the book series really happens with Petey and Little Petey. So, for me, it's a whole challenge of like: I love that stuff, and I love the emotional story that happens with Petey in this thing, but I gotta keep Dog Man [in the center of it]. It's not called "Petey the Cat," right? It's called "Dog Man," so it was really about keeping that and bringing up the focus on Dog Man a lot more. But there probably was a draft of the movie that had a very long stretch of Petey and Little Petey where I was like "OK, I gotta fix that."

Peter: Yeah, I mean, it's something where you read the books and you're like "Oh, this is just this goofy little book" and then you get to some of these emotional stories and you're like "Wow!" I mean, even to me, the very first time Petey gets Little Petey and he screams "I want my life back!" and any parent might say "Umm... I felt that, I never did anything about it - " *laughter* "But I understand. I get it," y'know? And then [he] has a very interesting journey where it's like [his] dad was not a great dad and realizing he doesn't want to be that guy. He wants to break that chain and not abandon his son... even though he does briefly. And have that transformation to be like "I don't want to be the guy that my dad was to me. I want to move on." It plays out through a lot of the books, actually, that whole story.

Peter: Hmmm... Well, I love the total nonsene "Life's Not Fair" gag. When the Mayor tells The Chief to call the hotline for "Life's Not Fair." *laughter* And I love the whole building fight thing, that just kind of came out so fun. Again, that's like that kind of "ridiculously cool" at the same time. And from a heart point of view, I just love the ending and where it goes. And the sentiment that Petey expresses when he says "The world has a lot of problems, but it can never be horrible because you're in it." It's such a useful sentiment, because it works on a good day and it works on a terrible day, y'know? It works when things are good and things are bad. It's really super valuable.

Peter: Yeah! We had fun with that. As they call it, "promatic architecture," where the building looks like a giant donut or whatever. We just kind of leaned into that with all the buildings. The books were more straight-out and we said "Let's get those buildings going."

Peter: Yeah, followed by the "Laser Pointer Palace" - the EDM section.

Peter: Well, if things go well... of course, we'd all love to do another Dog Man, if it works out that way. Other than that, we'll see. I'm just still working on this guy and getting him out there. We're excited about getting him out there to digital platforms, because the movie is so repeatable. There's just so many hidden things in the movie and so many Easter eggs. One of the things that's kind of fun about it being available to people is I know the screengrabs are going to start. The little clips are going to be appearing. "Did you notice blahblahblah?"

Peter: Well, that's cool. And also, now you kind of know what you're in for with that.

Peter: Yeah... **Peter notices an autographed "Animaniacs" 8x10 hanging on the wall behind John and asks about it, so they have a brief exchange about it.**

Peter: A very fun thing about animation, really, is people who are 35 and 45 are saying, like, "Oh my gosh, I came home from school and watched Pinky and The Brain and Animaniacs - those were my favorite! My dad and I still quote from it!" and all that kind of stuff.

Peter: Like, as adults.

Peter: Y'know, it'll be the same thing... it's such a special time to deliver something to a kid that really makes an impression. And there'll be kids who are 35 at a party going, *in a deep voice* "Do you remember Dog Man??" *laughter* "Remember it? I watched it yesterday!"

Peter: It's funny, because he throws it into the sewer and I was like "If we did another movie, do we have to deal with that 'Undo' button hiding in the sewer?"

Peter: Yeah, there's so many things where we're like, "What if he actually hit that 'Undo' button? Would Dog Man turn back into Officer Knight and Greg the Dog?"

Peter: But it's gone! It's gone!