Dogman
/Are you under 15 years of age in North America? If so, chances are you’ve heard of the wildly successful Dog Man graphic novel series by Dav Pilkey. For those of you who haven’t you can soon experience the story on the silver screen, in claymation. The new Dog Man trailer opens with a five second microteaser featuring the vocal hook from Daft Punk’s 2001 song “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.”
Why is this such a great song choice for this trailer? As per Dog Man’s origin story (see 0:37) he has the head of a dog and the body of a man. And like the superhuman powers of Dog Man, the vocals of Daft Punk’s song are created using a vocoder - a device that takes vocal syllables and applies them to notes played on another instrument.
After the microteaser, we pivot to classic 1990s-style husky low-pitch voiceover. At 0:13, the dog who later becomes Dog Man howls, and we begin a series of trailer triplets on large drums. This leads us to 0:27 when the daring duo’s bomb-disarming mission fails.
The bomb’s explosions at 0:28 are timed rhythmically to set up the tempo of a Daft Punk-esque squelchy synthesizer riff. The music disappears at 0:37, the only sound for 2 seconds a xylophone for the dog’s blinking eyes. An operating room technology montage is accompanied by a rhythmic buildup to the reprise at 0:50 of the title hook from Daft Punk.
Enter dastardly orange cat Petey at 1:01, accompanied by ominous low orchestral strings, a high-pitched rhythmic ticking reminiscent of a bomb, and the continuing Daft Punk-esque synth riff.
At 1:18 we meet Chief, prepping Dog Man for a mission to stop Petey. They’re accompanied by rising synth runs and EDM-style busy drum accents building to a drop at 1:28 for a moment of comedy between Dog Man and Chief.
Out of musical silence, at 1:36 crunchy drum machine accents start to build as hand drawn text boxes appear behind Chief (a tip of the hat to Into The Spiderverse and how it revolutionized animation with its non-realistic concept art style in 2018).
Speaking of Spiderman, at 1:42 Dog Man and Petey fly above the city streets as the Daft Punk vocal hook returns, before cutting to musical silence at 1:44. Now Dog Man’s barks take the sonic centre stage, riffing in time with the tempo of the music, like a barked drum solo!
An epic street battle showdown between Petey and Dog Man builds. Then at 2:09, borrowing another build-up move from the EDM playbook, we have a gradual rise in pitch to 2:14, when Dog Man decides to chase the squirrel perched on Chief’s head. As he chases the squirrel, at 2:17 we hear a chiptune sound effect evoking the sound of beating a video game level, as we see the Dog Man title card on screen. The title vocal hook from Daft Punk is heard once more at 2:19 while the names of lead actors pop on screen.
This trailer is musically playful, demonstrating how the vocal hook from a catchy hit song can be repurposed and remixed to serve the dramatic pacing of a trailer. _Dog Man _hits theatres January 31.
— Jack Hui Litster
