Terrific.

Life lessons take front and center in a silly animated movie based on a popular children's book series.

Are you just watching episode 159, Dogman?

Welcome to the podcast that shares critical thinking for the entertained Christian.

I'm E.

Franklin.

I'm Tim Martin, and we're discussing a.

Movie that was actually requested by one of our listeners, Warren.

He posted in our Discord Channel that he had taken his whole crew to see it and that it had some really good themes on redemption, which I don't actually think we're going to talk about today.

Nope, nope.

Not one of our themes.

It's not in my list.

That'll give him something to talk about.

Yes, exactly.

He can maybe talk about that more in our Discord chat later.

So, yeah, this is a movie that is based on a book series by Dave Pilkey, who is also known for.

Was it Captain Underpants?

Yep.

Yeah, I've not read any of these books, so I'm.

What?

That's crazy.

It's like Steinbeck.

Oh, definitely not my generation.

And since I don't have kids, I've not been exposed to it.

But Dogman did not necessarily look like a movie that would appeal to me.

But I have to admit that when I went to see it, it was very enjoyable and it's going to be a fun discussion.

I'm glad that we get to occasionally talk about children's movies.

It's not something we talk about all the time, but it has been requested frequently among our listeners that we deal with PG and G movies.

So this is another one we're going to do.

There was a couple of songs in the movie, but the score was by Tom Howe, and I will play just a little bit of that.

One thing I will tell you before I play it is that when you just listen to the score by itself, it appeals very much in that same genre of the animated cartoons we watched when we were little.

It's kind of got that almost kind of a classical feel, but at the same time where you could almost feel the action in the movie.

You know, like the characters are doing things and you can feel that in the music.

And so just play a little bit of that to.

To kind of let you hear.

All right, so I don't have a lot of background on this movie.

I kind of came into it completely blind.

I think I'd seen a trailer and that was about it.

Enough to know that this was not usually the kind of movie that I would spend money on to go to the theater.

But I can see how A lot of families, you know, kind of got pulled into this.

And I really feel like the movie appeals in some ways to adults.

It's like they knew that parents were going to get dragged to see this movie, so they stuck things in there to make it worthwhile for them to sit through it.

I really loved how everything was just very generically named, like the main hospital in town and every building.

Like the building where the bomb at the beginning goes off.

It's the.

What was it?

The abandoned warehouse that was.

Oh, yeah, the abandoned, expendable, abandoned warehouse.

Yeah.

So I just.

I love that it was like, you know, the kids probably wouldn't get that, but it was just like everything was like, part of the story and that it was named what it exactly was in the movie or in the story.

So I really appreciated that.

I thought I was going to end up seeing the movie by myself, but there were actually one family with young children and two groups of young teens that came into the movie and watched it with me.

There was a.

Probably five or six.

It was five.

Five teenage boys took the front row in front of me.

They were noisy and distracting through the movie, but I think it was because they were enjoying the movie.

And it was very interesting that at the end of the movie there's this song where the.

The dog is, like, howling, and the boys started howling along with the dog.

And so I felt like they were really engaged.

And to me, that was actually kind of fun to see, like that age group come to a movie that was obviously aimed at children that were much younger and enjoying it.

So there were many other movies they could have gone to see.

I think the.

The new Captain America movie is out, and there were probably a couple other movies in the theater that they could have gone to see.

Looney Tunes and Zoo Apocalypse or something like that.

Both kids movies that are in the theaters right now.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, you know, it made me feel good because this movie has some really good life lessons for children in it.

And I think somebody told me at work that they thought the author of the books is a Christian.

I don't know if that's true or not.

I could not find anything on a quick Google search about his testimony or faith.

But I really do feel like he wove some really good, strong life lessons into the.

The movie, which, from what I understand, is based on several of the books.

It's not.

There's not just one book in this movie.

Yeah.

So anyway, that's my first impressions.

It's a quick, easy watch.

There's nothing really bad in the movie.

I mean, there are some hard things that are dealt with in the movie like abandonment and evil and there's a bad character who's trying to kill good characters.

So there are some hard things in the movie, but they're dealt with in a very light fashion and it's very easy to discuss them with your children afterwards.

So I think that this will be a fun discussion about a fairly clean movie that was obviously made with a great deal of love for children.

Yeah, I agree.

You know, I found it to be a refreshingly simple, straightforward movie.

You know, there's no underlying, well, maybe a little bit of underlying environmentalism, but, you know, no hidden message, no ulterior motive.

It really is just a silly movie that is aimed at kids to help them wrap their mind around some of the more difficult concepts that we have to face in real life.

And I think that was pretty well done.

And like you said, there is some stuff in here, you know, that an adult watching will.

Will find funny, but none of it is inappropriate if the kid should get it right.

It's not like, you know, some comments that we find in Disney movies where it goes over the kid's head, but the adult, you know, chuckles.

But yeah, this movie.

I've read a part of one of the Dogman books to my grandkids last summer, so I had some familiarity with it.

Not a lot, but I was just.

I was so taken by the level of silliness in the movie.

It is just so.

The way I put it in my notes was so much of the concept is so detached from reality that suspending your disbelief isn't an option.

You've got to leave it at home, lock it in a suitcase with one of those little TSA approved padlocks and stuff it in the back of your closet behind the clothes that you keep telling yourself you'll fit in again someday.

It really, it's.

I mean, let's talk about it.

We are talking about a dog's head on a man's, sewed onto a man's body with visible stitches because the chief even makes mention of that at one point.

Yeah, it's just.

Anyway, but it was fun.

I enjoyed it.

And my grandson William is a huge Dogman fan.

So much so that their school, my grandson and granddaughter's school, had a book day a few weeks ago and he dressed up as Dogman for the book day.

So I actually, they live in England and I talked with.

With William and Sophia about it a few days ago and they both really enjoyed the Movie.

William said that the movie had three different books stuffed into it and I thought it might be fun if we got their perspective on the movie.

So I asked their mother to help them record their short reviews of it.

And it's interesting.

Without any prompting, William approaches it from an avid reader standpoint and Sophia approaches it from a non reader standpoint.

So here they are to listen to.

As a reader and enjoyer of the Dogma book, I had thought of what the movie would be like.

I thought it would be one book per movie, but it had multiple in one.

It was so enjoyable and fun as well as being so much better than I had thought.

My favorite parts were when Flippy's heart was touched and when the heroes had a party with a beastly building Gooba Gabba.

Oh, hi there.

As someone who hasn't read the Dogman books, you can have some things that will tell you what might be in the book.

I had fun and I liked it.

So.

It was okay for me.

My favorite part was when Sarah had off and she said they were in love with each other.

So, you know, it appeals to all ages.

Eve and I liked it and my 10 year old and 10 year old grandson and 7 year old granddaughter liked it.

So.

Hey, we've got proof.

That's great.

Those are adorable.

Thank you for sharing those.

Oh, thank you.

Well, so we'll dive right in the main theme of this movie.

And because it is a kids movie, it's not like it's got multiple levels of themes to discuss.

It's very upfront about its main theme.

In fact, I think it's at the end of the movie there's a song called Love is a Verb that starts playing right at the end.

That kind of gives away the whole theme of the main movie.

And it's actually Little Petey who ends up being a character later on in the movie.

Because this movie covers a lot.

Little Petey actually says at one point, love isn't something that you feel, it's something that you do.

So that is the actual main theme of the movie, that love is an action.

It's a verb.

It's not something that's just a feeling.

And we see that demonstrated through multiple characters.

In fact, I think it was the chief policeman at one point said, who's the hero?

And his assistant or deputy or whoever, whatever she is, says, they're all heroes.

Yeah, because they all save everybody at some point.

So we've got Petey, who is the bad kitty.

I will give you a little inside scoop on us deciding to do this movie.

I saw the trailer and my first comment to Tim was, why does the cat always have to be evil?

Or why is the cat evil?

I think is what I said.

I happen to really love cats.

I'm definitely a cat person.

But I thought that was, you know, a turn off for me before I saw the movie, that the cat had to be evil.

So Petey is this evil cat whose desire is to destroy the city.

I'm not exactly sure.

He just.

He's just thinking evil.

He doesn't seem to have much focus.

Yeah, he just wants to be evil.

Yeah.

Yeah.

At one point, I think he even tells little Petey, you know, make sure that you do evil things.

So.

So anyway, Petey's the bad guy and he's trying to destroy Dog man through the first half of the movie.

And little Petey is because he tried to create a clone of himself so he'd have a second evil mastermind to bounce ideas off of.

Well, it turned out when he cloned himself, he got a kitten instead.

And so little Petey is not Petey.

And we're going to talk about that in a second theme later on.

But Petey joins forces with Dogman to save little Petey because little Petey is in danger, and they both end up loving him.

And then little Petey saves Petey by befriending Flippy, and then Dogman ends up sacrificing his beloved ball to save everybody at the end or to save Petey at the end.

And so there's just a whole bunch of people saving people, or at this case, cats saving dogs, and dogs saving cats and fish.

And the people are never really in danger, which is weird, but maybe that makes sense in the whole genre.

But, yeah, I think looking for sense in this is probably not.

Not a healthy choice.

Yeah.

So, of course, the first thing that comes to mind when you talk about love is the love chapter in the Bible.

And we could sit here and read the whole thing, But I think First Corinthians 13, you know, it.

If you're a Christian, you've probably had it banged into your head so many times that you might even have it memorized.

But it is definitely something that describes love as being something that is not a feeling, because, you know, it's talking about it being patient and kind and not envious and not boastful and not arrogant and not rude, that it finds no joy in unrighteousness.

It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

And then, you know, obviously, at the End it says, these three remain faith, hope, and love.

But the greatest of these is love.

And so it's not just a feeling.

And I think that that is probably one of the strongest messages that we can have in today's world, because love is so often described by the world as just a feeling.

It's something that you feel.

Love is love.

It's something that even, I think, our young children are being exposed to.

You know, that you should be able to love what you want to love, and you can change your mind.

You know, love.

Love is like, I loved you for a while, but now I don't love you anymore.

And it breaks up marriages and it abandons children.

And I've fallen out of love.

I've fallen out of love.

Yeah.

And so the world's perspective on love is that it is a very transitory thing.

You know, you feel it for a little while and then it flitters away.

And that being able to express so strongly in this movie that love is not a feeling is really, I think, highly impactful for children, especially being raised in our society today, because they are surrounded by portrayals of love that are very flighty feelings, Extremely flighty feelings.

One of the.

I think the best passages about love is in Matthew 5, and this is from the Sermon on the Mount, which is one of the passages of Scripture that I memorized many years ago.

I just love, love the entire Sermon on the Mount.

It's so, you know, when Jesus is speaking to these.

These people that are gathering around, he is giving them just really deep information about what it is like to internalize the law.

It's not just an exterior thing.

It's an interior thing.

It's a changing of the inside man and making him better.

So in Matthew 5, 43, 48, he says, you have heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.

For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have?

Don't even the tax collectors do the same.

And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what are you doing out of the ordinary?

Don't even the Gentiles do the same?

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Not a very low standard there.

That's a very high standard.

Easy, easy.

But when you look at that, it's not just the perspective of love being easy, it's not, you know, the loving the people that are easy to love, it's loving the people that are hard to love.

And I think that that's where the love being a verb comes in.

It's like, because Petey even displays that he loves, or little Petey displays that he loves Petey, even though Petey tries to abandon him.

And he loves Flippy because Flippy needs a friend.

And he even loves his grandpa, even though his grandpa abandoned his dad and all of this stuff.

So there's a lot of really tough life things that little Petey's exposed to, and yet he still loves everybody.

And it's not easy.

And I think that that is just an amazing example for children today to love without boundaries.

In John 13:34, 35, it says, and this is Jesus speaking again, I give you a new commandment.

Love one another.

Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another by this.

Everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.

So this is the number one indication of Christians in the world today, is that we love unconditionally.

And that's super hard, because even as Christians, we have our enemies and we have people that disgust us or rub us the wrong way or whatever.

But we're supposed to.

We are ordered.

We are commanded by God to love them anyway.

And that is how he puts his stamp on us, that.

That we love unconditionally.

And then in Romans 13, 8, 10, it says, do not owe anyone anything except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

The commandments, do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet.

And any other commandment are summed up by this.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Love does no wrong to a neighbor.

Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the law.

And that's Romans 13, 8, 10.

I could go on.

There are so many passages, and especially in the New Testament, about God's commandment to us to love.

But one of the things that also came to mind to me in talking about PD's character and his reference to love being in action is when James is speaking about faith and when we have faith in God, a lot of people think of faith as being just a feeling as well, but faith is actually an action as well.

And so in James 2, 18, 20, it says, but someone will say, you have faith and I have works.

Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works.

You believe that God is one good.

Even the Demons believe and they shudder.

Senseless person.

Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless?

So just the perspective on all of that is that none of that is a feeling.

It's all action.

And I think that that is just an incredible lesson for kids especially.

I agree.

Kids that might be in a broken home or might even be fostered.

If this is the regular kind of information that's being portrayed in these books that these kids are reading, I think that's amazing, you know, that they're being encouraged to love in spite of the way adults treat them.

Yeah.

A very clear meanness.

Yeah.

I mean that when you see little Petey's character, I mean, from the get go, he's got a quote, unquote dad.

It's actually his clone, but his dad is trying to get rid of him from the immediate.

Like the instant he opens the chamber and sees he's got a little baby, he's like, wait, what?

Yeah, undo.

That's when he goes back and actually reads the instructions.

And then he has to order the undo button, which is.

Comes into play later.

Sold separately.

Yeah.

That's kind of funny that he had to buy the undo button separately.

I really do appreciate that they wove this element so strongly in and by using the whole Little Petey storyline, which is one of the three books that.

That are stuffed into this movie.

And I use stuffed very lightly because it's not like they didn't damage any of the stories, but they actually intertwined the stories pretty well.

Yeah, well, it's a series.

It's wonderful.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

As a series.

I think it's only got five books so far.

They had to do, like, the origin of Dogman at the beginning, which is probably the first book.

And the first book.

And then they did the wonderful montage, which I think is.

It's absolutely hilarious.

This movie does not take it itself seriously at all because the no chief is like.

And you need to catch Petey and put him in jail.

And even if it takes a montage, and then they go into this, like.

Montage of him, him arresting Petey, bringing him to cat jail, Petey breaking out of cat jail, him arresting Petey over.

And over and over again until it was like, being truncated.

It's like, snap, pop out step.

We learn later on, of course, that, you know, the cat jail is run by the mayor's brother.

Yes.

So he can't be doing a bad job.

Well, and just a side note, a major buddy trail.

Or is it a cat trail or a dog trail or Anyway, yeah, it's.

A cat dog trail, which is just as silly as a dog man.

But it's interesting to note that they kind of, you know, pull in there for the adults in the room that, you know, a policeman's job is very thankless, you know, that they, they keep arresting these people and for whatever political reasons, they end up back on the the streets to be arrested again and again and again.

And makes you feel sorry sometimes for our police to have to put up with that.

And every time PD breaks out, the mayor blames dog man.

Dog man.

Yeah.

It was like he's the one that put him in there, not the one who broke him out.

Yeah, just another element where it's, you know, it's, life's not fair, but they don't harp on it in the movie.

Yeah, I think there was a line in there about life not being fair, but when he loses his job or whatever or gets taken off the case, I don't remember.

I think there was a thing about life not being fair in there as well.

Well, before we move on to our next theme, and I have a feeling we're going to breeze through these really fast because this is a simple movie, which is good.

It means it's a quick listen for you guys before we go on, I do want to encourage you to support our podcast.

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Yeah, thank you very much.

Okay, so I think the other this was not really a theme in the movie, but I think it came out in at least one of the books that was covered by the movie.

And that is nature versus Nurture.

And this comes out of the fact that, like I've already mentioned, little Petey is Petey's clone.

And the whole point of his creation was so that PD would have someone to bounce more evil ideas off of because his assistant had walked out on him and he didn't have anybody to, you know, bounce ideas off of.

And he needed somebody to talk to, to, you know, like, come up with new ideas for how to defeat Dogman.

And so he created a clone.

He bought this, you know, clone making machine, like, like we've already said numerous times, don't take this movie too seriously, but doesn't come with an undo button.

And he ends up with this kitten who has an amazingly optimistic view on life and an insatiable need to do good for the people around him.

And it is interesting that this clone of Petey is actually a very good little kitty.

And they share everything.

They're completely the same in genetics, but yet Petey is old and he is possibly.

Well, we know that he is influenced by abandonment of his father when he was little that comes out in the movie.

And a father who not only abandoned him, but took everything.

So it was like he had bad role models growing up.

And so that's nurture, not nature.

And so when we look at it from the perspective of Petey having a bad upbringing and he turns to a life of evil because of that, with really no motive other than just to.

Be evil, which, yeah, it's like it's what's expected of him.

Right.

But, you know, kids deal with a lot of bullies when they're in school.

And so I think in this instance, Petey is kind of the representative of those kids that just are mean to everybody all the time.

And I think it might help children have a perspective that they're are reasons why bullies are bullies.

And it's not necessarily Making it so that you're endorsing their behavior or that they should get away with that behavior, but just understanding that they are that way for a reason.

And so I think for this instance, you know, Petey is evil just because he wants to be evil, but he did have a reason for being that way.

And he may not have a motive for why he is that way, but he has a reason for being that way.

I thought it was really interesting.

The Bible doesn't really talk about nature versus nurture so much, but I thought it was very interesting.

I found a blog on the Gospel Coalition that detailed, like, the two natures and the two nurtures, which I thought are very important from a scriptural standpoint.

The first one, which we have talked about numerous times, is the creation nature.

That is that we are all created in God's image.

And that's what gives us value as humans.

You know, that we are created in God's image.

We were created to be like God.

And then the sin nature is what is our nature based on the fact that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

That is the part of us that was harmed for eternity through the actions of our forefathers, Adam and Eve, in the garden.

And they kind of ruined it for all of us.

But now we are born in sin.

And so our first inclinations, even the youngest child, the first inclinations, are to sin.

And so we have those two natures warring with each other.

Then we have sin nurture, which is kind of what we see in pd.

That is, you know, how rebellion and sin is modeled and encouraged in our upbringing.

And so I can say our society is definitely sin nurtured these days.

If you're exposing your children to anything on tv, they are being sin nurtured.

And, you know, our schools and our school libraries and our politics and everything is just aimed towards nurturing sin.

And so that is then countered by the grace nurture, which is the way that we model godly behavior in the Christian church and in the Christian families.

We hope we're modeling the nurture of grace.

And that is also the grace Nurture is how we become saved, because it's by God's grace that we are saved, not through any of our own actions, because if it were our own actions, we would always fall short.

And so I thought that was a really a good summation of nature versus nurture, because we do have both types of natures in us.

We are created in the image of God, but we are marred by sin.

And our Society and our world nurtures our sin, but our salvation through God's grace is nurtures our salvation.

So then we can have godly behavior because we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that encourages that.

Really hard to talk about these things without bringing up the book of Proverbs.

It's like all the verses I found for this were from Proverbs once or twice.

Yeah.

So the first One is Proverbs 13:20.

The one who walks with the wise will become wise, but a companion of fools will suffer harm.

So that's very much the nurturing the two nurturer sides.

So if you walk with the wise, then you are nurtured to be wise.

And if you keep company with fools, then you are nurtured towards harm.

Proverbs 22:6.

Start a youth out on his way.

Even when he grows old, he will not depart from it.

So there's nurture again.

And then Proverbs 19:18, Discipline your son while there is hope.

Don't set your heart on being the cause of his death.

So this is once again a reminder to parents to nurture your children in godly ways so that they don't fall prey to the world and find death through that.

Because the way of the world is death.

There is nothing that promises hope and life in the world.

It can masquerade as hope and life, but it is always leads to death.

And that is unfortunately sad.

I wanted to take the nature virtuous nurture question one step more.

And we did talk about this a little bit in a couple of our other podcasts, including most recently, Wild Robot.

But in here we actually get to see the generations.

So at one point in the movie, Lil Petey uses one of Petey's super evil or evilist creations called the adhd, which I love the name, to magically search down the father that abandoned Petey when he was younger.

And ADHD succeeds somehow and brings Grandpa to Petey's super secret hideout with all the neon signs on the outside.

This is super secret.

Yep.

So they bring Grandpa back and he is an unrepentant loafer and moocher and complainer.

He criticizes everything and everyone, and by every indication in the movie, he is utterly lacking in any redeeming values.

And I was thinking, you know, kids movie, we're gonna see redemption.

Yeah, we're gonna see a redemption arc, right?

Yeah.

No, apparently not.

Yeah.

So, yeah, by the end of the movie, he has stolen a moving truck.

He has packed every single thing from Petey's super secret Hideout into the moving truck, but one thing, and driven off like a wild cat.

Took everything but Lil Pete's comics.

Right.

And, you know, there's even a comment in there.

He stole everything, but he didn't want my.

Like, my comics or something like that.

Yeah.

It's like he took everything, but he didn't want my comics.

And then Petey says, kid, it's not you.

Some people just won't change.

Mm.

So, yeah, what we get is, is a brief look into maybe a little while why Petey is the world's most evilest cat.

Yeah.

And it really, you know, shouldn't surprise us.

Yeah.

And I think it's really cool because, you know, Petey had grown through that.

So when his father stole from him again, he had kind of a different perspective on that because he had little Petey now.

His father couldn't take everything from him.

And it's interesting because then he has that line at the end where little Petey seeing all the weeds and the mud puddles and the pollution.

And before, he was the optimist and Petey was the one talking about all of those awful things, but now it was because little Petey was disappointed about Grandpa leaving.

He was seeing all the bad things.

And Petey says, you know, this world has a lot of problems, but it can never be a horrible place because you're in it.

And so while Grandpa doesn't have that redemption arc, Petey does.

Yeah.

And that's the upside of all of that.

Which kind of leads me to a sub theme on this, which I think you probably might have a little more to add to that.

I have, because I have not been blessed with children.

I've not been married, and I don't have kids.

But one of the things I thought was interesting about this movie was the sub theme about the difficulties of parenting and the abandonment versus finding fulfillment and raising your kids theme.

Because obviously we see Petey trying to get rid of little Petey almost from the get go.

I mean, he even puts a box out in the middle of the street and says, here, free kitten, and walks away.

Now that I think about it, there was actually almost like a suicide in there because little Petey puts the box in the middle of the road and just curls up in it.

I don't think that was intended to look intentional by any stretch.

Oh, really?

Okay.

No, I certainly didn't get it.

I think it's.

I just feel like he was being naive.

Yeah, that could be.

Yeah.

He was a little kid.

Why did he know that that was a Street.

I mean, nothing in his character suggests depression at any point in the movie.

That's true.

Suicidal depression at any point in the movie.

Yeah, there's this whole thing at the end where we mentioned earlier about the undo button that he had to order after he made the clone.

And when they came back to the empty hideout where everything had been taken, then there's a knock on the door, and the delivery man delivers the undo button, which I'm thinking maybe the undo button is kind of useless without the clone making machine.

But anyway, PD looks at it and he says, never.

And he throws it away because he has changed his perspective on, you know, that he cares about Little Petey now.

He doesn't want to undo what he did.

And so I thought maybe you might want to speak a little into what kind of lessons you learn raising children and how they are a benefit rather than just, you know, ruining your life.

You started out by saying you've never been blessed with children.

And I'm not unique, but I'm in a very small group.

I knew even before I graduated high school that I wanted to be a father.

Part of it was a true calling from God, and part of it was that my father had some very real issues that he took out on my siblings and I.

And I wanted to do better.

You know, when.

When my daughter was born, it was a wonderful thing.

But that doesn't mean that we never hit the point where we're like, oh, we just want to get some sleep, or I just want my life back.

I want to be able to go to a movie without finding a babysitter.

You know, stuff like that.

But as I look back at it, you know, all my kids are grown now.

That really is just another part of growing up.

And, you know, we.

When we're kids, we think of growing up as, oh, when I turn 18, I'm gonna move out and get a job as a CEO somewhere and be rich and.

And, you know, soak in my infinity pool.

Yeah, okay.

And then reality sits in with all the student loan debts.

Yeah, exactly.

You get to 18, and you're.

You're paying off student loan debts while you're working at McDonald's as a minimum wage employee.

And I remember the first time I got a property tax bill.

Yeah, but it wasn't on property.

It was on our car.

Yeah, well, that's property.

Well, yeah, but not real estate property.

Yeah, they're taxing us for something we've already paid all our taxes on.

That's not fair.

You know, life turns out to Be just a string of moments of growing up.

Moments.

That's what they call it now.

Adulting.

Adulting.

Yeah.

I turn in October, I turn 55, and it is clear to me that I still have another 50 years ahead of me before I'm all grown up.

Yeah.

If then.

Yeah, well, I figure.

I figure by then sanctification will be complete one way or the other.

So, yeah, you know, it's an element of growing up.

Raising children is one of the many ways that God can teach us to turn our focus outward, away from ourselves and our needs, towards the servant's heart that we're called to do.

You know, it's hard not to have a servant's heart when the baby's crying at 3am because you can't lay there and ignore it for that long.

Although I do want to point out that my wife gave in a lot quicker than I did.

Yeah.

Well, I have a friend of mine who has a child with medical needs that does not sleep more than 45 minutes at a time.

And he's 2, so they have not had a full night's sleep since he was born.

Yeah.

So, yeah, he does not sleep through the night ever.

I can't imagine someday.

Yeah, about 14 years.

Well, you know, I.

I think that's interesting that you say that, that you learn to be selfless, because that's the lesson that Petey learns in the movie, is to be selfless.

Yeah.

His desire to have Lil Petey back and then to save him in the end requires him to become a do gooder.

To do good and to sacrifice himself for little Petey.

And then even at the end where he's saying, I'm selfish and I'm mean and I'm evil, but I still want Lil Petey.

So I was like, he learned selflessness.

You're right.

It's probably that learning process of looking outside of yourself.

Yeah.

And I want to point out, you learn to be selfless, but you never master it.

Yeah, we're all selfish always.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Always think of self first.

While there's no scripture that talks about how to reboot a computer, there is lots of scripture that talks about important stuff.

You know, it's sufficient for all things that we need to know to find eternal life.

Yeah.

And this is one of those things.

Psalm 127:3 through 5 says, Sons are indeed a heritage from the Lord.

Offspring of reward, like arrows in the hand of a warrior, are the sons born in one's youth.

Happy is the man who has filled his quiver with them.

They will never be put to shame when they speak with their enemies at the city gate.

And that really does speak to how, you know your children.

I hesitate to say legacy, because that has such a.

An odd connotation these days.

We hear it in political context more than anything else.

But they are your legacy, and, you know, we've talked about it before.

You strive to raise them in the way that they should walk so that when you're not around, they will continue to walk in that way.

Yeah, yeah.

And I think that, you know, that that subplot is very useful because, like, as I think I've mentioned several times already, you know, we have a lot of children that are raised today, even in the church, raised in broken homes and with a feeling of abandonment of at least one parent or the other leaving them behind.

And it's interesting to put that in the context of, you know, the joy of parenting, with the understanding that children are abandoned.

And I think that little Petey expressed it really well when he forgave his father for the abandonment, because it was actually the context of where he draws PD to talk about his father.

And he made some comment about, well, you don't know what it feels like, you know, to have your father leave you and abandon you.

And little Petey's like, yes, I do, because you did it to me.

And so that forgiveness that he portrays is also a good lesson for our children today to learn to forgive and have compassion, even on, you know, the adults that hurt you.

Colossians 3:12, 15 says, Therefore, as God's chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another.

If anyone has a grievance against another, just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive.

Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity, and let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts and be thankful.

And I think Petey really embodies that in the movie.

I mean, he deals with a lot, or I should say little Petey, not Petey.

I get confused in my head, but to some extent, Petey does, too, because with the example of little Petey in his life, he actually becomes somewhat of a good character at the end.

I wonder if that is going to continue through the books, like he's going to stay good from now on in the books, or if he's going to go back to his evil ways.

I think William mentioned to me something about a new series focusing on A cat has started.

Okay.

I don't know if it's Petey or Little Petey or not.

Yeah, it might be a little Petey, because I think one of the ones is, like, Dogman and Cat Kid or something like that.

So I think that that's kind of dealt with in the movie during the.

The music montage of Dogman and Lil Petey being friends.

So that was probably that book, but I think, you know, like, Dogman was a music montage, and it's.

It's Little Petey.

It is a little Petey.

Okay.

Yeah, it's.

It's called the Cat Kid Comic Club.

Ah, that'll be fun for the kids to have a cat.

That's fun instead of just the dog, man.

Because I'm.

I'm all for the cats.

Yay.

Redemption.

All right, so before we go to our last theme, I just want to remind you, you can share your feedback with us.

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Can you believe we have 159 numbered episodes?

We actually have more episodes than that, but those are the numbered episodes.

That's pretty amazing.

I do not believe it.

Nope.

And a good many of those are with.

Are with you and me because you've been with me for several years, and I really appreciate that.

You can also call 513-818-2959 to leave a voicemail.

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And we love recommendations.

This review is based on a recommendation from one of our listeners.

We do listen to your recommendations and we'd love to get more.

So thank you to Warren for giving us that feedback and recommendation.

Yeah, so it's a kids movie.

It is not terribly deep, but I wanted to take a moment to talk about the character of Lil P.

I really appreciate how they use Cat Kid in this movie to be sort of like the moral compass.

You know, he's the one who is driving Redemption our plot through his own.

Yeah.

Through his own innocence.

Through his own naivete.

Right.

When he makes an observation or he asks a question of the why, quote, responsible adults around him, including.

Including the why question.

Why.

It.

It becomes a learning moment for the adult for them to come to a realization, particularly that why, why, why.

One, because Petey is answering the why.

And he gets to the point where he's like, I don't know why I'm trying to be evil or whatever.

I think that was Flippy, not Petey, wasn't it?

Because it was like at the end.

Was it Flippy?

Yeah, it was like at the end.

You know, I think it might have been both.

Yeah, it could be.

But, you know, he's really the driver there.

And, you know, little Petey in the movie is just.

It's so refreshing.

Since emerging from the cloning chamber, he is initially surrounded by adults that have absolutely no desire to.

To have him around.

And even though Petey made several efforts to be rid of him, Lil Petey never lost, I guess, respect and love for Petey.

Yeah.

Even after he was abandoned by Petey and rescued by Dogman, then stolen by Petey, who Dogman took him in and made him welcome and cared for him and was just exactly what you would expect a caregiver to be.

Lil, Petey still went with Petey when Petey found him at Dogman's house without any hesitation or complaint.

And he was just so accepting of him.

It's not until the end of the movie where he has a moment of existential crisis where he says, you know what, dad?

You're right.

The world is a terrible place and even the weeds are dying.

And that's the part where Petey has his final, you know, aha.

Moment of, you know, why it isn't a terrible place?

Because you're in it.

Yeah.

And I just thought that was such a beautiful example of the childlike attitude that we are called to approach our lives with our fear of God.

And by fear, you know, I'm using it in the classical sense, not in the horror sense.

Yeah, yeah.

It is a respect that is born of his absolute mightiness and omnipotence.

You know, it's the fear that a subject has of his rightful Lord.

Yeah.

And, you know, there's a number of different ways.

There's a lot of verses for it.

For example, in obedience, 1st Peter 1:14 says, as obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance.

So, you know, even when we're brand new Christians, we should immediately be going to God for help in resisting our temptations because we can't stand against them alone and in humility.

And Luke 9:46 48 tells the story of Jesus pointing to children as an example, where it says, an argument started among them about who was the greatest of them.

But Jesus, knowing their inner thoughts, took a little child and had him stand next to him.

He told them, whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me.

Whoever welcomes me welcomes him who sent me.

For whoever is least among you, this one is great.

And I don't know, you know, if you know a lot of little kids, but, you know, the kids at church, they won't hesitate.

Most of them won't hesitate to give you a hug.

Yeah, that's true.

Depending upon their age, you know, they might be at that.

That shy stage.

We've got two little neighbors next door, Robin and Adrian, who are first and third grade, I think, and they are wonderful kids.

And, you know, when they see me in the morning when I'm walking the dog before they get on the bus, they'll both give me a hug to see me on, off.

And it's just so refreshing to have that kind of trust in children.

And unfortunately, we seem to be in living in an increasingly dangerous world where, you know, children shouldn't be encouraged to have that kind of relationship.

Now, Kayla and I, we have established a relationship with their parents and, you know, they know us, and the kids are told to come to our house if they can't get into their house after school, stuff like that.

So anyway, it's just so nice to have that.

That acceptance.

And that's what we're called to.

Welcoming that kind of little child the same way as a child welcomes us, and we're called to be innocent in the same way.

In Mark 10, 13 through 15, the same type of thing happens.

People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them.

But the disciples rebuked them.

When Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, let the little children come to me.

Don't stop them.

Because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

Truly, I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.

And that's that sense of wonder that I think we see in Little Petey in the movie.

He's demonstrating the welcoming nature of the little child, of even the impossible.

Right?

Yeah.

I mean, even children, they're selfish and they're sinners.

They're little sinners just like the rest of us.

But there is an innocence in children that hasn't been hardened by life yet.

And so they're a lot more open to wonder and, you know, understanding the impossible.

And I think that that openness is what God wants us all to have.

That's why we're always referred to as little children by.

Is it John in the John Gospels that we're always.

Christians are referred to as little children?

Yeah.

And that is, you know, that perspective of a loving father who wants his children to reach their arms up to him and just be open and willing and innocent.

And, you know, as.

As we become adults, we become hardened by the world, and it's easier for us to scoff and be critical.

And children just aren't that way.

They just.

They don't look at the world that way.

Even even though they're still selfish sinners, they don't look at the world that way.

Yeah, it's.

I did want to point out, though, that even though we're called to approach Christ and approach our love towards others with the same attitude as little children, we are not called to be naive or immature like little children.

Definitely.

There is definitely no mistaking it.

For example, Ephesians 4:14 says, Then we will no longer be little children tossed in the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning, with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.

So we're not supposed to be naive, we're supposed to be loving.

And, you know, it can be hard to find that balance and forgiving.

Yeah.

Like little children.

I mean, how many times.

Oh, man, how many times did one of the preschoolers bite the other preschool schooler?

And, you know, you make them go apologize, and the child who was bit gives him a hug and says, that's okay.

Or the child who was apologizing is crying because he knows he's done something wrong.

Yeah, it was so cute.

Just something that popped up in my Facebook today was this.

I think it's been around for a while, but it was a security camera that was in a nursery.

And at nighttime, the little girl was still in a crib, and the older brother was in a toddler bed.

And they have this discussion about how she wants to get in bed with her older brother.

And so he gets up and brings her the stool so that she can climb out of the crib, and then he climbs into the crib to get her doll baby.

And the whole time they're like, saying thank you and please and just being so sweet to each other and it's all recorded on the security camera.

It's just the most adorable thing you've ever seen.

But the comments on the video, everybody was complimenting the parenting because they were like, these kids are so polite to each other and that's not something that's natural.

That's something they've been taught.

And even though they're, they're very young, that, that they have been taught to be that way to each other.

And as it's a, they said it's a, a sign of good parenting and an indication that the little girl needed her own bed to graduate from the crib.

All right, well, I think that pretty much does Dogman.

I think this is going to be one of our shorter reviews, which is fine.

I mean, for a little movie like this, we didn't need to go super deep.

But I do encourage, you know, seeing this movie.

It was actually a really good movie.

It's.

I think it's pretty safe for you to have your little children see it and don't think there's anything really awful in it that will require you having to have a long talk with them afterwards.

I think that any of the hard parts that are in the movie are dealt with in the movie in a way that will help the children kind of have a good perspective on them.

Thank you so much for listening to all of this.

If you have any ideas for April, do let us know.

It'll be here before we know it.

And I do believe I saw a trailer for the live action how to Train youn Dragon, which I believe is coming out this summer.

And that looks really good.

So I think we'll definitely have to tag one of our summer movie reviews for that one.

I'm excited about that.

And I am too.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of this, this live action scene for scene remake that Disney's doing.

And even though the trailers look like it's probably a live action scene for scene remake.

Yeah, I'm really interested in scene seeing this.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm excited about it.

So that.

Well, definitely.

I don't know what month it's coming out, but we'll definitely have to tag one of our summer reviews for that one.

But if anyone has any ideas for April and May, we'll try and stay in the theater for a little while because we, we did some old fashioned streaming and, and DVD reviews for the last couple.

So we'll, we'll try and bring it back up to the 21st century.

Well, one of them was a 21st century.

The other one was the 20th century, so we'll try not to drag all you young ones back into the 90s again.

Hey, there were some really good movies in the movies.

Get em some culture.

All right, well, thank you so much for listening.

I'm E.

Franklin.

I'm Tim Martin and Don.

Just watch.

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