'AJ Goes to the Dog Park' Review: A howlingly offbeat surrealist comedy
Director Toby Jones takes a decade of storyboarding for Cartoon Network into his debut feature, the endearingly madcap AJ Goes to the Dog Park
What is it about our closest friends that brings us immediate solace? Why is it that their mere presence in our lives helps us to gain a better understanding of what makes life so difficult and challenging? They come from all walks of life and backgrounds with different perceptions of how to process the world around us. They inspire us to leave the world better than we found it, and give us incentive to take care of ourselves so that we can stay here as long as possible. Some of the best art is inspired by our relationships with our closest friends, and Toby Jones’ AJ Goes to the Dog Park (2025) exemplifies this beautifully.
What’s interesting to learn about Jones’ live action feature-length debut is that this isn’t his first collaboration with longtime friend AJ Thompson. Jones was inspired to co-write and direct the animated film AJ Goes to France (2006) alongside Thompson and collaborator Danny Davy, as well as write him as the subject for the Cartoon Network pilot AJ’s Infinite Summer (2014). For all of the film’s inherent silliness and DIY ethos, working off a multiple gag-a-minute hit ratio throughout its 75 minute runtime, the heart of what makes Jones’ debut such an experiment to celebrate is the appreciation of one close friend for another.
AJ Goes to the Dog Park follows… you guessed it: AJ (Thompson), a simple, humble man growing up in the heart of his hometown of Fargo, North Dakota. He looks forward to the same simple breakfast of toast dusted with butter and cinnamon sugar every morning. He goes to work at the company his father owns, perfectly satisfied with his easy cubicle job. He looks forward to regular dinners at his married friends’ home and Dad’s place. And, most importantly, brings his two perfect dogs to the dog park so they can run around and enjoy their lives. That is, however, until one day when he finds his beloved dog park has been turned into a blog park. Immediately despondent by such horrible news, AJ takes his complaint to the mayor of Fargo (Crystal Cossette Knight), who tells AJ that if he wants his dog park restored, he must best the mayor in five time-tested competitions: fighting, fishing, scrapping, scraping, and sapping. As the other creature comforts of AJ’s life begin to fall by the wayside, he accepts the challenge in hopes of regaining the normalcy in his mundane existence.
No, you’re not having a fever dream: this is the plot of AJ Goes to the Dog Park, and believe it or not, the initial setup is the most routine aspect of the film’s onslaught of goofy antics. However, the film works incredibly well on the basis of its premise because it refuses to take itself too seriously or have an ego about the type of movie it is. AJ Goes to the Dog Park is aware of its budget and, despite its monetary limitations, the film works because of the shared vision of its writer/director and all involved cast/crew members.Coming off a long history as a storyboard artist for Cartoon Network shows like Regular Show (2010-2017), Sanjay and Craig (2013-2016) and Jellystone (2021), Jones knows his way around framing shots and setting himself up for huge payoffs, even when working in the live action medium. One joke in particular that I dare not spoil involving a laptop moving on its own caught me so off guard that I had to pause the screener link because I was laughing hysterically.
The beauty of Dog Park isn’t just the charm of its nanobudget, but the ingenuity of how it uses that budget without caring what you’ll think of it, because that’s the entire point. If we, as a filmgoing public, have learned anything from the runaway success of Mike Cheslik’s Hundreds of Beavers (2022), it’s that the inventive quality of independent cinema is what helps the film find its devoted audience, and has little do with how much it spent to make those films happen. The opening weekend of Hundreds of Beavers in 2024 grossed $4,600. A year-and-a-half later of touring the country with their 35MM reels in hand, the film has since grossed $1.2 million worldwide. Here’s hoping Jones and Company find the same success scrapping, scraping, and sapping across the Midwest with a dream of their own in tow.
Editor’s Note: I recently interviewed director Toby Jones for my podcast Films for the Void, which you can check out here!
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Feature image credit to Doppelganger via Music Box Films
