“AJ Goes to the Dog Park” Is Fun but Nonsensical

AJ Goes to the Dog Park (Toby Jones, 2024) 2½ out of 5 stars

Cartoon Network veteran Toby Jones makes his live-action feature debut with AJ Goes to the Dog Park. Inspired by classic absurdist comedies like Airplane, this film is loaded with blink-and-you’ll-miss-it sight gags and line-reads that made me laugh out loud. However, AJ Goes to the Dog Park’s greatest weakness is its length. At 80 minutes, it feels less like a movie and more like a feature-length comedy sketch.

Our protagonist AJ (AJ Thompson) is an entry-level office worker living in the sleepy town of Fargo, North Dakota. Content with his mundane existence, AJ finds that the most important part of his day is taking his dogs Biff and Diddy to the dog park. However, when the town’s Mayor (Crystal Cossette Knight) threatens the park’s existence, AJ embarks on a quest to save it.

It is important to understand that AJ Goes to the Dog Park is not really concerned with its plot. This is an intentionally absurd film that does whatever is funniest in the moment. Additionally, the whole production has a homemade aesthetic with lots of DIY special effects and editing tricks. A standout Looney Tunes-style gag involves AJ kicking a perfect outline of his body out of a door and walking through it. If this were a short film or a YouTube video, I would call it fantastic. But as a feature film, AJ feels too long.

In order to become mayor, AJ must best the current Mayor at five tasks: fighting, fishing, scrapping, scraping, and sapping. This premise leads to some great jokes, but it only lasts for about the first 40 minutes. The rest of AJ relies on montages and lengthy non-sequitur flashbacks to hit feature length. There is even a joke about how if the film is charming enough, it can be considered “outsider art.” I spent half of my time cackling and the other half waiting for AJ to end.

As a whole, AJ Goes to the Dog Park defies narrative structure and prioritizes laughs. Even when some jokes do not land, so many fly by that the next one will probably get you. I just wish that the film were able to support its length. As is, it is so uniquely weird that it feels like a wild inside joke between friends. If you like surreal, absurdist humor, this is your kind of movie. If not, you should probably pass on this.

George W. Campbell

George W. Campbell is a director/screenwriter/editor from Bowie, Maryland, whose films focus on themes of family and personal relationships. As a Nicaraguan-American filmmaker, he aims to highlight specific parts of his culture and personal experiences (songs, dances, foods, and language).