The Gutter’s own Carol Borden watched the delightful AJ Goes To The Dog Park (Fargo, 2024) and has some thoughts!

AJ Goes To The Dog Park is zany, absurd and cartoonish in the best way. AJ (AJ Thompson) has a pretty sweet life that he loves. It’s pleasant. It’s low-pressure. Every morning he has cinnamon toast with whipped butter–which is the best–before he bikes to work at his low level, largely stress-free job. He has dinner with his dad or his best friends, married couple Morgan (Morgan Davy) and Danny (Danny Davy). He loves his chihuahuas Biff (Biff) and Diddy (Diddy). His favorite thing, though, is taking Biff and Diddy to the dog park. Unfortunately for AJ, Biff and Diddy, the Mayor (Crystal Cossette Knight) has replaced the local dog park with her pet project, a blog park, where bloggers can gather to blog in nature.After a discussion with his father (Greg Carlson), AJ decides to embark on a quest to accomplish interesting but low stakes feats in order to replace the mayor and set the dog park, and his world, to rights. He undertakes training and there is even a montage. 

Writer/director Toby Jones is a former writer and story boarder for the animated series, The Regular Show. AJ Goes ToThe Dog Park, while based on Jones’ real life friend A.J., has much of the same sensibility as The Regular Show, but with more human beings doing human stuff. It does have a muscle man like The Regular Show, though.There are some bits in AJ Goes To The Dog Park that are straight up zany cartoon bits–like when AJ literally creates an impact silhouette when confronting the Mayor or when AJ cries a torrent of digital, heartbroken tears. And there is some gaming in there, too, it’s not as evident as in Hundreds Of Beavers, but AJ’s quest feels both mythically mundane and tasks that must be accomplished on a Nintendo Switch. Maybe a cozy quest. 

AJ Goes To The Dog Park does remind me of other micro budget movies like Lake Michigan Monster (USA, 2018), Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter (Canada, 2001), and, to a lesser extent, Hundreds of Beavers (USA, 2022), especially in how it embraces a particular locale. I love the film’s affection for Fargo, North Dakota. It also reminds me of those films in how it embraces and works with the constraints imposed by its tiny budget. To wit, I loved how AJ’s dogs were replaced by plushies when necessary. I loved the pointedly obvious hairpieces and wigs. Anyone can do cheap, but not everyone can make it funny. And I am refraining from sharing a twist in the ending, but if you see it, know I love the costuming in AJ Goes To The Dog Park’s epic, metal finale, too. Make sure to say through the end credits for a new song by Rebecca Sugar (Steven Universe; Adventure Time)

(Hey, it’s basically same piece but over here).