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All Aboard The Friend Ship!

–The book's blurb

Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea is the 11th book in the Dog Man series by Dav Pilkey. It was released on March 28, 2023.

The book was announced on August 4, 2022[1], with the cover revealed on November 17, 2022.

Synopsis

Piggy has returned, and his newest plot is his most diabolical yet. WHAT other new villains are on the horizon? WHERE are they all coming from? And WHO will step forward to save the city when scoundrels sabotage our Supa Buddies?

With themes of friendship and doing good, Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea is packed with action and hilarity. Featuring "Chomp-O-Rama," a brand-new song, a monstrous Mighty Mite -- and so much more than ever before! IT'S HEROIC, IT'S EPIC!

Characters

  • Dog Man - a dog-headed policeman who joins with his friends to find the members of the F.L.E.A.S.
  • Petey - an irritable, impatient cat who lives with his son, Li'l Petey. He tries to rebuild his own secret lab.
  • Li'l Petey - Petey's clone/son who likes to tell jokes and makes comics with Molly and 80-HD.
  • Molly - A psychokinetic tadpole who collaborates with Li'l Petey and 80-HD on their comic. She also joins the Supa Buddies and receives her costume, although she hasn't got her superhero name yet.
  • Sarah Hatoff - An Australian reporter and the only human to enter the submarine with their friends. She also always carries her purse but Harold forgets to draw it.
  • Zuzu - Sarah's pet poodle.
  • Chief - The head of the Cops and Dog Man's best friend. He takes on a date with him and Nurse Lady.
  • Nurse Lady - A nurse whose idea is to sew Dog Man because of her quick thinking. She meets up with Chief on their date.
  • 80-HD - a creative robot with an exoskeleton full of limited gadgets.
  • Piggy - the leader of the F.L.E.A.S.. He, along with Crunky and Bub, were shrunk by Petey and locked at Mini Jail for "crimes and stuff".
  • Crunky - member of the F.L.E.A.S. and has a good attitude. He also doesn't stick his tongue out.
  • Bub - the smallest member of the F.L.E.A.S. and helps with Mike while Junior ate his friends.
  • Daryl the Moth - the founder of the Friendly Friends, a superhero group and looks for new recruits.
  • Uncle Larry - Daryl's uncle. He operates the submarine that can shrink to bigger or smaller size.
  • Booger Breath - The chef of the Shark Shack.
  • Mister Stinkles - Booger Breath's dog.
  • Dippy - She makes brief cameo appearances.

New Characters

Summary

Chapter 1: Dog Man Jumps the Shark

Chief and Dog Man walk to meet Nurse Lady for a date at the Shark Shack. Nurse Lady is there ahead of them. Chief panics, but Dog Man reassures him. They struggle to communicate, and Booger Breath, the owner of the restaurant demands they order something and for Dog Man be tied up to a garbage can, as dogs weren't allowed near the building. Dog Man runs up the roof after a squirrel and takes the garbage, which lands on his head, and Nurse Lady changes the sign to say, ''Now Dogs Allowed'', attracting new dogs. Chief thought the date was awful, but Nurse Lady loved it.

Chapter 2: Mini Jail

Meanwhile, Piggy is getting lunch from Mini Jail, located by a sidewalk and very small. Crunky and Bub are volunteering to sell cupcakes, and Piggy asks if they read the plans. They didn’t and Piggy is mad, taking all the cupcakes and eating them all up messily, not sharing it with Ducky the Beetle. Piggy is hypocritical, saying Ducky is selfish, when Piggy actually is. Piggy is told by a prison guard fly that a visitor is there, Daryl the Moth. Instead of bringing Cannery Grow which is no longer made due to the factory being destroyed back in the fifth book of the series, as Daryl answered why he didn't bring said product, he got a purple T-shirt for his group “Friendly Friends”. Piggy is very mad, and is exasperated by Crunky and Bub wearing them, too.

Chapter 3: Helping Papa

Petey and Li’l Petey go to fix the lab, and Li’l Petey is asking questions. Petey makes him promise to help out, but when they arrive Molly is there, and the little kitten forgets all about it and plays. Meanwhile, Piggy is stuck in the shirt and Daryl, Crunky and Bub help by hugging him, only making him explode in anger. Suddenly, an earthquake happens and the building is crumbling, caused by Mister Stinkles chewing the mini jail.

Chapter 4: Bad Mister Stinkles

Turns out Booger Breath adopted the dogs, and his bulldog is chewing on the building. He makes him drop it with a biscuit and they walk off, the building sitting in half. In the mess, Crunky and Bub leave to find Piggy’s plans to escape that they lost, and Piggy decides to fly off with an apprehensive Daryl and leave them behind. Crunky and Bub cry when they are left.

Chapter 5: A Buncha Stuff That Happened Next

Chief and Nurse Lady go with Dog Man to swing, but he chews it and they fall. Chief apologizes, but Nurse Lady is excited, and wants to go back on the swing. Meanwhile, Petey is trying to get help to rebuild his lab at Donna’s Construction, but Li'l Petey and Molly turn up, asking “Wally” to read their comic.

Wally’s World

Petey (Wally) was in a bad mood. He slipped on a banana peel, fell down the stairs, and hurt his butt from a stinging bee. He builds a planet and flies off to be on his own. The comic ends with two pages of blank panels.  

They tell Petey that it was hard to come up with an ending, so they left the rest of the pages blank. Petey tells Li'l Petey and Molly that they have given up, and accidently reveals his true name. Finding this out, Donna rejects him.

At the prison, Crunky and Bub are crying, joined by Ducky the Beetle and Mike the Fly, but soon fly off together to join Piggy.

Chapter 6: Friendly Friends Are GO!

Piggy is enjoying freedom, but it is short lived as Crunky and Bub join him, singing the Friendly Friends theme song. Piggy silenced them, as they have found Dog Man, asleep under the tree with Chief and Nurse Lady. He whispers instructions to exact revenge, but Crunky never heard and yells, waking Dog Man who chases them. They fly into a sandwich shop called “The Beach” where Daryl and his Uncle Larry opened a headquarters, which Piggy will use for evil.

Chapter 7: Cat Cell Culture

Nobody will help Petey because of the things he has done. Not “Helpful Home Repairs” (the owner is not helpful), “Always Open Builders” (the lady told them that it’s closed) or “No Excuses Construction” (because he lost his tools, his hand hurts, weather is hot, and his truck won’t start) due to these businesses having its own antonyms. Li’l Petey and Molly try to get Petey to retell his story, but he finds it no use, as he knows that no matter what he does, no one would see him other than ''the bad guy''.

On the other side, Sarah Hatoff and her poodle, Zuzu find Dog Man, who alerts them to the FLEAS and their headquarters. She calls Bob, one of the newspaper writers, and tells the story. Bob mishears Sarah, thinking she was talking about a submarine and runs to his boss. He tells him what was going on and thinks that there could have been 20,000 fleas in the submarine. The boss comes up the perfect headline: TWENTY THOUSAND FLEAS UNDER THE SEA. Bob questions this headline, knowing that some of the facts that they were going to publish weren't true, but the boss tells him that it was ''all about the clicks''.

Chapter 8: Breaking News: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under The The Sea

Piggy is in awe of the laboratory because Uncle Larry is a genius. Piggy is further selfish, not showing appreciation at all. He falls in love with a big submarine, thinking it is for himself alone, but is angry to be joined by the gang. The submarine is equipped with shrinking machine “Size-O-Tron” and it goes outside, soon growing Supa Big, and Sarah and Dog Man have to go in pursuit when they saw the growing size of the flying submarine.

Chapter 9: Follow That Sub

Interrupted story to bring news of the population protesting at the beach, where the fleas are reported to be. Piggy convinces the FLEAS that fear and anger make people happy, and they are already angry with protesting. After a quick lesson on dopamine responses, and ways to make people mad such as politics, inflation and social media, the team drops pumpkin pies on people, which is made with an equipped pie making machine.

Chapter 10: Pie Fight

To Piggy’s chagrin, the Fleas drop pies to an unsophisticated rendition of “Friendly Friends” reprise. Piggy rages as they sing it 153 more times. Outside, Sarah and Dog Man run into 80-HD, Petey and Li’l Petey on a bench, who refuse to save the day. They both tell her that they were afraid that if they made a mistake, nobody would like them anymore. Sarah then lectures them about how they shouldn't give up, convincing them to join.

Chapter 11: Piggy Makes His Move

At the beach, the media reporter reports on people being angry and throwing pies at each other. He says anonymous authorities had made observations, losing focus on the real issue: Piggy. He himself forgets. Dog Man, Petey, Li’l Petey, Molly and Sarah flew in with 80-HD to save the day, and bust into the flying submarine. Uncle Larry, Daryl, Mike and Ducky all wonder who they are referring to: The FLEAS, but Mike introduced them as the Friendly Friends. They thought they were in the wrong submarine, and while the Friendly Friends told them how they changed their decision, Piggy is elated everyone he hates is in the same spot. He pulls the Size-O-Tron down to “Okay, Now You’re Just Being Silly” size and snaps it off, climbs out and smashes the shrunk submarine in his hands, or so he thinks. He loses sight of it in his nose sweat glands, and runs off to commit crimes.

Chapter 12: Zoom In

Zooming into Piggy’s nose, the submarine is smashed and resting on the cusp of a sweat gland. Uncle Larry diagnoses the situation, as the submarine slides into the gland, with liquid at the bottom. Molly panics, asking the obvious if they could just grow big again, but they can't. Crunky and Bub say their goodbyes again, but 80-HD shoots his arms up and holds the submarine suspended above the water by a large hair follicle, saving them. Uncle Larry says someone has to dive into the sweat to fetch the lost propeller, to which Dog Man goes in, followed by Li’l Petey and Molly. Everyone now must work to fix the sub. As the three friends get the propeller, they awake a Mite at the bottom of the sweat.

Chapter 13: This Mite Be a Problem

Everything is fixed with “strong stuff”; Tape, glue, and acrylic latex caulk. When it seems nothing is wrong, a Mite named Junior busts in, and calm Uncle Larry explains it is a microscopic Demodex Mite, while being swallowed. The Supa Buddies change, but are incomplete with 80-HD holding the sub. Molly decides to take his place, and 80-HD sews her a costume – a purple mask and cape hybrid made from a fabric. All the while Sarah and Petey are swallowed by the mite. Molly also wants to find her superhero name, but has no time. Soon, the Supa Buddies are all swallowed.

Chapter 14: And Then There Were Two

Only Bub and Mike remain, in fear behind the command chair. They want to be happy, but with fear they lack anger, so they fetch the pumpkin pies, to which Junior finds it at first annoying, but then tasty. It wants more, but Mike yells, telling him off, making a deal for him to barf up his friends. He obliges, and the heroes are regurgitated, the mite chasing the pies back into the sweat. Uncle Larry assumes command and the submarine rises, a big banged up, and grows again to a “Supa Doopa Big” size.

Chapter 15: Exactly One Hundred and Nine Seconds Later

Shortly before the regrowth, Piggy has committed numerous successful crimes, as everyone is protesting at the beach and no one is into town. He relaxes at his Pigwarts castle, but soon the sub grows big, and destroys the castle, Piggy running for his life. He is more worried about his ill-gotten gains. He cries, and Li’l Petey reaches down for him, and as they are now back to their normal size, and Piggy is now tiny. Li’l Petey makes the Friendly Friends promise to make Piggy happy. Piggy’s plans backfire on him, and the Friendly Friends put him in a hamster wheel, sing their song and make Piggy cry and suffer.

Chapter 16: In Search of the Depth

The sub shrinks down to normal, Chief and Nurse Lady rejoin, everyone works the rest of the day to start restoration of Petey’s Lab. By night, everyone heads over to Dog Man’s house for supper. Petey still doesn’t know why everyone is helping him. Li’l Petey says it is why they are there to help each other. Sarah dips her feet in the water of the lake (which Petey presumably cleaned of pollution) and makes it an analogy about giving more in life. Sarah once again teaches the lesson better than Petey. The characters are seen walking home through the view of the lake.

Trivia

  • The title of this book is based from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas by Jules Verne.
  • Piggy was supposed to appear in Dog Man: Mothering Heights, but he returns in this book instead.
  • The book was released in Australia on April 1, 2023.
  • This book has the longest title out of every Dog Man book.
  • Apart from Dog Man and Dog Man Unleashed, this is the only book to not show Dog Man's house, followed by Dog Man: Big Jim Begins.
  • This is the second book in the series to not include George and Harold.
  • The book acts as Pilkey’s voice spoofing protests made internationally during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • When Daryl mentions that the Cannery Grow Factory was destroyed, he is referring to in Chapter 7 of Dog Man: Lord of the Fleas.
  • Chapter 8's Title, Breaking News: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under The The Sea and the headline's snippet "Does Piggy plan to destroy our way of of life with his bloodthirsty, killer subs?" is a reference to clickbait news articles, consisting of fake news, misinformation and citing without sources.

Notes

  • The most common English language translation from the original book Vingt Mille Lieues Sous Les Mers is 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, however, this is a mistranslation, so it should be "Seas". This also implies a depth of 20,000 leagues, which is impossible to reach because it's over twice the circumference of the Earth.
  • According to an article from BuzzFeed News (November 17, 2016), their analysis presents that false or misleading news often spreads faster than legitimate news. [2] This is based from Chapters 7 and 8 about spreading misinformation through fake news.
  • Psychology Today Magazine (August 25, 2015) and Scientific American Magazine (July 14, 2008) shows that scientists found out fear and anger links to dopamine, a neurotransmitter causing people to feel pleasure. In this book, Piggy gave the Friendly Friends a lesson on dopamine in Chapter 9.[3] [4]
  • Demodex Mites are real, microscopic creatures who lives in the skin of mammals such as humans (also in their faces) and pigs. They have eight legs and are appearing at night. One of the facts are not true, in which their favorite food is pumpkin pie.
  • The design for the flying submarine used by Uncle Larry is inspired from the illustrations produced for a Japanese publication. The artworks are created by an artist who goes to sign every paintings as "Kyo-62".
  • Chapter 16: In Search of the Depth is based from a quote from Job 38:16 (KJV): "Hast thou walked in the search of the depth?". It appears in the last paragraph of some English language versions of the original book by Verne. Other versions substitute "Who can fathom the soundless depths?", based from Ecclesiastes 7:24 where Sarah refers to page 230.
  • Garry Shandling's quote from his journal is also based from Petey's quote in Chapter 16:
Give more. Give what you didn't get. Love more. Drop the old story.

–Garry Shandling

  • Molly and Li'l Petey continued their finished comic, Wally's World. This full mini comic is an exclusive giveaway to independent bookstores in the US, Canada and the United Kingdom for the release week of the book[5]. It is also available to read for free on the Planet Pilkey website from June 5, 2023 to January 28, 2024, and is replaced with Melvin's Magazine. It is, however, still readable at the "See Inside The Books" section, or at this link.

Errors

  • On the final panel of Page 158, the freckles on the left side of Petey's face are missing.

Gallery

Images

Covers

Others

Videos

References

Dog Man Books
Dog Man (2016) | Dog Man: Unleashed (2016) | Dog Man: A Tale of Two Kitties (2017) | Dog Man and Cat Kid (2017) | Dog Man: Lord of the Fleas (2018) | Dog Man: Brawl of the Wild (2018) | Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls (2019) | Dog Man: Fetch-22 (2019) | Dog Man: Grime and Punishment (2020) | Dog Man: Mothering Heights (2021) | Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea (2023) | Dog Man: The Scarlet Shedder (2024) | Dog Man: Big Jim Begins (2024) | Dog Man: Big Jim Believes (2025)
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