There’s something deeply satisfying about seeing an artist go back to a muse solely because the end result will be so gosh-darned pleasing. That’s the feeling you’ll get from AJ Goes to the Dog Park, the latest collaboration between writer/director Toby Jones and lead actor AJ Thompson. Well, less collaboration, more playdate.
Receiving its world premiere at this year’s Fantastic Fest as part of the Burnt Ends sidebar, it’s definitely-not-a-sequel-but-still-kinda to their 2014 short for Cartoon Network, “AJ’s Infinite Summer.” That was designed as a pilot for a series that was never picked up, which in hindsight seems like a real shame. It was another way for Jones to highlight the lyrical, sweet-natured comedy of his friend who he has fictionalized, on and off, since they were school friends in Fargo. In the intervening years, Jones established a career as a writer and director for animated series like Regular Show and OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes!, while Thompson has stayed in Fargo and gone into IT.
Maybe it’s those shared roots and diverting but still intertwining lives that make AJ Goes to the Dog Park so endearing. The film is both mundane and surreal, with no one blinking an eye at the weirdness of it all because they’re concentrating on their everyday lives. For AJ, that means getting up, eating butter cinnamon toast, going to work, having dinner with either his dad or his best friends, watching YouTube, and taking his dogs to the dog park. But all that reliable routineness falls apart, and the changes reach their nadir when the dog park becomes a blog park. Which is exactly what it sounds like…