Feelings on The Dogfather cartoons were a very mixed bag as a child, they had their moments but DePatie-Freleng Enterprises did far better and far more memorable theatrical series. Decided to watch all the cartoons to see out of curiosity how well they stood up by young adult standards, whether they would be better on rewatch, the same or worse. Some of DePatie-Freleng Enterprises' theatrical series were good, some were mediocre at best or in one case bad.
Most of the Dogfather cartoons did very little for me, but there were a couple that were surprisingly decent and 'Haunting Dog' is one of them. As of now, it is the highest rated Dogfather cartoon and this reviewer agrees. For me, 'Haunting Dog' is the best of the series, and the only decent one up to this late stage of it. It was decent, because it was funnier than the usual Dogfather cartoon and premise-wise it actually attempted something different and did it decently.
Of course it is a long way from perfect. The animation is far from great, with it looking very flat and incomplete looking (an example of taking abstract-ness to extremes) and indicative of it being done in haste. The story is pretty thin.
Did think too that the parking ticket gag went on for too long. The target audience is still a bit questionable (though this is the cartoon in the series where it is least problematic), the terminology being on the complicated side.
However, there are a lot more pros than the usual Dogfather cartoon in 'Haunting Dog'. Bob Holt does a good spirited job as both Pug and Dogfather, have always been struck by the mix of Don Corleone and Columbo in his voice work for the latter. The music has upbeat energy and the theme song is quite catchy. Dogfather has some amusing lines and Pug has a lot more to do than most of the previous Dogfather cartoons, where he feels like a major character than an incidental one. The ghost was good fun but the best character was the car.
There is a good deal more energy than what is usually seen in the usual Dogfather cartoon and it was intriguing seeing how the ghost and the car would plan the revenge. The gag count is higher than most Dogfather cartoons and they are amusing, was not too surprised by the ending but it was still executed well (even if part of me was somewhat expecting something more brutal).
In summary, for the Dogfather series this was pretty decent and much better than expected. 7/10.
