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PAW Patrol: The Movie Movie Review

PAW Patrol: The Movie is a 2021 Canadian animated action adventure film directed by Cal Brunker for Paramount. It’s a fun, cute flick for kids, but a pamphlet for toys unfortunately.

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“You’re in Adventure Bay.

Here, we call the PAW Patrol!“

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Ryder and the pups are called to Adventure City to stop Mayor Humdinger from turning the bustling metropolis into a state of chaos. This movie was based on the titular television series, which itself was based on the toys coming from the company called Spin Master Entertainment. Needless to say, it was clear from the onset that this was going to be a major marketing push for the kids to ask for these toys after watching this manipulative pamphlet.

With that being said, the movie is honestly as good as it could have been. It is just fine, but nobody could have expected anything more than that, and the things that it does right, it does them so well that I was surprised by the level of care that went into some aspects here, especially the animation.

The look of the film is very strong. All of the cars look so amazingly detailed, polished and fun that they made me wish for a video game kart racing version of the film right away. I loved the colorful palette of the movie and the dogs all looked super cute. It’s difficult to criticize anything in terms of audio-visuals as the sound and score are also superb.

The whole arc of Chase, the German Shepherd honestly surprised me how good it was. It’s all about overcoming your fear as this dog learnt to trust his instincts and be brave when it’s asked of him. The movie teaches kids that it’s okay to be scared sometimes and that this is a human emotion that we need in order to grow stronger and overcome obstacles.

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Unfortunately, other characters in PAW Patrol: The Movie fared much worse. Ryder is fine as the kid leader and Skye had the coolest vehicle for sure, but others are all forgettable and the mayor villain is just serviceable. The dialogue is fine for kids and the plot is also okay, but the movie had way too many action sequences with little breathing room in between. Still, the action is kinetic and fun while the various set pieces are super cool. I just wished that the marketing ploy was less obvious as even the film itself acknowledged it in certain lines.

PAW Patrol: The movie is undeniably a marketing ploy to sell these toys to children. It’s also overly reliant on action and cool vehicles and it needed more plot and better characterization. Still, some characters got surprisingly solid, meaningful arcs, the action is fun, the vehicles are very cool and the animation is undeniably slick. Perfect for kids, it’s a film that turned out much better than it had any right to be.

My Rating – 3.5