PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie

 

With the continuing success of Spin Master’s PAW Patrol multimedia franchise, the logical conclusion was the theatrically-released PAW Patrol: The Movie in 2021. This proved successful enough to warrant a sequel in 2023, PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie, which revisits the Mighty Pups subline of the series. Having seen the original PAW Patrol film on Paramount+ and actually enjoyed it, I became curious about The Mighty Movie with cautious optimism for a similar level of quality, but opted to wait for its Paramount+ release since I didn’t feel strongly enough about seeing it in the theater. Upon getting the chance to watch it, I still found myself enjoying it even as a non-fan.

After stealing an electromagnet from a scrapyard, mad scientist Victoria Vance (Taraji P. Henson) uses it to attract a meteor to Adventure City, hoping to harness its power. Her plan goes awry as the magnet was not powerful enough to bring it directly to her, causing it to crash into Adventure City and destroy the Adventure City HQ/Pup Tower in the process. The PAW Patrol use their Aircraft carrier HQ as both a new base and storage for the meteor, where Skye (Mckenna Grace) discovers that the crystals inside the meteor can grant them superpowers. Meanwhile, when Victoria is sent to jail for her crime, which she recorded, she ends up cellmates with the imprisoned Mayor Humdinger (Ron Pardo), who suggests a team-up for revenge against the PAW Patrol.

Having seen the original “Mighty Pups” special from the TV series exactly once around when it first premiered, I could tell The Mighty Movie has a similar setup in that the PAW Patrol gain superpowers from a magic meteor that crashes into Earth, but the execution is otherwise completely different, with at least some of the pups even having different powers than they had in the original series. Said execution works better for a theatrical film than it does a lower-budget TV series, particularly for the character arc of Skye, who is the focus character this time around after Chase had the spotlight in the previous film. Aside from her, though, the other pups don’t really get to use their powers very much during the movie, aside from when they first acquire them and during the final battle at the end. That said, while not quite as a strong as the first film, the plot was still written well and Skye’s backstory and motivations, that she isn’t sure of her worth on the team because she is the PAW Patrol’s smallest member and the last to join, provide a solid emotional core and makes Victoria Vance a perfect foil for her. I will say, however, that as both an adult viewer as well as a toy collector, some of the less character-driven sequences made the movie feel more like a feature-length toy commercial at times, which the movie itself hilariously pokes fun at.

 

Prior to gaining superpowers, Skye (Mckenna Grace) starts having self-doubts
on account of her being physically the smallest pup on the team.

When I first saw trailers for The Mighty Movie, as someone who is an extremely casual PAW Patrol viewer, one thought that stuck in the back of my mind was whether the events of the film would make it so the films and TV series are separate timelines, given the events of the “Mighty Pups” special. The events of this film seem to confirm this, including the pups acting like they’ve never had superpowers before and the mechanics of how they gain their powers differing slightly from the show to make it work better for the plot. From research, my understanding is that the films only treat the first 1½-ish Seasons as canon, but the show itself treats at least a version of the films’ events as canon, based on Liberty’s appearances in seasons 9 and 10. For someone who has only watched the films, this isn’t much of an issue, but for parents or hardcore fans of the show, it’s best not to think about it too hard.

Much like the first film, The Mighty Movie having a higher budget than an average PAW Patrol episode is evident in the higher-quality visuals, even continuing the first film’s style of adjusting the pups to appear more realistic without straying too far from the PAW Patrol art style. This also extends to the pups’ vehicles and outfits, both of which are designed well, and in a way that could easily translate to a toy, as well as their superpowers having very good animations and effects (special mention to Zuma (Nylan Parthipan) and his ability to turn into water). Like Liberty (Marsai Martin) before them, the new characters, especially Victoria Vance and the Junior Patrollers Nano (Alan Kim), Mini (North West) and Tot (Brice Gonzalez), while debuting on the screen, are designed such that they still look like they belong in the PAW Patrol universe.

The voice acting is generally good, with the returning VAs doing fantastic jobs in their roles, including Ron Pardo as Mayor Humdinger. Some roles were recast from both the series and the previous film, though one standout is Mckenna Grace (Ghostbusters: Afterlife) as Skye (played by Lilly Bartlam in both the show and the first film), who does a great job in the role. There are also a handful of celebrity cameos, but many of their inclusions often feel a little superfluous and seem to be in it just long enough to have their name in promotional material, either having so little dialogue that they could have been voiced by literally anyone else (ex. Chris Rock, Serena Williams) or having a role so superfluous that it could easily have been cut without missing anything (ex. Kim Kardashian reprising her role as Delores from the first film).

Like the previous film, PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie is a surprisingly good film on its own merits that both its target audience and their parents can enjoy. Based on the quality of the first two films, I remain cautiously optimistic for the third PAW Patrol film that’s in development, which currently has a 2026 release window.