PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie review

PAW PATROL: THE MIGHTY MOVIE: 

SUPERPOWERED FUN FOR VERY YOUNG KIDS, INOFFENSIVE FOR THE PARENTS! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4 (For the kids) 

PARAMOUNT PICTURES AND NICKELODEON MOVIES

Rocky, Marshall, Chase, Skye, Rubble, Zuma, and Liberty in PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie

 

            The PAW Patrol is back on the big screen (This time with superpowers) in PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie, the (highly anticipated?) sequel to 2021’s PAW Patrol: The Movie based on the Nickelodeon animated series of the same name. I already mentioned in my review of the first movie that PAW Patrol was not something I grew up with, but I certainly see the appeal and I even kind of enjoyed the first film when I saw it. 

            Well, because it was a critical and commercial hit, we have a sequel where the PAW Patrol become superheroes (Sure). I was debating whether or not to see and review this one since I already talked enough about PAW Patrol in my review of the first film and figured there’d be no point in repeating myself. 

            I eventually caved in and decided to give a shot and…yeah, PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie is about the same as my thought on the first movie. It’s harmless animated film that kids (specifically little kids) will absolutely love, but there’s just enough in it for the parents to feel like they weren’t dragged to it. 

            The film follows the PAW Patrol and their human boy leader, Ryder (voiced by newcomer, Finn Lee-Epp replacing Will Brisbin from the first film) stopping emergencies whenever they go and keeping the streets of Adventure City safe. But when a magical meteor crash lands in the city, it gives the PAW Patrol superpowers thus resulting in them becoming the Mighty Pups each with their own unique power which is especially exciting for Skye (voiced by Mckenna Grace-Annabelle Comes Home, Spirit: Untamed, Ghostbusters: Afterlife) as she is the smallest member of the team. 

            What starts off as a dream come true suddenly takes a turn for the worst when the PAW Patrol’s arch nemesis, Mayor Humdinger (voiced by Ron Pardo-Ned’s Newt, Braceface, Totally Spies) escapes from jail and teams up with a meteor-obsessed mad scientist known as Victoria “Vee” Vance (voiced by Taraji P. Henson-Ralph Breaks the Internet, Minions: The Rise of Gru, The Color Purple (2023)) with a plot to steal their superpowers and turn themselves into supervillains. Not if the PAW Patrol have anything to say about it. 

            The film also features the voices of Marsai Martin (Black-ish, Little, Spirit: Untamed) reprising her role as Liberty, Christian Convery (Descendants 3, Sweet Tooth, Cocaine Bear) as Chase, Lil Rel Howery (The Carmichael Show, Get Out, Judas and the Black Messiah) as Sam Stringer, Chris Rock (Saturday Night Live, Madagascarfranchise, Spiral: From the Book of Saw) as Kitten Catastrophe, Alan Kim (Minari, Theater Camp) as Nano, James Marsden (X-Men franchise, Enchanted 1 and 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 1 and 2) as Hank, and Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars, Frozen 1 and 2, Teen Titans Go! To the Movies) as Janet. 

            Overall, PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie will be best enjoyed by its young target audience, but there is enough imagination, heart, and decent humor for parents watching it with their children. Like its predecessor, it doesn’t talk down to kids nor is it cheap, manufactured garbage with zero passion behind it like something like Oogieloves, there is actual thought put into this movie even if it exists mostly to sell toys and entertain the little ones for an hour and a half. 

            This is a very inoffensive and safe animated film for kids, but the only thing about it that I found extremely offensive was that it earned a PG rating for seemingly no reason whatsoever. It has the exact same tone as the first movie (Which mind you, was rated G), it’s based on a show on Nickelodeon’s Nick Jr. preschool block, and was preceded by a Dora the Explorer short film, but it earned the same rating as Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and Spider-Verse because apparently superheroes require Parental Guidance which is so dumb, that’s like giving a PG rating to a movie based on the VeggieTales LarryBoy segments, it just feels wrong. 

            Okay, PG rant over! The plot is very predictable and doesn’t really have any surprises to the point where I was able to pinpoint exactly where this film was going. However, for any other movie I would have made a big deal about this, but because this movie is aimed at a very young audience, I gave it a pass. 

            The movie does have a lot of fun with the superpowers like super strength and flight for Skye (Essentially a dogSupergirl), the dalmatian has fire powers, the police dog that wears blue gets super speed (Just like Mario), and another dog can turn into a dog wrecking ball that’s eerily similar to the spin-dash (Just like Crash Bandicoot). There’s even a dog that can turn himself into water which you don’t see often in other superhero movies, so I guess PAW Patrol did a superpower before the MCU. 

            I remembered the first movie had a lot of focus on the police dog, Chase and even went into his backstory which I found genuinely heartfelt and even got pretty dramatic. This film puts a lot of attention on the smallest member of the team, Skye and explores her origin which reminded me an awful lot of the beginning of Disney’s Oliver & Companywith how she was the smallest and weakest dog of the bunch (The runt of the litter), couldn’t get her share of food, and was never adopted until Ryder found her, it’s a surprisingly heartbreaking flashback that adds a lot of emotional weight to the film. 

            While everyone from the previous film acted pretty much the same here, Taraji P. Henson is having a ball as the new villain. She is very funny and has some enjoyable bits between her and Humdinger, but she does pose a legit threat against the PAW Patrol so there is more at stake here compared to Humdinger from the last film. 

            If you got little kids who want to see it, PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie is harmless, superpowered fun that they’ll probably love with enough in there for parents to have fun alongside them. Definitely not a movie I’d personally ever watch again, but for a one-time viewing I don’t regret reuniting with this team of super-pups.