Director: Cal Brunker
Writers: Cal Brunker, Bob Barlen
Stars: Carter Young, Mckenna Grace, Ron Pardo
Synopsis: The Paw Patrol lands on a mysterious dinosaur island after a storm, where they meet Rex, a stranded pup. When Humdinger’s reckless mining triggers a volcano, the team faces their biggest rescue mission yet to save the island.
Perhaps I’m not the right person to be reviewing PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie, because this isn’t really an animated film destined for a broad audience. It’s only going to function as something truly entertaining if you’re under the age of 3 (or maybe 2). Anyone else might be too old for such a coddling adventure film that takes zero screenwriting (or thematic) risks and is so easy-to-follow you don’t even need to pay attention half of the time, because the film will constantly tell you what’s going on.
If you’re a parent, though, you might be asking yourself the following question: should I bring my child to the cinema to see this? After all, there probably isn’t a more exciting outing for kids than the movie theater, where they can munch on popcorn and be wowed by the transformative power of the silver screen. Perhaps they will run in the aisles and begin talking loudly during the movie, but they will learn valuable lessons on how to behave in public spaces, and the cinema is probably the best place for them to know how to watch – and appreciate – a movie with an audience.
The core problem at the heart of PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie is how adult viewers will probably be bored out of their minds watching this. It’s easy to say “I’ll bring my kid to this film,” but the thing is: you have to watch the movie, too. In many cases, studios understand that mainstream animated movies should be for a broad audience, because parents are seeing the film with their children. In the case of PAW Patrol, it’s hard to see a parent enjoying a movie that won’t activate their inner child, because it will only stimulate audiences that don’t really know how to watch something on a screen just yet.
This is a film that one can easily watch in the comfort of their living room and understand what’s going on in the background instead of having your full attention directed towards it. Director Cal Brunker will show you something – a ravine filled with water that could stop the eruption of a long-dormant volcano – and will have a character say “I must get to this waterfall to stop the lava!” or something along those lines. I’m not trying to denigrate the film at all, but this is truly a product for babies who are still trying to understand how the world works, through the eyes of characters that will bring them safety and comfort.
In that regard, it’s thus unsurprising that PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie, while grander in scale than the previous two films, has zero stakes. Oh, sure, they put Marshall (Carter Young) in mortal danger in this one, and even give him a textured flashback that’s highly reminiscent of the drive Carol Danvers had while training in the military in Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s Captain Marvel (shades of Zack Snyder are also present in these scenes). Let’s be real, though: is Brunker ever going to kill a member of the PAW Patrol? Of course not!
However, part of the enjoyment of watching The Dino Movie is seeing how the titular patrol will get out of a dangerous situation, and there is a bevy of well-mounted (and superbly animated) action scenes that are sure to enthrall younger moviegoers who probably can’t watch Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park. Montréal’s Mikros Animation has greatly improved itself from The Mighty Movie to this one and realizes sequences of actual grandeur that are constantly kinetic and involve the audience’s active participation in wanting the characters to be out of harm’s way. The level of detail is far more staggering than the TV show, and Brunker has also improved his skills as a director to make this third outing more cinematic.
The voice cast is also particularly inspired, with Young a standout, giving Marshall the depth he needs to be the beating heart and soul of The Dino Movie. The dinosaur world itself needed a bit more development for it to feel tangible, but the film stops dead in its tracks in fleshing it out to bring back Mayor Humdinger (Ron Pardo) and his umpteenth evil plan. While Pardo’s vocal turn is as dynamic as ever, the villain has grown to be tiresome, since none of the characters meaningfully evolve or learn anything along the way (minus Marshall).
This is where the televisual language comes into play, something that Brunker and co-writer Bob Barlen can’t fully overcome. At the end of the day, this is an extended episode of the TV show. And while it looks much better and flows more like a movie than usual, PAW Patrol remains an IP exclusively for (very) small children. I can’t say that, from a technical standpoint, the film is “bad” by any means. It is competently made, the animation is rock-solid, the action is fun, and there are surprising attempts at deepening the characters that television doesn’t allow. However, I also can’t recommend this film to anyone who isn’t a very small child. If you’re a parent, it would be preferable to watch Toy Story 5 with your child than a big-screen adventure made primarily for babies.
That said, by bringing your child to PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie, it will likely be their first big-screen experience, and could unlock a lifelong passion for movies. This is what happened when my parents brought me to the cinema for Shrek 2. At the end of the day, just remember who you’re doing this for, and why it’s important that your child is exposed (at a young age) to the transformative power of cinema. Who knows? You might be raising the next Steven Spielberg…
