Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie (2026)

Like my daughter’s interest in Paw Patrol overall, the fun can only last so long.

The third cinematic outing of the Paw Patrol crew hits our screens just at the time when my eight-year-old daughter is considering packing it in. That is, her fondness for these young pups and their heroics. When the trailer dropped a while back, she decided she wanted to see it, even if she thought she “might have outgrown it." As the credits rolled, she turned to me and said, “Yes, I think I might have outgrown it."  

Which is absolutely fine. But that’s not to say the new Paw Patrol movie is rubbish; far from it in fact. When the original Paw Patrol film hit our screens back in 2021, I went to see it with no expectations whatsoever, expecting it to be harmless childish nonsense. Which it was, but I found myself won over by it. It was enjoyable, well put together, and a great way to get young kids to the cinema, many of them for a first experience of the big screen. I was less convinced by the 2023 sequel, The Mighty Movie, although the young lady still insists that one is her favourite.  

The Dino Movie sits somewhere in the middle. It doesn’t have the surprise factor of the original (no one's ever said that about a Paw Patrol movie before), but it brings the crew away from their home of Adventure City to an uncharted island where, you’ve guessed it, dinosaurs have been living for millions of years undetected. The Paw Patrol crew wash up on the beach of the island, having been thrown off course by a storm (following the rescue of a family at sea, the father of which is voiced by Snoop Dogg).  

Later on, the nemesis of the crew, Mayor Humdinger, gets out of prison and heads straight to Dino Island after seeing diamonds attached to the side of an active volcano. He plans to dynamite the side of the volcano to detach the diamonds and make his fortune. Naturally this causes the volcano to erupt, and we’re left in a familiar position—dinosaurs and humans fleeing a volcano on an island. Thankfully, Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie is a far better film than Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018).  

Ultimately the third instalment in this franchise is fighting a losing battle. It’s not remotely amusing, some of the characters are irritating, and there’s no real jeopardy. Ryder, the human leader of the Paw Patrol, is particularly annoying. I’ve never figured out his true purpose, and frankly he’s just a bit pointless, offering nothing more than trite encouragement. But while it might lose the battle, The Dino Movie does at least go down fighting. It’s fun to be on the island with the dinosaurs for a period, and it’s a better film than its predecessor. But like my daughter’s interest in Paw Patrol overall, the fun can only last so long. ★★½ 6.1/10