Paw Patrol: The Movie (2021)

I can confirm that Paw Patrol: The Movie is a better film than this years' Dogtanian And The Three Muskehounds (another recent Father/Daughter cinema outing). That is not much of a compliment admittedly, so the question really is, well, does a kids TV show that appears to work well in small chunks on the small screen translate successfully to the big screen and keep the kids entertained for just over an hour? Certainly in the screening we attended the answer was an overwhelming yes; in fact Paw Patrol: The Movie is the only film I’ve ever seen in which there was three separate outbreaks of applause from the entire audience. The plot expands the Paw Patrol’s (a bunch of dogs that go round saving the day, Thunderbirds style) reaches beyond their home of Adventure Bay, breaching bigger and scarier locations; in this case, Adventure City, where their nemesis, Humdinger, has just become Mayor and is wreaking havoc on the city. The man is a menace, his total lack of understanding for general health and safety of the cities’ civilians is astounding, and I was delighted when one of the pups reads him the riot act towards the movies’ ending, and successfully includes all the crimes I myself had counted. Considering there is an enormous amount of drivel and tat that young children have to endure on TV these days, (any lazily animated remake of something I used to watch as a child is particularly offensive, Fireman Sam is just one example) Paw Patrol is one of the high watermarks; its message is good, it’s fun, and for its target audience it’s exciting. I expected to be uninvolved and just enjoying my three years olds enjoyment; instead she gave me a running commentary early on explaining who was who (very quietly of course) and as a result I genuinely found this pretty engaging. Its heart is in the right place and if your child is a fan of Paw Patrol, they’ll have a blast with this. For something that is clearly so widely loved, it’s great to be in a cinema where you can hear authentic gasps and cries from youngsters who may never have been to the cinema before; they’re involved, they’re transported to a new world (well a new part of the Paw Patrol universe I guess) and it’s the perfect way to get them into cinema. Thumbs up from me. 7.0/10