Should I, a Fully Grown Adult, Give a Sh*t About the ‘PAW Patrol’ Movies?!

Ask any parent you know about children’s television, and no doubt you’ll receive some very passionate responses. Bluey is fun and entertaining. Cocomelon is an animated nightmare. Blue’s Clues is nostalgic and watchable. PJ Masks makes you wish television had never been invented. These strong opinions are to be expected. After all, parents and caregivers of children are subjected to hours and hours of these shows, so they’re bound to end up with a take.

No children’s show seems to have parents as divided as PAW Patrol, though. Some praise it, some despise it, but it remains a very popular franchise. Kids are simply enthralled with Ryder and his team of pups that save the citizens of Adventure Bay on the reg. So enthralled, in fact, that the PAW Patrol received a feature film, PAW Patrol: The Movie, in 2021 and now, the second film, PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie, was released in September of this year. It’s even coming out on the same day as Saw X. Move over, Barbenheimer. We’re all about Saw Patrol now.

Or are we? Should adults even care that these movies exist? After all, most of these franchise movies are just extra-long episodes. There’s nothing special in them to separate them from your regularly scheduled half-hour of bright colors, easily resolved plots, and jokes too corny for even the kids watching. These are movies parents take their kids to and mindlessly watch the screen with a blank stare until it’s over, right?

Wrong! The PAW Patrol movies aren’t just for children. They’re not even just for the parents hoping to get an hour and 26-minute reprieve to read a book or catch an episode of The Walking Dead on their phone while their kids are distracted. These movies are good for everyone, and even the average childless adult should consider giving a damn about them.

Life Lessons with the ‘PAW Patrol’

Originally, PAW Patrol was a cartoon for preschoolers. It’s a series that emphasizes the importance of helping others, solving problems creatively, and being kind. Even the motto of the team — “No job is too big, no pup is too small” — drives home an important point in the series: Anyone can make a difference. These are all important lessons for children to learn to help them become well-rounded and empathetic adults. PAW Patrol: The Movie doesn’t jeopardize this for the sake of its story. In fact, it goes out of its way to make its messages more palatable for older audiences as well as its target audience. At this point, you might be asking why the lessons of PAW Patrol should matter to adults. After all, they’re adults. They’ve learned their lessons about teamwork and being brave and solving problems and speaking up for themselves.

Except, they haven’t. Modern adults aren’t hopeful. Once you enter the adult world, everything comes at you at once. You realize that sometimes your job is going to be sad and soulless, but that you need it to survive. You have bills, family issues, illnesses, accidents, death, anxiety, and general distress most of the time. Everything feels so big, and that’s something that never changes, whether you’re a child or an adult. You are always the pup that’s too small. So how do you handle the job that’s too big?

PAW Patrol: The Movie answers this question in a way the television series doesn’t. Chase (Iain Armitage) is shown to have trauma around events that happened in Adventure City that hinder him during the team’s missions. At first, his solution is to keep just pushing through it — a feeling most adults are familiar with — to get the job done. But, eventually, he realizes that this approach doesn’t work and even hurts the people he’s trying to help. This is a huge hurdle for him to overcome, especially when Ryder (Will Brisbin) suggests that he should take a break. This sends Chase into a spiral, as he feels that Ryder is giving up on him when he needs him most. Most adults have felt this same feeling of helplessness. We don’t want to seem weak. We don’t want to ask for help. We’re supposed to just know, supposedly by instinct, how to overcome our problems on our own. You aren’t supposed to bother others with your issues.

What helps Chase in the end is Ryder’s companionship. Ryder reassures Chase by telling him that he’s a brave pup, that all of the things that Chase sees as pitiable about himself are things that Ryder found promise in. Chase being small and scared isn’t weak, because he keeps getting up and facing his fears. We’re told time and time again that kind words don’t matter. They can’t fix anything, because they’re just words. But sometimes it is important just to have someone say that you’re brave, or that they see that you’re struggling and that they think you’re so strong, and that if you need anything, they want to be there to help. It may not fix everything, but a little kindness goes a long way.

In ‘PAW Patrol,’ Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

Of course, it’s not just about kindness. It’s about action. The film shows the pups jumping into action to stop Mayor Humdinger (Ron Pardo), who has won the mayoral race under suspicious circumstances, banned dogs in Adventure City, and, later, created a major environmental catastrophe in the city for a fireworks show. Sounds like some people we know in the real world. We won’t go there, though.

Of course, we also aren’t a team of dogs with a huge arsenal of tech at our disposal. If we want to get the mayor out of office, we have to vote. We have to do our part to make the city (or state, or country) better, and PAW Patrol stresses taking action. As jaded adults, we sometimes forget that action is necessary for change. A pup too small may be able to start a conversation, or plan a volunteer event or fundraiser, but it’s only when other pups get on a roll that things get done. And it’s only when we meet other pups with skills different from our own that we can find new ways to solve problems and create change. Okay, okay … the pup analogy will stop here.

PAW Patrol: The Movie, naturally, involves the pups working as a team. However, it’s not just everyone doing their part. It’s also teammates helping each other when they stumble, because part of being on a team is taking care of each other. We see this when Chase becomes too scared to continue during missions and Skye (Lilly Bartlam) and Marshall (Kingsley Marshall) step in to help him. They don’t complain. They show concern for their friend and partner. This is a lesson that is needed not just by children, but by adults. We should be willing to hold out a hand to someone in need, because we’re all strong and safe, we create a happier society where people struggle less. PAW Patrol says it’s okay to still be learning those lessons, even into adulthood. It helps a lot that in the film, the adults are far more competent than they are in the television show. It’s almost like they wanted it to be more bearable for adults.

The First ‘Paw Patrol’ Movie Is Also a Lot of Fun

Okay, so you don’t care about life lessons. You think teamwork is for suckers. Understandable. How about this, then? PAW Patrol: The Movie is just good, wholesome, no thoughts head empty fun. It’s like a Marvel film but more enjoyable. It may not be morally complex — a strange complaint for a series for preschoolers, but to each their own — but it’s more than watchable. It’s a group of heroic dogs saving the day with feel-good Adam Levine vocals in the background and aesthetically pleasing animation. In a day and age where films try hard to be artistic and thought-provoking (which is great), it’s kind of nice, as an adult, to have something like PAW Patrol: The Movie. You can think about it as much or as little as you want. You can contemplate how it’s copaganda promoting the idea of privatized social services and capitalism, or how it’s morally pathetic because it doesn’t show complex relationships. Or (and hear us out here) you can just … not. That’s the mark of a good movie, isn’t it? It’s entertaining, it can hold a deeper meaning, and you don’t even have to worry about that second part at all if you don’t want to.

You don’t see a Marvel movie for social commentary, after all. You see it for fights and witty quips. And the comparison to Marvel is purposeful. The next PAW Patrol movie has the pups becoming superheroes. Marvel’s been on a pretty steady decline, so maybe it’s time to find a superhero movie that goes back to the humble roots of helping others, having cool powers, and cool fight scenes. And it’s dogs! Who doesn’t love dogs?

Frankly, My Dear, You Should Give a Damn About These Dogs

So, back to the actual question: Should you, an adult, give a dog crap about the PAW Patrol movies? Well, the short answer is yes. Firstly, it’s important to support movies like these, even if you don’t actually find them especially enjoyable. You probably remember your first film in a theater. It’s a magical experience to see something on the big screen, and G-rated films like PAW Patrol: The Movie allow really young kids to enjoy that magic while seeing a film made for them. And that might reignite that magic for an adult, too. It’s not some must-see blockbuster that you have to live in fear of someone spoiling. There’s no pressure in seeing it opening day, unless you’re doing the aforementioned Saw X and PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie double feature. It’s a good movie to let you slow down and kill time on a Sunday when you want to see a movie and eat some overpriced theater popcorn but aren’t in the mood to watch a big production.

Secondly, the PAW Patrol movies are good for the adult soul. As previously mentioned, the messages and lessons of PAW Patrol are intended for kids, but many adults can use them, too. We learned the same things growing up from shows like Blue’s Clues, Busy World of Richard Scarry, and Barney & Friends, but as we get older, sometimes we forget them. We forget that we can rely on others, that our kindness matters, and that we have a voice, even if it feels like it’s too small to accomplish anything. And sometimes, it’s so much easier to get that reminder from a movie that doesn’t try to convolute its message. PAW Patrol isn’t about life’s complexities. It doesn’t operate in a world where things are gray. It’s black and white, and sometimes, that’s chicken soup for the soul. The simplest things in life are the kindness you can give and the hand you can extend to help someone else, even if it’s in a small way. That’s what’s great about the PAW Patrol movies. They display those things as uncomplicated. They’re a form of wishful thinking.

Lastly, they’re just fun. They make you feel good (or put you in a good mood, as the movie’s closing credits song would say.) They help you shut your brain off and just enjoy the adventures of a couple of cute dogs doing hero stuff. It’s basically what you do on social media anyway, so why not give it a go? You’ve got nothing to lose. Except maybe your cool guy card, but if you’re reading an article about PAW Patrol, you might not have one, anyway. I know I don’t, so I’m already cheerfully planning on purchasing my ticket to PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie as soon as I possibly can.

PAW Patrol: The Movie is now available to stream on Paramount+ in the U.S.

Watch on Paramount+