Review: The Paw Patrol roars back to the big screen in The Dino Movie

If I believed in the concept of guilty pleasures, I would say that the Paw Patrol movies are one of mine. But I don't feel guilt about anything I enjoy, and neither should you. Free yourself of the phrase "guilty pleasures." Love what you love, let your freak flag fly, march proudly into a theater full of preschoolers and howl alongside them as you watch a pack of cartoon dogs save the day (but also kind of ruin the day)! Life is too short to feel guilty about what entertains you.

So, instead I'll say that the Paw Patrol movies are a cinematic Kryptonite for me. I find these movies so charming, so cute, so fun and easy to watch. I would've loved these as a kid, and the kid in me (who is generally at the controls, to be honest) loves them now. These aren't high art, nor should they be. They're pure entertainment that feels like it was designed in a lab to delight young viewers: a bunch of cute dogs driving a bunch of cool vehicles to save the day, all while cracking jokes and making new friends. This third theatrical outing adds yet another guaranteed home run of an ingredient: dinosaurs. Literally, what five-year-old could ask for anything more?

Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie, follows very much in the footsteps of its predecessor, carving out an extra-large, extra-special adventure for the pups who usually grace smaller screens. Compared to the show, these movies have extra glossy animation, a smattering of celebrity voices (including celebs who take over for the show's voice actors in some cases, which is weird), and grander journeys. If you've watched the other movies and haven't gelled with them, this one isn't going to change your mind. But if you're a fan of the franchise, this is another great entry.

Just as the first movie centered on Chase (the police dog who is responsible for the show being labeled "copaganda" by some), and the second on Skye (the flying dog who is the only girl on the team), this one pushes one team member into the spotlight: this time, the fire dog Dalmatian, Marshall. Marshall is prone to clumsiness, but he always brushes off his mistakes and pops back up with a game, "I'm okay!" before continuing on his way. Throughout this film, Marshall starts beating himself up for so often making mistakes, tripping, causing accidents, etc, but his friends tell him that what's important is how he perseveres, gets back up, and always tries his best. A great lesson for impressionable young viewers to take to heart.

Marshall's internal journey of acceptance unfolds alongside the external journey of the team as they land on an uncharted island full of dinosaurs, which they promptly name Dino Island (creative, that). While the creatures initially give them quite a scare, they soon meet a dog who lives on the island named Rex, an adorable Bernese mountain dog who uses a dog wheelchair, a super sweet bit of disability representation, which we love to see. (After a bit of Googling, it seems Rex has been part of the franchise since 2020, so I guess this movie is just showing how they originally met or something? That's not for me to know.)

Rex teaches the team that the dinosaurs are friendly once you get to know them, including the mischievous little yellow dinos who constantly steal Rubble's treats (my husband thinks they're compsognathus) and Rex's ride, Timmy the T. rex. The movie's scene-stealer is the small red T. rex named Rhubarb, who becomes Marshall's close friend, and who is one of the cutest things I've seen in a movie this year, and maybe ever. He's curious, also a bit clumsy, and is working on transforming his tinny roar into something scarier and more resonant.

Of course, Mayor Humdinger is also in the mix. This time, he brings a ragtag gang (including his evil cadre of cats, who are such a highlight of the franchise thanks to how completely villainous they are) to Dino Island with a scheme to mine the massive diamonds that are growing on the side of a dormant volcano. I wonder how that could go wrong...

This brings me to a quibble I have with this movie that I haven't felt with the others, but now I'm wondering if I just overlooked them. The Paw Patrol is absolutely at fault for all the hijinks that happen on this island. When they arrive, everything seems peaceful and good. But the Paw Patrol announce the island's existence on the news, bring a bunch of human scientists to study it, and thereby let the recently-released-from-prison Humdinger find out about the jewels. Why couldn't they just leave well-enough alone? Why put a spotlight on this precious ecosystem, only to have it torn apart by human greed?

Later in the film, two of the pups are driving their vehicles on either side of a chasm, a rope attached to both, and two of the human characters are hanging from it, trying to get to safety. Rather than stop their cars to let them climb to one side or the other, the pups keep driving up and down the uneven terrain, making things super dangerous and difficult, and almost killing the people! Do their cars not have brakes??? What is going on??

(I know I shouldn't be looking too closely at things like this, but they kind of started to stack up this time around to the point where they became hard to ignore.)

One fun thing about The Dino Movie is the smattering of millennial fan service, which I guess is meant to give the parents in the theater something to smile about. The Backstreet Boys have provided some (very catchy) original music for the soundtrack, and Bill Nye (yeah, the Science Guy) voices one of the featured scientist characters who comes to the island. Pretty fun!

Despite their sometimes questionable decisions and actions, I still do love the Paw Patrol. They're cute, silly, heroic, and cool. I do wonderful if the movies will continue to feature different dogs on the team, since some of them (namely, Rocky and Zuma) feel like also-rans, and it's hard for me to imagine them shouldering the starring role. But as long as they keep making these, I'll keep happily watching them. And I will howl when asked to.