by Samuel Nichols, Contributing Writer
The business of children’s movies has been booming for as long as I have been alive. Kids watch movies and a lot of them. With such high demand in the market, all kinds of product flood the space. Princesses, talking animals, fairy tales, supe heroes, and video game characters. Animation is a good medium because it’s the same place where you can find something as beautiful and moving as Toy Story or Spirited Away, and right around the corner is The Emoji Movie. Kids may not always know they are watching something terrible, but they’re smarter than many studios give them credit. So, a well-run movie studio knows they can’t just give the kids something half baked. Make consistently fun and good stories, and you’ll stay in business making films for kids. Considering this is their third movie following a popular TV show, I’d say Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie will be good enough for your kids.
After a storm at sea runs the Paw Patrol onto an island, they make a shocking discovery: dinosaurs are alive and well. After unveiling this shocking paradise to the world, the whole gang of Marshall, Skye, Chase, Rubble, Rocky, Zuma, and Ryder want to protect the island, its inhabitants, and its new visitors. But with their archenemy Humdinger intent on stealing the natural diamonds from the island, this all might be too much for these pups to handle. With the help of Rex, a pup marooned on the island for years, they will do all they can to help anyone who needs it.
I’d like to point out the obvious here before I go further with any review: I am a 30-year-old man that saw this movie to write a review for it. At first, I thought it was funny because I’m watching a mid-tier animated movie and I have no kids to see it with. At a minimum it’s strange enough to merit a chuckle. But as the movie went on I found myself genuinely enjoying it. The pups are all good people who only want to help others, and the humor (while juvenile) is not gross or distasteful.
There are good moral lessons in here as well. Perhaps most important is one that fire Dalmatian Marshall (Carter Young) learns. He finds himself making little mistakes here and there. When he was younger he would just fall down, get back up, and everyone would chuckle and move along. But he doesn’t want to just be someone who gets back up but he’s afraid he will make a mistake that ends up hurting someone. That’s a real fear. Not just something a kid is scared of like the dark. And I appreciate someone as unexpected as Paw Patrol trying to find an answer. They don’t make it a clean getaway for our favorite little Dalmatian. He has to work through his mistakes and crazy circumstances that would frighten a real fire dog, but in the end he triumphs because he doesn’t give up and I appreciate the honest depiction of how he overcomes those difficulties.
Another area of this movie that impressed me was the animation quality. Capturing the fast-paced adventures of the Paw Patrol leaves not a moment of action underdone. We stay with our heroes as they brave, tough circumstances and save lives. It’s not sensory overload for the audience either. Selfishly, I like not having a headache after a movie and altruistically showing kids what good action sequences look like helps set their expectations for what a good action movie should be when they’re older.
Overall, the cast does well and considering the vast majority of them are child actors this movie deserves big props. Obviously McKenna Grace is the big name, and Young as Marshall is the main pup/lead in this movie. But Hayden Chamberlain as Rex, Rain Janjua as Chase, Henry Bolen as Ryder, Lucien Duncan-Reid as Rubble, William Desrosiers as Rocky, and Nylan Parthipan as Zuma all deserve praise for their work. They have energy and flow that can be difficult for many child actors to pull off.
Does this movie reach the highest levels of quality as other studios like Pixar? No. But not everyone can be the best. Sometimes making a movie with good performances from your cast and having good lessons for your young audience is enough to be a success.
Rating: Liked It
Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie is currently playing in theaters.
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