Joel on Film

Perhaps this is a backhanded compliment, but it’s slightly surprising that the “PAW Patrol” franchise (or maybe “empire” is a better term) has now resulted in three pretty good movies, given the potential for each and every one of them to match expectations. Let’s face it: Those expectations would not be set too high, because this is nothing more than a series in which a bunch of talking pups and their teenaged human owner/trainer step in to save innocents from certain harm. It’s also nothing less than that, though, and returning director Cal Brunker plays fair with his audience and his instantly established demographic.

The first movie did a solid job of introducing us to the pups, led by Marshall (now voiced by Carter Young) and Skye (voice of McKenna Grace), and the second one gave them superpowers that, for whatever reason, have not carried over to this third movie. PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie finds the crew crash-landing on an island filled, as the subtitle suggests, with dinosaurs, though no time-travel or time-dilation gimmickry is at play here. This is not a series interested in or obligated to consistency in continuity, mostly because the kids who will be seeing this—with parents whose time, thankfully, won’t be entirely wasted—are just here to see the pups in action.

Exclusively on that basis, what we have here is the third movie in a row to deliver a sense of fun to go along with the canine antics, which are joined this time around by prehistoric ones, and the return of their sworn nemesis and his latest nefarious plot. That would be Humdinger (voice of Ron Pardo), the corrupt mayor of Foggy Bottom, whose villainy was secondary to the actual antagonist last time but whose plan here involves enriching himself by whatever means necessary. In this case, it’s the promise of about a ton of diamonds to be mined on the uncharted island, and the presence of dinosaurs on that island is of absolutely no consequence.

That’s the Humdinger we know and, by now, love to hate, but on the other side of the coin, Marshall and the other pups, as well as human Ryder (now voiced by Henry Bolan), realize they must rally to save the island and its resources from Humdinger’s greediness, meeting a new pup named—obviously—Rex (voice of Hayden Chamberlin) in the process. There is not much to this plot outside what’s in the previous sentence, but Brunker and Bob Barlen’s screenplay is appreciably boiled down to exactly what it needs to provide some easy entertainment. On the top of the list are its series of rescue and escape set pieces.

A brachiosaur finds itself stuck in a narrow canyon, hanging over spiked rock below, and the crew must figure out a way to lift it out. A stampede leads to a mudslide, with all that comes with such a natural disaster. The surprisingly rousing climax, in which Humdinger’s approach to mining the diamonds leads to a dormant volcano’s eruption, plays directly into the small amount of internal conflict at play within its central canine hero.

The lesson here is the one that faces Marshall, who needs to recharge his courage before facing any of the dangers ahead, and it sort of becomes Murphy’s Law that his every attempt is cut short by something beyond his control. It’ll all be tidied up by the end of PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie, of course, because this is a bright and charming dino-heavy adventure tale that knows and, more importantly, understands what the youngest among its audience want.

Rating: *** (out of ****)