PAW Patrol: The Mighty Pups

The first Paw Patrol movie opened up in August of 2021 during the pandemic era where barely anyone wanted to go anywhere that wasn’t a grocery store (because somehow that was safe).  It still managed to pull in forty million domestic and another hundred million internationally.  With the built in audience from the television series, a sequel was almost a no-brainer.  I remember taking my family to go see the first Paw Patrol (the theater was quite bare) and actually enjoying it quite a bit.  It certainly helped to bring all of the key elements from the television series and produce something that wasn’t nauseating and over-the-top.  However, sequels of movies based on popular properties often go the wrong direction.  Let’s see what the Mighty Pups have in store for us in their second outing.

As is the case with many Nickelodeon films, we get a cartoon short to start off the show.  This one has Dora the Explorer, who is apparently getting a new CGI series in 2024.  This short is entitled Dora and the Fantastical Creatures.  Dora (voiced by Diana Zermeno) and her companion, Boots (voiced by Asher Spence) the monkey are going on an adventure to the land of Alebrijes, where they have the most colorful and magical creatures in the rain forest.  It appears that someone has taken the glowey.  We later find out that it was Swiper (voiced by Marc Weiner).  Swiper is taken down by making him realize that he did a bad thing, and he gives back the glowey.  So it’s a totally realistic cartoon.  Much eye-rolling did occur, and I realized that I’m glad that my son never picked up on this show.  However, he might have momentarily picked up the phrase, “Swiper, no swiping.”  Curses!  Let’s get on to the feature presentation.

It’s 98 degrees and clear skies.  It is a wonderful day in Adventure City.  Janet (voiced by Kristen Bell) is settling into work at the J&H scrapyard with her goldfish, Bruce.  All of the sudden, Hank (voiced by James Mardsen) screams that someone is taking their crane.  That crane just happens to have a ten-ton electromagnet strapped to it.  In the process, it has also started a fire.  There is only one thing to do, and that’s call the Paw Patrol!

Ryder (voiced by Finn Lee-Epp) and the Paw Patrol are on their way to stop the fire, including Skye (voiced by McKenna Grace), who leads the way, carrying the water that will put out the flames.  Naturally, they are easily able to accomplish their task and put a stop to this hot issue (that’s not the last pun) before the scrapyard turns into junk … again?  Anyhow, we are now faced with wondering who would take a ten ton electromagnet and what they are going to do with it.

Well, wonder no more.  Enter Victoria Vance (voiced by Taraji P. Henson), a mad scientist … oh wait, just got a memo, she’s not mad.  She’s actually brilliant.  Quite intelligent, even.  Victoria plans to use the electromagnet to pull a meteor (from the convenient meteor shower planned for tonight) from the atmosphere right to her doorstep.  It is rumored that this meteor will have a blast of energy that Ms. Vance wants to harness and collect for herself to take over Adventure City. *insert evil laugh here*

Meanwhile, Ryder, the Pups and the Junior Patrollers: Nano (voiced by Alan Kim), Tot (voiced by Brice Gonzalez) and Mini (voiced by North West) are settling in to watch tonight’s meteor shower from their famous tower.  Originally, this meteor was only supposed to fly overhead, but the powerful electromagnet pulls it a lot closer to Adventure City.  Suddenly Vance’s electromagnetic fails, and the meteor starts to fall.  Before, we know it, the Paw Patrol leave their vantage point to help the citizens of Adventure City to safety.  They are able to get everyone indoors before the meteor strikes.  What wasn’t expected is that the meteor has hit the middle of the Paw Patrol tower, leaving it demolished and the pups without a home.

Ryder apparently is a magician of sorts, because he still has a working computer where he can analyze the meteor and its strange energy readings.  The pups don’t have their lavish sleeping area anymore, but seem to have a reasonable substitute, so perhaps the whole “without a home” thing is a bit exaggerated.  Meanwhile, Victoria Vance is thrown in jail, since she wanted to boast about her accomplishments on the internet.  We soon learn that the source of the energy inside the meteor is contained in a group of crystals.  That night while everyone is asleep, Skye decides to go into the lab and touch one of the crystals.  We should probably know what’s going to happen next.

Yup, the Paw Patrol turns into the Mighty Pups.  Each of the pups get their own power similar to their role within the team.  Skye has the power of flight and super strength.  Chase (voiced by Christian Convery) has the power of super speed.  Marshall (voiced by Christian Corrao) has the power of … fire — wait, isn’t he the firefighting pup?  Shouldn’t he have the power of water?  Nope, that’s Zuma (voiced by Nylan Parthipan).  Well, that blows that theory.

Anyway, while the first Paw Patrol movie focused on Chase and Liberty (voiced by Marsai Martin), the second movie primarily focuses on Skye.  The main thrust is that she thinks she is too small and wishes she was bigger.  This leads to scenarios that quite frankly put the whole Paw Patrol in danger, but of course they forgive her, as tends to happen in all young kid films and TV series.  Most of the other pups are afterthoughts, unfortunately.  Rubble (voiced by Luxton Handspiker) is still here for comic relief, but many of the other pups such as Marshall, Zuma or Rocky (voiced by Callum Shoniker) are basically footnotes in the Pups’ roster, which was something of a deviation from the first film.  Even Liberty takes a hit, as the only thing they can figure out to do with her is stick her with a bunch of Junior Patrollers to teach them how to do calisthenics.

Ryder’s role, which was endearing in the first film, especially with Chase’s origin story, takes a turn for the worse in the second flick.  To be frankly honest, he becomes a jerk in the second film and tells pups to stay behind who don’t have powers, and makes other condescending remarks.  In the first film, he was working with the pups; here it felt like the pups were working for him.  One might think that’s the worst offense in the movie, but actually there is one greater.

Victoria Vance is an awful villain.  She’s not really all that smart or clever.  Heck, they bill her as “mad”, but she’s not really zany or kooky either.  In fact, the only time she is even interesting is when they pair her with Humdinger (voiced by Ron Pardo), the former mayor of Adventure City who was imprisoned after his antics from the first film.  Humdinger, who only shows up for a part of the film, still manages to have some of the most memorable scenes.  Then, as quickly as he comes into the film, he’s gone.  Paw Patrol films honestly have the same problem early Batman films tended to have: producing a memorable villain outside of their main bad guy.  Humdinger is the Paw Patrol’s Joker, and if they aren’t going to feature him in the film, then they sure better have a good substitute.  Except Victoria Vance is nowhere close to that.

Paw Patrol: The Mighty Pups is something of a miss from me.  The first film had a compelling and interesting plot and included a bevy of fun characters to build that around.  The problem is that they then took all of those interesting characters from the first film and threw them aside or gave them minor roles.  In the case of Ryder, they changed his personality to the point where he was no longer likable.  Victoria Vance might be the worst villain since Mandarin in Iron Man 3, or if you want to keep going down the Batman analogy, Two-Face from Batman Forever.  It’s that brutal.

Regardless, this film will make money.  It was the highest-grossing film over the weekend, beating out the newest Saw and The Creator as well as the second Nun (there is a joke somewhere in there, but I’ll refrain) film.  I’d venture to say that it will probably take home about 70 million domestically and maybe even close in on 200 million internationally.  Already there is a third Paw Patrol movie in the works slated for release in 2026.  Unfortunately, it will probably not be titled “Die Humdinger, Die”, much to my dismay.  My guess is that they will introduce Everest and take the journey outside of Adventure City (to the Arctic, presumably).  If you have kids in the 4 to 9 range, you’ll probably want to take them to this film, and I can’t say I blame you.  However, whereas the first film had something for the adults in the way of a good story, this one probably should be sent to the pound.  Recommended if your theater has a wealthy assortment of food and drinks to take your mind off the film.  Enjoy.