Thanks to the ne’er-do-‘elling of a ne’er-do-‘ell a meteor crashes into Adventure Bay granting role-appropriate superpowers to the PAW patrol. A thing like this couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of pups. They use their new-found powers to amp up their city-service-themed rescuing of their fair city’s denizens. Pink-clad Skye is most excited about this development, as he diminutive stature has her feeling a bit self-conscious and eager to prove her importance to the team. Her need to succeed leads to the superpowering crystals getting into the hands of aforementioned ne’er-do-‘ell. Further rescuing ensues.
PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie is kids’ stuff, of course, and it’s satisfactory fare of its kind. Lessons about self-worth and team work are always worth hearing, I suppose—why are all kids shows about team work these days?—and this movie teaches with admirable entertainment along the way. These movies are toy commercials too, but so are the similar movies aimed at the PG-13 crowd, so… shrug.
More interesting than the explicit themes of this movie are the ways movie like this teach kids about how stories are “supposed” to work. For instance, when a main character “dies” in this movie, my three-year-old son turned to me and said, “It’s okay, daddy. She’s come back.” He watches a lot of movies, and we talk about them—yes, being the son of a film critic is exactly the life you might expect—so he’s aping me to an extent, but he’s also just aware of how these stories go. When he’s older we’ll talk about why resurrection is a major dynamic in stories across the world throughout time, but for now I just like knowing that he’s aware of it. We humans really do tell the same stories over and over again, and sometimes they star superpowered puppies.
Thanks to the ne’er-do-‘elling of a ne’er-do-‘ell a meteor crashes into Adventure Bay granting role-appropriate superpowers to the PAW patrol. A thing like this couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of pups. They use their new-found powers to amp up their city-service-themed rescuing of their fair city’s denizens. Pink-clad Skye is most excited about this development, as he diminutive stature has her feeling a bit self-conscious and eager to prove her importance to the team. Her need to succeed leads to the superpowering crystals getting into the hands of aforementioned ne’er-do-‘ell. Further rescuing ensues.
PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie is kids’ stuff, of course, and it’s satisfactory fare of its kind. Lessons about self-worth and team work are always worth hearing, I suppose—why are all kids shows about team work these days?—and this movie teaches with admirable entertainment along the way. These movies are toy commercials too, but so are the similar movies aimed at the PG-13 crowd, so… shrug.
More interesting than the explicit themes of this movie are the ways movie like this teach kids about how stories are “supposed” to work. For instance, when a main character “dies” in this movie, my three-year-old son turned to me and said, “It’s okay, daddy. She’s come back.” He watches a lot of movies, and we talk about them—yes, being the son of a film critic is exactly the life you might expect—so he’s aping me to an extent, but he’s also just aware of how these stories go. When he’s older we’ll talk about why resurrection is a major dynamic in stories across the world throughout time, but for now I just like knowing that he’s aware of it. We humans really do tell the same stories over and over again, and sometimes they star superpowered puppies.
Elijah Davidson is Co-Director of Brehm Film and Senior Film Critic. Subscribe to Come & See, his weekly newsletter that guides you through the greatest films ever made, and find more of his work at elijahdavidson.com.
I think Killers of the Flower Moon is an indictment, but it might be a testimony.
