PAW Patrol: The Movie (2021)

Note: This article contains spoilers.

PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie is a 2023 Canadian animated children's movie that is the sequel to the first theatrical movie in the series. A magical meteor crash lands in Adventure City, giving the PAW Patrol pups superpowers and transforming them into The Mighty Pups! This sequel is based on The Mighty Pups TV special in the PAW Patrol series.

The sequel continues from where we last left off at the end of the first movie. Viewers see Mayor Humdinger in jail, as evidenced by the orange jumpsuit and top hat he wears while in prison. He meets Victoria Vance, another prisoner, in his jail cell.

The cast of this sequel is completely different from the cast of the first theatrical movie. Cal Bunker reprises his role as the director. The Junior Patrollers make their debut appearances in the sequel and are the first team in the entire series to wholly consist of voice actors of colors. Liberty, Mini, Nano, and Tot are members of the Junior Patrollers. The voice actors who play Liberty and the Junior Patrollers members are all multiracial and have supporting roles.

Paw Patrol: Jet to the Rescue is a TV special released in 2020 that focuses on the pups' quest to stop the Duke of Flappington and save Barkingburg. Throughout this TV movie, viewers see new vehicles the pups receive on their quest to help the Princess of Barkingburg. Though many fans find this TV special adventurous, this TV special is missing learning values, as with other episodes within the series.

Viewers see some representation of women in this TV special, as Skye, Everest, Sweetie, and the Princess of Barkingburg are given major roles. In fact, this TV movie is focused mainly on Skye, as she is an experienced pilot pup. Skye suffers from her fear of eagles, which is the main conflict in this TV movie. Compared to the other TV specials Mighty Pups and Ready Race Rescue, this TV special is focused on the female characters.

People discuss on social media that PAW Patrol is a popular children's cartoon series, so many would think representation and diversity wouldn't matter. But if we look closely at the characters introduced into the series, we see there is not much representation of a minority. What the series is currently lacking, especially in recent episodes, is diversity and the representation of racial groups among the human characters. The learning values, topics, and messages such as building a strong community and helping out in the community are slowly becoming ineffective on viewers because there is a lot of repeated content. There is concern that PAW Patrol has become just an entertaining show for kids, losing its educational value.

One major pattern that we often see in the series is many human characters are white men and white people. This is also seen in the theatrical movie. This reflects the stereotypes and sexism that are related to the topic of search and rescue being portrayed in the media. The topics of representation and diversity among people are topics that can be taught to young children, as both topics are relevant to the themes of search and rescue, teamwork, and community. Many episodes in the series take place outside of a school environment. What viewers need to learn is that community is about including everyone.

Overall, this PAW Patrol TV special is entertaining, like Mighty Pups and Ready Race Rescue, but lacks strong representation and diversity of a minority.

Rescued By Ruby (2022) is a biological drama film that focuses on a young adult state trooper, Dan who dreams of joining an elite K-9 unit after being rejected many times, and has only one last chance to qualify before he turns 30. The theme of this film focuses on the bond between a man and a dog, which is Dan and Ruby, similar to the bond between Ryder and Chase in Paw Patrol: The Movie (2021).

This article will discuss the topics of "a dog is a man's best friend" and search and rescue, as seen in Rescued By Ruby.

For one, Dan discovers how one adopted dog can change his life. Ruby, a hyperactive collie that has been returned to the shelter multiple times due to her inability to be trained, is given an opportunity of a lifetime to become a K-9 dog. After hearing that his wife, Melissa, is pregnant with their second child, Dan is more determined to be qualified for the K-9 unit. Pat, the woman who works at the animal shelter, convinces and encourages Dan to adopt Ruby, so Ruby can be well trained.

Dan's attempts to train Ruby as a SAR dog (search and rescue) are very similar to how Ryder trains his search and rescue pups in the popular cartoon series Paw Patrol. Dan and Ruby learn the effectiveness of teamwork through successes and failures. Though Ruby becomes impatient at some point during the training, Dan does not give up. At the end of Rescued By Ruby, Dan discovers that Ruby is able to rescue a little boy, Michael who gets lost during a hike. Michael turns out to be Pat's son. The way Ruby is able to track down the lost boy shows viewers that, with proper training, they can perform well in their jobs just like people. Dan learns that Ruby is his new best friend and gets accepted into the elite K-9 unit, finally fulfilling his dream.

Rescued By Ruby is another movie that focuses on what it's like for rescue workers to do their jobs. Although, the film has been directed by the phenomenal Katt Shea known for Poison Ivy (1992)  and The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999), there is not much diversity. Furthermore, this movie would be even better if it contained a more diverse cast.