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It’s not just the tobacco companies that want to get their punters hooked at an early age. Hollywood also needs to get the next generation addicted to the magic of cinema. And this zippy big-screen adventure for the Paw Patrol could be the movie industry’s fruit-flavoured vape.
The setting is still Adventure City, a sprawling metropolis which has ceded its emergency services to a 10-year-old boy and a pack of small dogs.
“They’re cute little puppies who drive around in cars.
I know that sounds weird but just go with it,” says a junkyard owner (Kristen Bell) in an early self-aware quip.
The plot, which is weirdly similar to the story of 2019’s Paw Patrol: Mighty Pups, sees the puppies bestowed with superpowers by a crashing asteroid.
Firefighter Marshall (Christian Corrao) can now summon balls of flames from his paws, sea rescuer Zuma (Nylan Parthipan) can turn into water, pilot Skye (McKenna Grace) can fly, and construction pup Rubble (Luxton Handspiker) transforms into a wrecking ball.
Liberty the dachshund (Marsai Martin) has to find herself before she develops her superpower and that’s one of the film’s big lessons, along with the importance of teamwork and self-confidence.
These lessons are mainly voiced by Ryder (Finn Lee-Epp), the patient 10-year-old who acts as the Paw Patrol’s manager and young viewers’ surrogate parent.
The action scenes are high octane enough to earn the film a “very mild threat” warning on its BBFC certificate. But the big villain, a mad scientist called Victoria Vance (Taraji P Henson), is more comically misguided than scarily evil.
Bored parents can at least play a game of “spot the celebrity cameo”.
Serena Williams and Chris Rock are listed in the credits and apparently Sir Trevor McDonald and Roman Kemp took parts for a UK version.
I didn’t notice either so I suspect they showed the US original at the press screening.
To my eternal shame, I did twig that a social-media obsessed poodle was speaking in the voice of Kim Kardashian. Apparently, her tots voiced the balls of fluff who have signed up to the Paw Patrol’s youth training programme.
Nepotism is rife in the media and your kids will just have to get used to it.
