PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie: is it suitable for your child?

Story

The PAW Patrol is on duty, rescuing a family from their burning boat, when they’re caught in a treacherous storm. Their boat is washed ashore on an island still inhabited by dinosaurs.

The island’s dinosaurs are mostly friendly, although the PAW Patrol’s first encounter is with a large, aggressive dinosaur that terrifies them. The dinosaur chases them and is about to attack when an even larger T-rex scares it away. The PAW Patrol discovers this T-rex is a friend of Rex, a little dog that has been living on the island for the last 2 years. Rex takes them to his tree house with the help of a friendly brontosaurus. After the initial scare, the dinosaurs are all friendly.

Meanwhile, the villain Humdinger (voice of Ron Pardo) has just been released from prison and is determined to set out on a new path. His determination lasts until he sees a TV story about Dino Island, which is full of diamonds as well as dinosaurs.

Humdinger collects a team and sets sail with his greedy eyes on the prize of a huge fortune. Unfortunately, the diamonds are hard to extract, which means they have to be blasted off the rock with dynamite. This causes the underlying volcano to erupt, creating havoc and devastation on the island.

The PAW Patrol must use their wits to save the dinosaurs and a group of scientists who are there to study them.

Themes

Animated adventure; dinosaurs; animals and people in peril; search and rescue

Violence

PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie has some violence. For example:

A cat jumps onto a barbecue, burning its foot and squealing in pain. The cat spreads fire throughout the boat.
The boat explodes (after everyone is rescued).
Marshall falls off the edge of a cliff down a rocky bank and lands heavily.
A dinosaur chases Ryder and the pups, crashing through the jungle. Marshall trips on a rock and is about to be attacked when another dinosaur intervenes.
Humdinger’s accomplice drives the jeep into a brontosaurus’s legs several times to get it to move out of the way. The brontosaurus falls down a chasm in the rocks and is stuck there.
Humdinger crashes his car into a scientist’s car. The scientist gets out and confronts him with a blowtorch.
Humdinger and his crew attack the diamond rock face with power tools and blow torches, eventually blasting it with dynamite. A loud explosion ensues, with lava and fire spitting out from the now active volcano.
The dinosaurs stampede across the island in fright. Two scientists get thrown into the air, with one landing on the back of a dinosaur and the other hanging onto the tail of another.
A large dinosaur’s foot looks like it’s about to come down on Marshall.
Marshall falls from a height and is caught in a net.
After the volcano erupts, it throws out balls of fire across the island. There are mudslides, which trap some of the scientists. The jungle catches on fire.
When the volcano erupts, the earth shakes. The stampeding dinosaurs crash through the site where the scientists are working and trample everything underfoot.
Humdinger threatens Marshall with a blowtorch.

Some of the movie’s violence is comic. For example:

One of Humdinger’s accomplices falls off a crate and does the splits.
A small dinosaur pecks several times at one of the pup’s cheeks.
The accomplice is caught in a trap and hangs upside down.
Humdinger’s pants catch fire.
Humdinger’s punishment is to clean up dinosaur poo. He slips in it, and a dollop lands on his head.

Sexual references

There are no sexual references in PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

There’s no use of substances in PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie.

Nudity and sexual activity

There’s no nudity or sexual activity in PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie.

Product placement

There’s no product placement in PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie.

Coarse language

PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie has some coarse language. For example, the cat’s name is Fluffy Butt. There’s also name-calling and insults, including ‘stinking’, ‘cretin’ and ‘weakling’.

Ideas to discuss with your children

PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie is an animated adventure with plenty of good messages for children. The dinosaurs are mostly friendly and the tone is gentle until the volcanic eruption, which causes destruction and chaos.

The intensity and threat faced by the doggy heroes make PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie unsuitable for children under 6 years. We also recommend parental guidance for children aged 6-7 years.

These are the main messages from PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie:

You don’t have to be perfect – you just have to keep trying.
Everyone makes mistakes when they’re learning something new.
Focus on the good things you’ve done, rather than the mistakes.
Once you’ve set your mind to something, you can do anything.

Values in PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie that you could reinforce with your children include determination, perseverance, heroism, forgiveness, self-compassion, courage, kindness, resourcefulness, teamwork, friendship, loyalty and selflessness.

PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie could also give you the chance to talk with your children about real-life issues like the following:

When he’s released from prison, Humdinger is determined to be a new person – no more cheating, lying or ‘get rich quick’ schemes. He’s quickly lured back to crime, however, when he learns about the diamonds. You could talk about the challenges of reforming yourself and trying to be a good person.
The movie suggests that bad choices lead to bad consequences. You could talk about how it’s better to think about what you’re doing before it’s too late.