PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie

“PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie’s disability representation shows what every movie can and should do. But that strength makes the gender problem that much harder to forgive.”

Title: PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie (2026)
Director: Cal Brunker 👨🏼🇨🇦
Writers: Cal Brunker 👨🏼🇨🇦 and Bob Barlen 👨🏼🇨🇦

Reviewed by Li 👩🏻🇺🇸

Technical: 3/5

You won’t find anything new or refreshing in PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie, the third movie in the PAW Patrol franchise based on the hit TV series. But “new” isn’t the point: Marketed as “My First Movie,” complete with printable “certificates” for names and dates to be filled out, it’s clear that The Dino Movie’s target demo will never have seen its many tropes. In fact, if you’re looking to introduce your kiddo to some tried-and-true cinematic moments—training montages, an impending disaster sending animals fleeing and rattling small objects from afar, and firefighters saving cats—there are worse ways to do it than with The Dino Movie.

Printable *PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie* “certificates”

As a parent to a 4-year-old myself, I won’t turn my nose up at the rare G-rated theatrical release. I brought my son, and it was a relief to let the film roll, hearing him excitedly name the dinosaurs he recognized without being scared by their intensity. Even when the T-Rexes come a-stompin’, and volcanic lava threatens to swallow the pup heroes whole, The Dino Movie is lighthearted enough, with the dinosaurs bubble-shaped and brightly colored enough, to entertain my preschooler with a just-right, 88-minute runtime.

Gender: 1.5/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? YES, but barely

PAW Patrol’s approach to gender has been its Achilles heel since the series first aired in 2013. Additions have been halfheartedly made, but more than a decade on, the franchise has only entrenched the way its boy pups vastly outnumber girls—who are almost always stereotypically designed with pastel colors, lots of pink, long eyelashes, etc.

In The Dino Movie, we meet no fewer than seven PAW Patrol members and their human carer, Ryder (voiced by Henry Bolan). Only one is female: Skye (Mckenna Grace), who’s clad in all pink. I cringed at her scenes, marveling at the fact that it’s been over 30 years since I grew up on the Power Rangers, and even in the 1990s, a group of five heroes included two girls. The imbalance feels hugely distracting throughout.

Thankfully, when it comes to human characters in minor and supporting roles, the balance rights itself. Two paleontologists, Fortune Feimster’s Eugenia and Jameela Jamil’s Heidi, have recurring scenes as smart women who, nonetheless, need to be saved by the PAW Patrol.

Race: 3/5

The Dino Movie was written and directed by White Canadian men, but the cast includes actors of color in important roles. Notably, the main hero, Marshall, is voiced by Carter Young, who’s also the voice behind Black and Puerto Rican character Miles Morales in Spidey and His Amazing Friends (2021–). Marshall, a firefighting Dalmatian, has a lovely story arc about persistence and believing in yourself.

Elsewhere, Black American Terry Crews plays a dynamite-loving mercenary and British Asian Jamil is the aforementioned paleontologist, both appearing consistently. (Snoop Dogg and Jennifer Hudson are highly promoted in the movie’s marketing, but their actual roles are minor.) Humans in crowd scenes look racially diverse, though cultural references are never made, rendering them shallow. And the main human characters, Ryder and mustache-twirling villain Mayor Humdinger (Ron Pardo), are White.

Bonus for Disability: +1.00

The newest addition to the team is Rex, who uses wheels instead of his hind legs to get around. He’s voiced by Hayden Chamberlen, himself a wheelchair user. Rex has a fantastic role as a pup who uses ingenuity and grit to create his own accessible world—namely, he’s built himself a jaw-dropping treehouse with roots and ramps all around. Jerry-rigging your own access is something plenty of disabled people know about, and it’s powerful to see that come to life on screen. Nondisabled characters come to both rely on Rex and save him in turn, treating Rex as any other PAW Patrol team member.

Nylan Parthipan, who voices PAW Patrol pup Zuma, has muscular dystrophy and also uses a wheelchair. Zuma only has a few lines, but it’s still great to have Parthipan in the voice cast, showing what disabled people can bring to the table if we just let them.

Deduction for Body Diversity: -0.25

While it’s not as overt as some of the fatphobia found in children’s programming, bulldog Rubble (Lucien Duncan-Reid) relies on adjacent tropes for humor. It’ll go over the heads of most kids, but between Rubble’s rounder cheeks, a joke about him not being able to run any faster because he’s a bulldog (“This is as fast as I go!”), and a running gag about miniature dinosaurs stealing his pup treats, it falsely equates being fat with being slow and preoccupied with food.

Mediaversity Grade: C- 2.75/5

It’s rare to get a “kids movie” that’s actually designed for younger kids these days, and not just pop-music slop and flashing lights meant to zombify your child for 90 minutes (I’m looking at you, Smurfs). The care is evident as The Dino Movie perfectly tailors its message about never giving up in a way that a preschool audience can actually understand—through repetition and clarity.

Meanwhile, The Dino Movie’s disability representation, both on screen and off, shows what every animated movie can and should do when it comes to casting inclusively. But that strength makes the gender problem that much harder to forgive. One girl pup in seven, dressed head to toe in pink, with nothing to define her beyond that—it's an easy fix. The fact that the filmmakers don’t seem interested is the number one reason why I’d rather not unleash my kid into PAW Patrol's heavily merchandised world.

Like PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie? Try these other titles for the preschool set.

Grade: CLiAugust 10, 2026