General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

PAW Patrol: The Movie

PAW Patrol: The Movie is a 2021 animated comedy-adventure film based on the Nickelodeon preschool television series PAW Patrol, produced by Spin Master Entertainment in association with Nickelodeon Movies and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It was the first feature film for the PAW Patrol franchise and the first feature film produced by its producer, the Canadian toy and entertainment company Spin Master.¹^•² The film opened in theaters and on the Paramount+ streaming service on the same day, August 20, 2021, and grossed $144 million worldwide.³^•⁴

Key fact	Detail
Release	August 20, 2021, in theaters and on Paramount+ the same day³
Production	Spin Master Entertainment with Nickelodeon Movies; distributed by Paramount Pictures¹
Director and producer	Cal Brunker (director and co-writer); Jennifer Dodge (producer)¹^•⁵
Runtime and rating	90 minutes per Paramount's listing; rated G⁶^•⁷
Box office	$13.2 million domestic opening weekend; $144 million worldwide³^•⁴
Reception	82% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 50 reviews; 97% Popcornmeter from 1,000+ verified ratings⁸
Streaming record	The most-rewatched film on Paramount+, streamed an average of six times per household⁹

Spoilers

Plot and characters

The story moves the team from their home base of Adventure Bay to the nearby metropolis of Adventure City. Their biggest rival, Mayor Humdinger, becomes Mayor of Adventure City and starts wreaking havoc, and Ryder and the heroic pups kick into high gear to face the challenge, armed with new gadgets and gear to save the city's citizens.⁶ One pup, the police dog Chase, must face his past in Adventure City, and the team gains a new ally in Liberty, a savvy dachshund.⁶

The choice to build the film around Chase was deliberate. Spin Master executive Jennifer Dodge explained that after five years on television the team knew the audience had the attention span for deeper storytelling, and a feature film let them tell a bigger story and learn more about one pup; Chase was selected for the first movie, with the filmmakers asking what his backstory was and what makes him tick.⁹

The voice cast pairs the series' regular performers with film and television names: Iain Armitage as Chase, Marsai Martin as Liberty, Ron Pardo as Cap'n Turbot and Humdinger, Yara Shahidi as Kendra, Kim Kardashian West as Delores, Randall Park as Butch, Dax Shepard as Ruben, and Tyler Perry as Gus, with Will Brisbin as Ryder and Jimmy Kimmel as Marty Muckracker.⁶^•⁵

Franchise impact

The film transformed Spin Master from a toy company into a content studio and became the first of a planned slate of feature films based on the company's properties.¹¹ A sequel, PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie, followed in September 2023, grossing $195.6 million worldwide from a $30 million budget, and a third film was slated for 2026.¹⁶^•¹⁷ Director Cal Brunker has described the movies as an alternate timeline branching off of Season 1 of the series, consistent within the film world itself.¹⁸

Production

Spin Master announced the project on February 21, 2020, as a major animated feature taking its franchise from the small screen to the big screen, slated for August 2021 with animation veteran Cal Brunker, director of Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature and Escape From Planet Earth, at the helm. Jennifer Dodge, Spin Master Entertainment's executive vice president, produced, with Ronnen Harary, Adam Beder, and Peter Schlessel executive producing.¹ The screenplay is credited to Billy Frolick, Bob Barlen, and Cal Brunker, with Heitor Pereira composing the score.⁵

While Toronto's Guru Studio continued to work on the PAW Patrol series, Spin Master recruited the Montreal-based theatrical specialist Mikros Animation for its films, using a more cinematic animation pipeline that gives the pups a more detailed look than their TV iterations.¹⁰ Animation production continued through the COVID-19 pandemic, and the film was the first of what Dodge hoped would be an area of growth for Spin Master, with the remaining movies in development all based on existing Spin Master IP.¹¹

Release and box office

The film premiered in theaters and on Paramount+ on August 20, 2021, one of the first films targeted at the preschool set to receive a simultaneous theatrical and streaming release.³^•⁴ It earned $13.2 million at the domestic box office on opening weekend, which Paramount called a strong theatrical opening on top of what the company described as a record-breaking streaming debut.³ Its worldwide total reached $144 million.⁴ In Spain, where it opened on August 27, 2021, it sold 517,926 tickets and grossed €2,913,418.72.¹²

The dual release was a commercial strategy as much as a distribution plan. Paramount reported that nearly 200 consumer products partners delivered merchandise in support of the film, including a toy line from Spin Master and partnerships with Crayola, Mattel, Build-A-Bear, Hasbro, Kellogg's, Campbell's, Kraft Heinz, and Random House Children's Books.³ The Associated Press later reported that the film's success in theaters and streaming was a contributing factor in Nickelodeon chief Brian Robbins being named head of Paramount.¹³

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an 82% Tomatometer from 50 reviews and a 97% Popcornmeter score from more than 1,000 verified audience ratings; the site's audience summary says young fans of Ryder and his crew will love it, and their parents may not mind tuning in either.⁸ Critics singled out the animation and the teamwork message. Writing for RogerEbert.com, Nell Minow observed that mothers and fathers would value how the pups approach solving problems, cooperating so that every character's abilities are put to their best use.⁸ Common Sense Media noted that critics pointed to a shallow storyline and noticeable consumerism, while finding that even audiences who know nothing more than the theme song may be pleasantly surprised.¹⁴

The Australian Council on Children and the Media advised parental guidance for children aged 5 to 7, observing that compared with the TV series the movie is much faster, louder, and more action-packed, with more serious peril, and carries themes of past trauma and adoption that could upset sensitive children.¹⁵

On streaming, the film became the most-rewatched title on Paramount+, streamed an average of six times per household, according to Spin Master's head of franchise development.⁹

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026