This is not the first spinoff feature from the long-running, immensely popular animated children’s TV show, and you can bet the biscuit in your lunch bag it won’t be the last. That said, there must be some limit to how much content you can generate from the franchise’s core formula, which always finds the titular pack of talking puppy heroes saving their perpetually endangered home town, Adventure City, from an assortment of perils.
Nevertheless, there’s perhaps the tiniest little hint that the producers and director Cal Brunker are moving with the times in tiny, four-toed steps. Instead of focusing the drama around the boy dogs, like boisterous boxer Rubble and police dog Chase (who got a lot of airtime in Paw Patrol: The Movie in 2021), this one spends more time looking into the backstory of Skye, the silky cockapoo girl dog who flies a helicopter and wears a lot of pink. Sausage-shaped pack member Liberty, also coded as female, dominates the film’s B plot.
