TORONTO — Loyal “Paw Patrol” viewers learned years ago that dinosaurs didn’t go extinct on whatever version of Earth is home to Adventure Bay. A contingent of the reptiles survived for millions of years, unbeknownst to the general public, and are currently under the care of a wheelchair-using Bernese mountain pup named Rex and two scientists — at least in the universe of the TV series. But the creative minds at Spin Master, the Toronto-based toy behemoth that’s made a fortune on the backs of the search-and-rescue dogs, aren’t afraid of tweaking an origin story as they adapt the franchise for the big screen. Enter “Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie,” the third Hollywood outing for the pups, in which they learn — once again — that a scientific miracle allowed a small subset of dinosaurs to survive an eons-ago asteroid impact. Director Cal Brunker, who’s helmed all three of the films, said he knows the fans, particularly the grown-up ones, notice these things. “I get to interact with a lot of those fans online, and it’s fun,” he said on a recent video call. “They really care about these characters and this world.” It was perhaps an inevitability that Brunker and the other Paw Patrol masterminds would face these questions as the franchise (and its fan base) ages and expands. In his memoir-slash-business-manifesto “No Experience Necessary,” Spin Master co-founder Ronnen Harary wrote that he and the company’s entertainment division were hunting for a hit after the success of their first major franchise, “Bakugan,” so they sent out a brief targeting the preschool market. They heard back from Keith Chapman, the English creator of “Bob the Builder,” with a pitch about “a kid and a bunch of different dog characters, different archetypes, who all went on rescue missions.” The company developed the TV show and the toys at the same time, and Harary said “the creative process became this dance between these different creative forces, all of them jamming together to create a show.” The resulting franchise — centred on Ryder the boy engineer and a group of dogs-with-jobs led by Chase the police pup — has made somewhere in the neighbourhood of $15 billion in sales, according to Spin Master. There are now 14 seasons of the show, six seasons of spinoff “Rubble and Crew,” a handful of hour-long specials and innumerable toys, T-shirts, bedsheets and backpacks. In his book, Harary wrote that the company always had longevity in mind for the franchise. While at first they aimed for five and then 10 seasons, their “mission statement” eventually became “Paw Forever.” “At a certain point, Paw Patrol became a permanent, indelible piece of the cultural fabric,” he wrote. “Like Barbie and Pikachu and Kermit the Frog, Paw Patrol is now a part of how kids grow up in nearly every country in the world.” He also does some back-of-a-napkin math to calculate that hundreds of millions of kids have “cycled through” Paw Patrol fandom. But for some, there is no “through.” There is only “in.” It’s not uncommon for kids shows to have adult fan bases. Take “My Little Pony,” whose “Bronies” were a fixture of the internet in the 2010s. But in the case of “Paw Patrol,” the adult fandom is — like the pups they admire — small but mighty. The Reddit community devoted to the franchise, which is explicitly G-rated but intended only for adults, has about 12,000 weekly visitors. By contrast, the subreddit for the kids’ show “Adventure Time” has 10 times that. Some of the older Paw fans grew up with it, while others came to it later — sometimes through their young children. These fans opine on storylines, consider the characters’ arcs and philosophize about the canon. To that point, a 2021 tweet from Brunker is frequently cited: “I think of the movies as an alternate timeline branching off of Season 1 with the movie world being consistent within itself,” he wrote in response to a Paw Patrol fan’s question. Five years in and two films deeper, the director has a slightly less limiting take. “As far as canon goes, I think one of the things that I’ve tried to keep as a North Star for the movies is to be committed to telling the best theatrical version of a story we could,” Brunker said on the video call. Take the second film instalment, in which the members of the Paw Patrol become superheroes. “They’ve done Mighty Pups in the show, but I really felt like if you’re going into the movie, seeing a Mighty Pups movie for the first time, you don’t want them to already have their powers. That’s the best part of a superhero movie is watching Spider-Man get bit by the spider,” Brunker said. “We wanted those moments to be movie moments. So we served the movie version of the story first.” So too for “The Dino Movie,” where the writers warped the lore to take advantage of the big screen. For instance, in an ode to “Jurassic Park,” the filmic dinosaurs live on an island and no humans are aware of their existence. They’ve tweaked Rex’s storyline, too. He tells the pups he’s been stranded on Dino Island for two years after getting stuck in a storm. He’s spent that time fostering relationships with his dinosaur neighbours and building a tree house so elaborate it belongs in the pages of Architectural Digest. But the key character traits are the same. Rex is a science-loving, wheelchair-riding Bernese mountain dog who’s happy to lend a paw. The creative teams for the show and the film are different, said Toni Stevens, Spin Master’s senior vice-president of entertainment operations. That’s part of why they look so different — with a bigger budget, the film studio is able to put more visual detail into the world. But she said the company’s executives are part of the discussions for both products. “We all have a really strong understanding of what it is,” she said. “We try to keep the focus on each of the characters and keep them fresh and moving forward in a new direction.” As for story, she said, they keep it narrowly focused on adventure rescues. For Ron Pardo, who voices the dastardly Mayor Humdinger in both the show and the films, canon is sort of beside the point. “I look at every script like a piece of gold, you know? I treat every script like a storybook...like a little stand-alone movie,” he said on a video call from Pardoville, a tiny slice of Chatham-Kent, Ont., named for his ancestor. The films are a fun stretch for him. He has more to chew on, because Humdinger gets a bigger story arc than in each episode. “It’s pumped up a little bit more, I’d say, for the movie,” he said. Humdinger was imprisoned at the end of “Paw Patrol: The Movie” and escaped in its sequel, “Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie,” before inevitably being recaptured. In this instalment, the municipal menace is fresh out of the clink and desperate for cash. “Mayor Humdinger is a conniving, scheming... Well, I’m the villain, of course. I have to give the pups something to do. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have anything to do!” he said, slipping into his Humdinger voice — a combination of Jack Benny and Snidely Whiplash. Returning to his normal voice, Pardo added: “I’d say he represents everything that a child will see in their life in terms of adversity.” Those lessons are central to the franchise, said Brunker. In this film, focus is firmly on Marshall the fire dog, a clumsy Dalmatian with a self-doubt problem. The film is ultimately about perseverance and picking yourself up after you’re knocked down, the director said. “If we can find something that works thematically for both kids and parents, it ends up being more of a special moment watching that together,” Brunker said. “And I think that does contribute to the longevity of Paw Patrol. If we can make meaningful emotional experiences at the movie theatre, that bodes well for more movies in the future and people that keep coming back to these characters who they love.” This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 14, 2026. Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press
