Paw Patrol

Paw Patrol is a Canadian animated television series created by Keith Chapman and produced by Spin Master Entertainment, with animation provided by Guru Studio. In Canada, the series is primarily broadcast on TVOntario as part of the TVOKids programing block. TVO first ran previews of the show in August 2013. The series premiered on Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. in the United States on August 12, 2013.
The series focuses on a young boy named Ryder who leads a crew of search and rescue dogs that call themselves the Paw Patrol. They work together on missions to protect the shoreside community of Adventure Bay and surrounding areas. Each dog has a specific set of skills based on emergency services professions, such as a firefighter, a police officer, and an aviation pilot. They all reside in doghouses that transform into customized vehicles, or "pupmobiles", for their missions. They are also equipped with special hi-tech backpacks called "pup packs" that contain tools relating to the pups' jobs.
Since its debut, the series has developed into a media franchise, generating millions of dollars in revenue from toy sales for Spin Master and has increased the company's presence in the preschool toy market. The franchise includes a feature film which released in August 2021, followed by a sequel, The Mighty Movie, on September 29, 2023, another upcoming sequel The Dino Movie, set to be released on July 31, 2026, and a spin-off series based on one of the show's main characters titled Rubble & Crew which premiered in February 2023. The show celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2023. The show, and its associated products, have received a variety of awards and nominations from associations such as the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
The series is currently on its eleventh season, which began airing in September 2024. In early February 2023, series creator Keith Chapman said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter magazine that the series could still be on television for another ten years or more.
Each episode of Paw Patrol follows a similar pattern. Episodes normally open with a scene depicting the dogs going about their everyday lives in Adventure Bay, often playing with dog toys or going to the local playground. Ryder, a ten-year-old boy, is advised of a problem by receiving a call for help or by witnessing a situation himself. His most frequent callers are an accident-prone marine biologist named Cap'n Turbot and the town's mayor, Mayor Goodway. Ryder always alerts the dogs via their blinking pup tags. The team members report to their base, the Lookout, and enter its elevator. Marshall typically arrives last causing a humorous mishap that makes the other pups laugh as the elevator rises, although Rubble causes the elevator gag in some episodes. When they reach the top floor, they arrange themselves in a line. Chase announces that the team is ready for action as Ryder tells the pups what has happened. He chooses several members of the team, normally two first responders, to help solve whatever problem has emerged. They ride a slide down to their vehicles and complete their mission. The Paw Patrol's missions include rescuing people, stopping different dangers, and thwarting the devious plots of Mayor Humdinger of Foggy Bottom in later episodes. When they have finished, Ryder says his catchphrase "Whenever you're in trouble, just yelp for help!" (or a variation of that in later episodes). Then Ryder congratulates the pups.
Later episodes have the show having a sub-series that is themed around it.
According to Spin Master, the concept for Paw Patrol stemmed from a prototype for a transforming truck toy that Spin Master co-founder Ronnen Harary designed in 2010. Later the same year, the company requested some proposals for a television show based on the transforming toy, and accepted one from Bob the Builder creator Keith Chapman. Chapman sketched early designs of the Paw Patrol team under the working title Raffi & the Rescue Dogs. Spin Master hired toy designers to develop the format further; after the concept was in place, they started designing merchandise.
Chapman's original pitch focused on the idea that the six Paw Patrol dogs were rescued by Ryder before joining the team. Scott Kraft, the show's first writer, and Jamie Whitney, the show's first director, decided to abandon the rescued dog theme in 2012. The name of the series' protagonist, Ryder, was changed multiple times during production; he was originally called Raffi, Roddy, and Robbie before Spin Master settled on Ryder.
According to a 2017 Spin Master interview, "everything pup-related was debated endlessly: names, sizes, ages, breeds". The pups' designs underwent major changes after Chapman's pitch; they were very realistic at first, with unique fur and textures based on their breeds, but they were later simplified and made more cartoonish. Cap'n Turbot's unique design, with his distinctive bead eyes and large nose, was based on the design of Chapman's Bob the Builder character. Ryder's hairstyle was based on Ronnen Harary's hair.
In January 2012, Spin Master began approaching television broadcasters. The company negotiated a broadcast partnership with Nickelodeon, and the network first announced that it had picked up Paw Patrol at the 2013 Licensing Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada. The series became Spin Master's first solely-owned intellectual property (IP) once it was released in August 2013.
Since it began production, the show's animation has been provided by Guru Studio. In a 2016 interview with Maclean's Magazine, Guru president Frank Falcone stated that his studio's animators were originally suspicious of the show's "toyetic" concept. The series' rock-inspired original score was composed by the Ontario-based group Voodoo Highway Music & Post. The opening theme song and the ending song used in each episode include vocals performed by Scott Simons.
With each season of the show, new supporting characters and themes are introduced in its episodes. In a May 2016 interview for the Toronto Star, Spin Master president Ben Gadbois stated that his company would continue to introduce additional characters and concepts to increase the franchise's longevity and to expand upon the success of tie-in merchandise. In August of the same year, Ronnen Harary explained that these changes were intended to keep the show's content "fresh" and "relevant".
The show received minor updates to its animation style in the second season and in the eighth season before the eleventh season would completely overhaul the visual style to be more evocative of the theatrical films and Rubble & Crew.
The series has been sold to TV networks in over 160 countries.
In the United States, the series is aired on Nickelodeon as well as the Nick Jr. Channel. Select episodes are available to stream on the Noggin app and Paramount+. In Canada, the series is primarily shown on TVOKids, Knowledge Kids, Télé-Québec, City Saskatchewan, Treehouse, and CBC Kids.
As required for Canadian-American programs aired on federally-funded networks, Paw Patrol has been dubbed in French for Quebec broadcasts and for its broadcast in France on TF1. Canal Panda airs a European Portuguese dub, and it aired on MBC3 in the Middle East. In the United Kingdom, a British English dub was released in November 2013, using the same scripts as the Canadian-American version with minor changes and shown on Channel 5 within its Milkshake! block. and Nick Jr. UK. Also, a Welsh-language dub of the show titled Patrôl Pawennau is shown on S4C as part of its Cyw block. Anione, JEI TV, and KBS have all broadcast the Korean-dubbed version. The show has been aired in the Icelandic language on Iceland's public broadcaster RÚV since 2015. The first two seasons were shown in Finnish on Yle TV2. The video on demand platform Le.com obtained broadcast rights for a Mandarin Chinese-dubbed version of Paw Patrol in April 2016. It aired on MiniMini+ in Poland, e-Junior in the United Arab Emirates, and Clan TVE in Spain. On April 6, 2019, TV Tokyo premiered a Japanese dub of the show, starring Megumi Han as Ryder, who is renamed "Kento" (ケント). In India, the show is dubbed in Hindi and airs on Nick Jr India and ETV Bal Bharat, it's also dubbed in other languages namely Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati, Odia, Assamese, Punjabi, and Bengali which they all air on ETV Bal Bharat.
Paw Patrol has received largely positive reviews from critics. Common Sense Media reviewer Emily Ashby gave the show a four-star rating, stating that "perhaps the show's best attribute is how it demonstrates the value of thoughtful problem-solving". Randy Miller of DVD Talk recommended the show, calling it "packed with all the harmless action and cornball jokes that kids can't help but snicker at". Stuff.co.nz reviewer Pattie Pegler also wrote favourably of the series, but felt that some of the characters "seem rather arbitrary, like Rocky the Recycling Pup". The About Group's Carey Bryson gave the series a mixed review, criticizing its "formulaic" nature but affirming that the "show is not without funny moments".
A research study, commissioned by Sky in March 2016, reported that 16 percent of surveyed British and Irish children named Paw Patrol as their favorite program.
Criticism had been directed toward the show's unequal gender representation because initially the team of dogs was primarily male and included only one female character. Brandy King of the Center on Media and Child Health "found the gender imbalance immediately noticeable" while watching the program. Today's Parent noted in April 2015 that Paw Patrol images appeared frequently on Twitter with the hashtag "#IncludeTheGirls". In response to these criticisms, the writers added an additional female character named Everest, a Siberian Husky and snow rescue dog, starting in season 2.
The show's mobile app game, Paw Patrol: Air and Sea Adventure, was accused of behaving manipulatively towards younger viewers in a 2018 study by the University of Michigan which focused on app-based advertising techniques. Within the game, characters recognizable from the show would express disappointment if players did not purchase items with real money.
In a 2020 paper published in the journal Crime, Media, Culture, Paw Patrol is criticized for sending the message that companies are more capable of providing social services than the state. Author Liam Kennedy argues that the show "encourages complicity in a global capitalist system that (re)produces inequalities and causes environmental harms". Kennedy suggests that Paw Patrol echoes the "core tenets of neoliberalism" by depicting the state and politicians as either unethical or incompetent while the Paw Patrol corporation is entrusted with crimefighting and conservation.
Paw Patrol has received consistently high ratings on Nickelodeon. Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman cited the series as a source of Nickelodeon's 2014 ratings growth. It ranked as the highest-rated, preschool TV program in the United States in November 2013 and held that position throughout the spring 2014 season. The spot was briefly overtaken by Team Umizoomi reruns in July 2016, but Paw Patrol reclaimed the title later the same month. Bloomberg L.P. described Paw Patrol as part of a "creative resurgence" that increased the Nick Jr. channel's viewership in 2016. At Nickelodeon's 2016 upfront presentation for future advertisers, Cyma Zarghami named Paw Patrol one of two preschool shows to have significantly helped boost ratings for the network (the other being Blaze and the Monster Machines).
In March 2015, two back-to-back premieres of the show ranked among the top twenty weekday showings (among total viewers) in Australia. In May 2015, it was reported that Paw Patrol broadcasts on TF1 had been viewed by 45 per cent of households in France with preschool-aged children.
The show has received recognition from public figures and celebrities. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his children are fans of the show; Trudeau mentioned the characters by name in a 2017 speech. After performing at the Super Bowl LII halftime show, Justin Timberlake filmed a segment for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in which he named Chase as his favorite Paw Patrol character and held a Chase plush toy. During his opening monologue for the 90th Academy Awards, host Jimmy Kimmel joked that Timothée Chalamet was missing Paw Patrol to attend the ceremony, but "Ryder and his team of pups saved the day, so".
The show was satirized by The Onion in a 2018 parody article; referencing police brutality in the United States, the article claimed that the show's writers defended police dog, Chase, for shooting an unarmed black lab.
In the wake of the George Floyd protests, the show was criticized for presenting a "good-cop archetype" after a post appeared on the show's Twitter account announcing that they would go dark in memory of Floyd received negative backlash. In July 2020, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany claimed the show was canceled due to "cancel culture" but the show denied any such termination.
From September 2022 to September 2023, the show was prominently featured in a special exhibit by the Canadian Museum of History titled From Pepinot to Paw Patrol – Television of Our Childhood, which showcased items and displays from the last 70 years of Canadian children's television.
In 2014, the series' theme song was nominated for Outstanding Original Song – Main Title and Promo in the 41st Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards. In 2016, the season two episode "Pups Save a Mer-Pup" was nominated for Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production for Preschool Children in the 43rd Annie Awards. As of 2024, Paw Patrol has received twenty nine Canadian Screen Award nominations with twenty four wins.
In November 2017, Ronnen Harary confirmed that Spin Master was "currently considering whether to extend the Paw Patrol franchise into feature films at some point in the next 12 to 24 months". Animation tests were conducted in 2017 to measure how the characters "would translate onto the big screen" and the company developed a film script.
On May 9, 2019, it was confirmed during Spin Master's First Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call that an animated theatrical film based on the series, titled Paw Patrol: The Movie was in the works with an August 2021 release date. On November 8, 2019, it was announced that Mikros Image in Montreal would handle the animation. Development of the film was confirmed on February 21, 2020, with Cal Brunker attached as director. Spin Master Entertainment produced the movie with an association in both Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Pictures. On April 24, 2020, the release date was announced to be August 20, 2021.
A first look at the film was shown on Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards 2021 on March 13, 2021.
It was announced on November 3, 2021, that a sequel, titled Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie, would be released on September 29, 2023.
On September 26, 2023, it was announced that a third film is in development, later titled Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie, which is scheduled to be released on July 31, 2026.
In February 2018, a video game based on the series, titled Paw Patrol: On a Roll was announced. Developed by Torus Games and published by Outright Games, it was released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Microsoft Windows on October 23, 2018. Another video game, titled Paw Patrol Mighty Pups: Save Adventure Bay, was announced on July 17, 2020. Developed by Drakhar Studio and also published by Outright Games, it was released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Stadia, and Microsoft Windows on November 6, 2020. Another video game for the film, titled PAW Patrol The Movie: Adventure City Calls was announced on June 10, 2021. Developed by Drakhar Studio and also published by Outright Games, it was released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Stadia, and Microsoft Windows on August 13, 2021. It was announced in May 2022 that Outright Games is releasing a racing game for the series titled Paw Patrol: Grand Prix. Developed by 3D Clouds and was released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, Google Stadia, and Microsoft Windows on September 30, 2022. A DLC for Grand Prix titled Race in Barkingburg was released on December 2, 2022. A new DLC added a battle arena mode title Pup Treat Arena was released on March 10, 2023. In June 2023, it was announced that a new game titled Paw Patrol World which was released on September 29, 2023. It is being developed by 3D Clouds and is released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and Microsoft Windows. A mobile game named Paw Patrol Academy was officially made and released in late 2023. The co-founder describes the game as the franchise's "first educational app". As of November 2023, it is one of the top 5 apps for kids 5 and under in the app store. Paw Patrol Academy has been awarded Google Play's Best of 2023 App for Families. The app has also been nominated for Kidscreen's Best Branded Learning App.
In April 2016, a stage show titled Paw Patrol Live: Race to the Rescue was announced. The show features the Paw Patrol characters competing in a race. It toured Canada, the United States, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia and the Philippines.
A sequel show, titled Paw Patrol Live: The Great Pirate Adventure, was announced in June 2017. It follows the Paw Patrol as they rescue Cap'n Turbot from a cavern, and it will tour the same countries as its predecessor. The shows are produced by VStar Entertainment Group, which is best known for producing the popular Sesame Street Live touring shows for 37 years.
Mascots based on the Paw Patrol characters have appeared at events across Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. They joined an "Etch A Sketch Day" celebration at Spin Master's office in Toronto on July 26, 2016. The characters, along with replicas of the Lookout tower from the program, were included as part of the Nick Jr. Play Date Tour in autumn 2015. Marshall and Chase made appearances at shopping malls throughout Nottingham, Suffolk, and Somerset in the U.K. in the summer of 2016. Multiple meet-and-greet events attracted far more attendees than expected, with some reaching over 5,000 visitors. They appeared for the first time in Northern Ireland at Glenarm Castle on July 13, 2016. They are scheduled to appear regularly in a Nickelodeon-themed area of the Thurrock's Lakeside Shopping Centre located on the outskirts of London, England.
Like many children's properties, unauthorized productions and events using copyright infringing costumes featuring the show's characters have attracted the attention of Spin Master and Nickelodeon. In February 2016, several Greene King pubs in the U.K. scheduled breakfast events with costumed characters modelled after the pups. Nickelodeon forced the chain to stop every event by threatening a lawsuit if they went ahead. There was some consumer backlash as a result, but the events were not held.
On November 3, 2021, Nickelodeon and Spin Master stated that an untitled spin-off series focusing on one of the main six pups was in development, and was set to premiere in 2023. On March 24, 2022, it was announced that the spin-off series would focus on Rubble. In November 2022, the series' title was revealed to be Rubble & Crew. Rather than Guru Studio, the spinoff is animated by Jam Filled Entertainment and premiered on February 3, 2023.
On May 18, 2014, Spin Master introduced a toy line based on the television series at Toys "R" Us locations across Canada. The line was not distributed to international markets until June 22 of the same year. Dion Vlachos was in charge of the U.S. product launch.
Paw Patrol has since become one of Spin Master's most profitable brands. Analysts for the National Bank of Canada reported that toys and games based on the show accounted for approximately $245 million U.S. (or 25 percent) of Spin Master's gross product sales for 2015. Spin Master chairman Anton Rabie noted in August 2016 that the "continuing strength" of Paw Patrol toys, in addition to new acquisitions and movie licenses, made up 40.5 per cent of the firm's second-quarter revenue. Marketing manager Emma Eden said that the toys were responsible for increasing the company's presence in the preschool market. Throughout 2016, Spin Master's revenue grew more in this market than in any other toy category. Paw Patrol has been cited as the sole reason for this.
The NPD Group named Paw Patrol the top new toy brand of 2015 in the United Kingdom. The group also reported that it was the best-selling preschool license in France in the first quarter of 2015. Dave Brandon, the chief executive officer of Toys "R" Us, listed the Paw Patroller vehicle toy as one of the 2015 holiday season's "hottest" items. Argos the U.K. catalogue retailer included the Paw Patrol Air Patroller vehicle on its list of the toys it predicts will be bestsellers during the Christmas 2016 season. In 2018, it was estimated that total retail sales to date were approximately US$7 billion.