Review: PAW Patrol – “Pups and the Pirate Treasure”

 

Spoilers Below

Since my daughter is in middle school, it has been quite awhile since I’ve watched any of the preschool shows on Nick or Nick Jr. PAW Patrol is a Nick Jr show that airs on Nickelodeon. The final episode of the first season aired at 8:30PM Monday night. I have never understood why Nickelodeon premieres preschool episodes in time slots after their target age group’s bedtime. This isn’t the first time they have done it. I remember going through the routine of promising my daughter that I would record her show and she could watch it the next day. One would think that Nick would know better, but this isn’t likely to be the last time they do it.

I’ve never seen an episode of Paw Patrol so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. After the first few minutes, however, I immediately thought it was like the old Rescue Heroes show from the late 90s to early 00s but with dogs in the hero roles. I wasn’t far off. Ryder is the 10-year old human leader of the six hero pups. He takes the assignments and figures out which of the pups are needed to finish the job. The six pups are Marshall (the fire rescue dalmatian), Rubble (the construction bulldog), Rocky (the mixed breed recycler), Skye (the flying Cockapoo), Zuma (the water-based chocolate Labrador), and Chase (the police German shepherd). Each dog has their own vehicle and a backpack of gadgets that go with their specialty.

In this particular episode, the pups start off having to rescue Cap’n Turbot, who fell down a hole while taking pictures of a Blue-footed booby. At first, Ryder sends Rubble and Chase to the job. However, once they find a pirate treasure map, Ryder calls the rest of the gang in to help track down the rest of the map pieces and find the treasure.

I was extremely impressed by the show. Granted, the character and vehicle designs are obviously geared towards toy production. However, that doesn’t necessarily make it bad. The designs and the animation are very well done. In addition, the storyline was both engaging and interesting. I found myself wanted to watch the episode all the way to the end. Most of the time, I want to turn children’s programming off within the first five minutes. (Yes, I am looking at you, Spongebob Squarepants.) Even my 12-year old daughter, who is pretty much a teenager already, got into the show. And any children’s cartoon that can get both my daughter and I to look forward to the outcome of the episode gets a good grade from me.

By the way, our favorite dog is Rocky. That dog has everything you could ever need. Go Rocky!