Apparently There's a PAW Patrol Multiverse Now
With Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse earning huge critical and financial success, it's no surprise that other animated films will be taking some inspiration from the franchise in the near future. After all, you can draw a pretty straight line from some of the cool, experimental things they did with the animation in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and what Dreamworks did earlier this year with Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. Multiverses have also become more popular since the first Spider-Verse movie hit, whether it be in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, DC's current and future offerings, or outside of the superhero space with things like Everything Everywhere All at Once.
But we will admit: PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie was not where we expected to see the multiverse pop up next. That said, it seems to be the case. Based on the trailer and synopsis for the upcoming film, it seems likely that the PAW Patrol movies do not take place in the same timeline as the PAW Patrol TV show.
Yes, really. We'll start with the biggest and most obvious thing: PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie appears to be just a theatrical remake (with some substantial changes) of the TV movie PAW Patrol: Mighty Pups.
In PAW Patrol: Mighty Pups, released in 2018, a meteor crashed in Adventure Bay, and while trying to clean up the mess, the PAW Patrol developed super powers, apparently from proximity to the meteor. Series antagonist Mayor Humdinger and his nephew Harold learned of the incredible abilities the meteor could bestow, and conspired to steal it, becoming super villains. Harold, a super-scientist, built a giant robot, and the PAW Patrol ended up destroying it in the end, leaving Harold and Mayor Humdinger to clean the scrap metal off the beach.
According to the official synopsis for the new film, "When a magical meteor crash lands in Adventure City, it gives the PAW Patrol pups superpowers, transforming them into The MIGHTY PUPS! For Skye, the smallest member of the team, her new powers are a dream come true. But things take a turn for the worse when the pups' archrival Humdinger breaks out of jail and teams up with Victoria Vance, a meteor-obsessed mad scientist, to steal the superpowers and turn themselves into supervillains. With the fate of Adventure City hanging in the balance, the Mighty Pups have to stop the supervillains before it's too late, and Skye will need to learn that even the smallest pup can make the biggest difference."
Obviously, there are some differences here -- not just that Harold is nowhere to be seen, replaced by another mad scientist character, but also that the meteor crashes in Adventure City -- the major metropolis first seen in 2021's PAW Patrol: The Movie -- and that this version of the PAW Patrol will include Liberty, a new character introduced in PAW Patrol: The Movie. Still, it's...basically the exact same premise. And given how formulaic and repetitive PAW Patrol (and, indeed, most kids' media) can be, you could be forgiven for thinking "Well, it's fine. The same thing just happened twice."
Except that it wasn't just twice. The "Mighty Pups" sub-series has been a semi-regular feature on PAW Patrol, with two collections of episodes coming to DVD and presented as, basically, sequels to the original Mighty Pups movie. And while PAW Patrol is a pretty epsodic show with a very loose sense of continuity, one thing that stays pretty consistent is that they don't spend a lot of time re-establishing things that have already happened. Following the events of the original Mighty Pups, subsequent "Mighty Pups" episodes have always accepted that, yes, that happened, and we are all on the same page.
Not so in the PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie trailer. There, the team are shocked to learn that they have super powers and, at least at first, baffled by the asteroid altogether. And since the asteroid here is falling in the city, you can't even make the argument that those scenes could be flashbacks taken out of context. No, unless something is significantly misrepresented in the movie's trailer, the PAW Patrol as it exists in PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie is not a team that has experienced super powers before this point.
Okay, so...The Mighty Movie doesn't take place in the same world as the TV show, apparently. Does that mean both movies don't take place in that timeline? Or is The Mighty Movie just a stand-alone spinoff? We're going to go with the former, and we've got some evidence to back us up.
Credit for this one goes to the YouTube channel Skip Intro, who did a deep dive into PAW Patrol as part of his "Copaganda" series of videos. Something he pointed out is that Chase, the police dog, never actually arrests anyone in PAW Patrol. He is presented as a preventative measure and a helper to the community, just like the other pups. Punishment isn't his thing.
Except in one case.
At the end of PAW Patrol: The Movie, Chase places Mayor Humdinger under arrest for gross negligence, public endangerment, and dognapping. Humdinger tries to escape, but fails, and during the credits, he an his evil band of cats (called the Catastophe Crew in the world of the show) are seen in custody, with Humdinger stripped of his role as mayor of Adventure City.
Going back to the synopsis for the upcoming Mighty Movie, it doesn't refer to Humdinger as "Mayor Humdinger" anymore, but just by his last name. This is in spite of the fact that episodes of the show that have come out since 2021, he has apparently returned to his role as mayor of Foggy Bottom, the depressing town that serves as a rival to Adventure Bay. In at least two episodes since then, including one "Mighty Pups" episode, he has been referred to as "Mayor" in the title of the episode.
Again -- the show has a pretty loose continuity, so ordinarily it's easy to ignore that kind of thing. But besides being just "Humdinger" in the new film's synopsis, it also says something key: "Humdinger breaks out of jail." That suggests that he has been in custody since his arrest in 2021, meaning that his numerous PAW Patrol appearances in the time since cannot possibly be canon to the big-screen movies. Since the episodes generally end with something not unlike Humdinger and Harold forced to clean up their robot mess, and not with an actual arrest, it seems as though the laws and consequences for breaking them are...let's say a bit more forgiving?...in the TV show.
This leaves us with no other choice, but to assume that while PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie is a direct sequel to PAW Patrol: The Movie, it takes place in a totally different reality from the TV show. That seemingly pulls the original movie out of continuity and into this new world, too -- although that is complicated somewhat.
In the time since 2021, Liberty has become a recurring character on PAW Patrol, suggesting that some version of the events of PAW Patrol: The Movie took place in the TV timeline. How that works, exactly, is anybody's guess. Maybe that's the moment where the two universes splinter? If we get any more information that helps dig deeper into the Paw Patrol Multiverse, we'll check back here.
PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie is in theaters on September 29.
