Paw Fever began in 2013 when a boy named Ryder and his team of rescue pups became the guardians of Adventure Bay. Paw Patrol is an animated television series for pre-schoolers that’s currently in its ninth season. It’s no surprise that the popular TV show was adapted into The Paw Patrol Movie in 2021 and its sequel Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie in 2023. Screenwriters Cal Brunker and Bob Barlen scripted both movies and directing duties were assumed by Brunker. Brunker and Barlen spoke with Creative Screenwriting Magazine about their attraction to the Pup Patrollers.
“I have two little kids,” professes Cal Brunker. “We were a Paw Patrol household. When I heard that the studios were looking for takes and pitches on the Paw Patrol movies I thought I had a pretty good idea of how to tackle that from a directing standpoint. When I came into the pitch meeting with Bob Barlen, we added things from a story perspective; where we might change and grow it.” Watching his kids enjoy the show so much also helped Brunker isolate what story aspects they most connected to.
When the pair were offered the sequel, they expanded the scope of the pups into superheroes. This shift in emphasis ensured that it wasn’t a retread of the first Paw Patrol film.
Bob Barlen & Cal Brunker
Says Bob Barlen, “Turning a beloved TV series into a feature involves telling a more detailed and involved story about a character, Skye (Mckenna Grace). Making it a superhero movie allows us to contrast that big spectacle, big action with a small, personal growth story.”
Superheroes
The superhero tone leans into the tropes of the silly, goofy, cartoonish superheroes of the 60s. Many superhero films play as big ensemble pieces – as does Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie. For Cal and Bob, they were also interested in “following one character (Skye) through their journey. They have struggles, they have successes that become our struggles and our successes. And so, we really pushed this movie to make it the story of one of the characters in this group,” adds Cal.
“Thematically, what we’re looking for in these movies, is an idea that’s simple enough to be understandable and resonate with little kids, but universal enough so that adults can can project it onto their lives as well,” muses Cal. “Skye is the smallest pup who can make the biggest difference in the end. Kids often feel like they aren’t very empowered in their lives and then, as adults, we all struggle with what difference one person can make, if any. It bridged those two worlds nicely.”
Both writers are fans of big action, super hero movies, so Paw Patrol was an opportunity to make their own version of the genre. Although their movies are targeted to all age groups, Barlen explains that they are the first audience of their films so they don’t deliberately set out to exclusively make a kids’ or adult film, but rather, a family film.
Adapting The Paw-fect Movie
“In the first movie, we were really trying to figure out what the rules were in terms of how far we could push the characters,” says Brunker. The television series contains a lot of repetition of names and ideas, which is effective for pre-schoolers to understand the show. “That’s great because they can anticipate what’s coming next. They can follow.”
During the transition to animated feature film, there wasn’t room for excessive repetition. “We could do away with the repetition if our plot points were really clear. If there was anything that was confusing, we had one of the characters be confused and have it explained to them, or we had them reiterate it for our younger audiences without feeling like we’re hitting the brakes and doing the same beats again for adults,” declares Brunker.
Writing and producing an animated movie is a multi-year process. “We write the script, we go through many drafts, we storyboard, and through the storyboarding process, we are seeing the film come together as we make the animatic and add voices,” says Bob. They show the animatic to a test audience to ensure their story instincts are on track. Fortunately for them, in most cases they are.
Meet Skye And Liberty
Skye is the runt of her litter. “We tried to plant these seeds early on. That’s an insecurity she has. She gets picked up when she doesn’t want to be picked up, and that doesn’t happen to the other pups around her. She sees the other pups outgrowing their uniforms,” says Cal. “That was a theme we thought resonates with kids in their world; being smaller in the class and watching people move ahead of you.” All this changes when Skye gets superpowers from a magic crystal.
Liberty (Marsai Martin), on the other hand, has the ability to stretch, but isn’t afforded any additional superpowers from the crystals. So, she has to stay behind and take care of the Junior Patrollers. She baulks at the idea, but, in time, she performs her babysitting duties well and trains the junior canines which eventually play a key role in the film.
Mini (North West), Nano (Alan Kim) & Tot (Brice Gonzalez). Photo courtesy of Spin Master Entertainment, Nickelodeon Movies, and Paramount Pictures
“The thing about superpowers is the idea that many of us spend a lot of our lives struggling to find out what our individual thing we have to offer to the world is. So, we thought that would be great if Liberty didn’t get powers right away and she had to figure out what her superpowers are, and how to contribute without them,” says Cal. “While she’s trying to discover her superpowers, she’s trying to copy the superpowers of her friends. And it’s only once she lets go of that idea of trying to have the same powers as everybody else, she finds that she’s unique.”
Adapting an eleven-minute TV episode into a ninety-minute film allows Brunker and Barlen to explore Skye’s backstory more deeply and see where her insecurities came from and why she makes such bad life decisions.
“Liberty was an original character in the first Paw Patrol film. She’s very fun and it was also a good chance to have some comedy of pairing her up with the most unlikely companions – the Junior Patrollers. At the start, she calls them puff balls, but by the end, it becomes a term of endearment,” ponders Barlen. “We see that she’s gone through this transformation in a very positive way. We can have fun with that and have a humorous moment, but also have it rooted in something a bit more meaningful.”
What’s Up With Victoria Vance?
Every good superhero movie needs a dastardly villain. “Early on, we had a much more involved villain backstory, but we felt talking too much about them would lose a lot of the younger audience. So, we simplified them to find a nice, simple, clean story that allows you to have a more interesting main character journey within it, but to not have the plot twisting in on itself so much that would make it difficult for our youngest audience to follow,” states Cal.
Victoria “Vee” Vance (Taraji P. Henson) is the villain of the story who wants the crystals all to herself. Says Brunker, “One of the things that you see over the course of the movie, that we came to in a later draft, was this idea that even when she has been successful and got the superpowers, it becomes the quest for power that drives her more than any given objective. So, her first idea of how to use these powers is to double down and get more of them.”
Vee’s greed becomes her downfall. If she wasn’t so obsessed with pulling meteors out of space to obtain more crystals, she’d be fine. Much like Skye, Victoria is driven by insecurity. She craves respect and recognition and resents being made to feel small and insignificant. “This was a character who had wild ambition and crazy ideas over the course of her life, some of which would have been excellent, but everything was dismissed by her colleagues and by the world at large.”
Victoria Vance (Taraji P. Henson) Photo courtesy of Spin Master Entertainment, Nickelodeon Movies & Paramount Pictures
“She began to resent that and decided to pour her all of her efforts into this one thing in an effort to put herself on the map and putting herself above everybody else,” adds Bob.
Vee and Skye have a tender exchange because Skye can truly relate to Vee’s plight. In a cynical move, Vee only sees this bonding moment as Skye’s attempt to release her and relinquish the crystals she’s stolen.
Victoria is also a misunderstood loner, so she was paired with Mayor Humdinger (Ron Pardo) for comic relief after she agreed to give him one crystal after he helped her get them back. This splitting of antagonist roles dissipates some of the intensity that comes with a single evil genius villain.
Where’s Ryder?
Ryder (Finn Lee-Epp) is the CEO of Paw Patrol. Says Cal, “Ryder’s an interesting character because he’s not active in actually doing the rescues himself because we want to focus on the story of the pups. That’s where the audience’s heart is, and that’s the story we’re telling.”
Ryder (Finn Lee-Epp) Photo courtesy of Spin Master Entertainment, Nickelodeon Movies, and Paramount Pictures.
He’s more of the sage big brother character in the movie. “He’s the one who understands the responsibility of having to look after these animals and approach them from a place of kindness. We see he really demonstrates the leadership that we hopefully see emerge in the other characters. He’s always taking their feelings into consideration, especially when he lets Skye know that he doesn’t want her to come on this mission out of care for her and the team,” says Bob.
Final Thoughts
Despite its silliness, Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie carefully weaves its themes of acceptance, confidence, gratitude, teamwork, and inadequacy. “Skye has this pink bandana, which reminds her of her childhood. It’s a thing that she’s carried with her whole life, and she returns to it in times of insecurity and times of feeling like she’s not enough. And at the end of the movie, she actually lets it blow away in the wind as she’s freeing herself of this baggage she’s carried with her. So for me that’s the journey of confidence,” asserts Cal. “She hasn’t actually changed other than the way she views herself. She’s ready to let go the negative stories that she’s told about herself her whole life.”
