The Decibel - How Canadian-made PAW Patrol took over kids’ entertainment

Episode Date: October 6, 2023

For over a decade now, the rescue pups of PAW Patrol have been an obsession for toddlers around the world. And now, the box office is responding too — last week, its second feature film had the largest opening for a Canadian movie in more than a decade. This kids franchise is a big business. And it’s Canadian.Barry Hertz is the Globe’s deputy Arts editor and Film editor. And he is on the show to talk about the recent success of PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie and how a Canadian toy company struck gold with this brand.Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at [e-mail]

There has been some big news in the Canadian film industry this past week. So I went to speak to a special guest. Okay, so for today's show, I wanted to get an expert on the subject that we're working on. So she's really busy. So I decided to go to where she's at, which is at her house in her room. So I'm here. I've reached her. Hello. Hi. This is my daughter. She's three. And there's one thing that she's really a specialist in. First, I want to ask you,

what is your favorite show to watch? Paw Patrol. Oh, Paw Patrol. Why do you like Paw Patrol? Because it's my favorite movie. Oh, so you like the movie and the show? Yeah. My daughter loves this franchise. She's obsessed with the female dog, Skye. She has Paw Patrol PJs, Paw Patrol soap, Paw Patrol shampoos. She even shouts the Paw Patrol catchphrases out in public.

Chase is on the case! Puppy night's gotta fly! Okay, here's the thing. Paw Patrol is banned in my home. Because I've heard it's annoying. But still, she knows about it. Um, so are you aware that there is a new Paw Patrol movie out right now? Oh. Oh. Are you gonna go see it? Yeah. knows about it. So are you aware that there is a new Paw Patrol movie out right now?

Oh. Are you going to go see it? Yeah. I am. Are you excited? Yeah. The newest Paw Patrol movie, which was released on Friday last week, has proven that it's not just a toy and television powerhouse. It's now also a serious movie franchise. And to understand how a Canadian company has reached this level of success, we're actually talking to Barry Hertz. He's the Globe's Deputy Arts Editor. I'm Cheryl Sutherland, and this is The Decibel from The Globe and Mail. Barry, thanks so much for being here today. Thank you very much for having me.

This is going to be possum. Oh, we're bringing out the puns already? Okay, doggone it. I didn't really bring in too many, but... Nice. Okay, so let's get into it. So as the film editor, I think it's fair to say that you are a connoisseur of good taste, if you will.

So you know art when you see it. So what was it about the newest Paw Patrol movie that caught your eye? Well, it was probably not something that caught my eye, but maybe that was pulling at my sleeve, which would be one of the hands of one of my three children. I mean, we are a Paw Patrol household, so I've lived with Paw Patrol for the past nine years because my eldest is nine years old. It's a relationship built upon obligation, distraction,

and maybe even a little bit of entertainment. Okay, so just in case some listeners have not seen Paw Patrol, I think we should get them up to speed. So what is this all about? and a little bit of entertainment. Okay, so just in case some listeners have not seen Paw Patrol, I think we should get them up to speed. So what is this all about? So Paw Patrol started off as a television show with very short 11-minute episodes detailing the adventures of Ryder, who is a 10-year-old boy with unlimited resources

and technological know-how. Adventure City's in trouble. Come on, pups, pack your things. He has a crew of five talking puppies. No city's too big, no pups too small. Who are all each experts in their own field of rescue. There is Marshall. There is Chase.

There's Rubble. There's Sky. And then there's poor old Zuma, always relegated to the background. I'm not quite sure what Zuma does. Something involving like a hovercraft of some sort. Oh, and Rocky. There's Rocky, who's the recycling dog. Anyway, so all these dogs get into all kinds of crazy rescue adventures. Somebody, you know, loses a slipper in Adventure Bay. They got to go find it. There's a sea turtle who needs to cross the road. Ryder and his pups are on the case.

These are low stakes here. These are low stake adventures. Nobody is in mortal danger because these are preschool targeted audiences that we're talking about. And they have so many toys and merchandise that even if you've never seen a second of Paw Patrol on Netflix or YouTube or TVO, you have definitely seen a member of the Paw Patrol in your peripheral vision at the supermarket, at People can say I'm an evil mother for this. But I absolutely know all of the characters, so you're not wrong there.

I also want to say, Barry, I have a big smile because it's very funny to me that these two adults are talking very seriously about Paw Patrol. But it is super important to talk about this. I think there could be a whole philosophical symposium about Paw Patrol if we really wanted to get into it. I mean, it is a cultural phenomenon. It's important for Canadian

business because it's a huge made in Canada success story. And it's important for the entertainment industry in general, because it proves that animation is still a dominant force and has a lot of power in the market. And, you know, it of course is a funnel for merchandising. So it's basically just a giant toy commercial in which afterward your child will want their very own Ryder and Rubble and all those guys. So, you know, it can be a real big money suck for parents with very little disciplinary inclinations such as myself. Yeah, and we'll get into the merchandise in a bit, but I want to talk about the money. Exactly how profitable and how widespread is this brand really? I mean, we're talking about an industry that is a multi-billion dollar kind of enterprise.

Billion with a B. Billion with a B. This show reaches 350 million homes worldwide in 180 countries, translated into 30 languages. It's been around for a little bit more than a decade. And that's just the television property. The reaches of the merch and the brand outside of that are immeasurable. Wow. Wow.

And how much money did it make at the box office on its opening weekend? We're talking about this new movie. When our world is threatened. One team. How much money did it make at the box office on its opening weekend? We're talking about this new movie. When our world is threatened, one team is ready to launch. Does he say launch? No, I said launch. Right. So Paw Patrol, the mighty movie, which we can also call Paw Patrol 2, just to make things simple.

So that took in $23 million U.S. to come out number one at the North American box office this weekend. That's about double what the first movie earned in its opening weekend. You've got to think that this thing is just going to power through for the next several weeks because there's very little competition in the children's marketplace. This is really the only kind of kid-aimed movie that's going to be in theaters from now until about U.S. Thanksgiving. And it's also a very impressive opening for a Canadian movie as well. Yeah, I mean, a Canadian movie hasn't had this big of a North American opening at the box office in more than a decade. And to go back to that, you'd have to go to one of the Resident Evil movies. And it is kind of a Canadian film with an asterisk because that Resident Evil movie we're talking about, Afterlife,

was a Canadian-German co-production, whereas Paw Patrol is a very much made-in-Canada thing. The intellectual property is owned by Spin Master, which is a Canadian company. It was directed by a Canadian, written by a Canadian, featuring the voices of Canadian performers and was animated largely in Canada. Wow. You touched on this earlier, but I really want to kind of break down what's going on here. Like, how do you explain its mass appeal? I think it happens to do with a little bit of great moments in timing and history in the children's entertainment market. And as anything, luck. You know, it got started in 2012. This was just before kind of streaming became, you know, a dominant force. And it grew. It was a very simple format.

It had very recognizable characters, and they were able to turn around episodes pretty quickly. And it has that theme song again, Paw Patrol, Paw Patrol, we'll be there on the double. Paw Patrol, Paw Patrol, we'll be there on the double. And once it was successful in its North American launch, it was very easy to pick up around the world. And then once the streamers come into play, they need children's entertainment to kind of pump through their system and keep their subscriber base happy. And now all of a sudden you have a phenomenon that children probably just associate wholly with Netflix, even though Netflix has really nothing to do with it.

Okay. So we mentioned the toys, the merchandise. It's everywhere. I mean, it feels like it's everywhere. For example, I saw that there's this Marshall yogurt. There's Paw Patrol potties. Not so delicious. Any type of clothing, any toothbrush.

It's just, it's everywhere. So what came first? Was it the toys or was it the television show? The old action figure in the chicken question. No, I mean, the television show was developed first. There were no toys on the shelves before this thing premiered. But they were intending to make a product that they could then merchandise off of. Interesting.

So Spin Master, I'm going to mangle the saying they have, but I think it's screen before shelf. So everything gets on the screen. Then they make the product of it kind of in tandem. But it's true. The first time Paw Patrol aired, there was no merchandise. There was no toys. And then that followed through. And we should remind people that Spin Master is the company that is behind Paw Patrol.

Yes. So Spin Master is the children's entertainment behemoth that is behind Paw Patrol. They previously had a lot of success with something called Bakugan, which was kind of about transforming monster dragon things that could be in balls and such like that. But Paw Patrol, I would say, is their cash cow, cash puppy. Really and truly, Barry, the point here is to sell toys. Oh, totally. I mean, they're not making a television show just from the standpoint of putting out high-quality entertainment. But that's kind of a formula built into any modern entertainment product, certainly ones that are aimed at children. Disney isn't just making a Cars movie

from Pixar out of the goodness of their heart to entertain the masses and then leave it be and have children say, where's my car toy? They're Like, sorry, we don't make that. We just want to give you the movie. That's it. No, it's all part of a tentacle business operation that feeds into one another. You know, the rights between merchandise are interesting in Paw Patrol's case because they have this big partner in the U.S., which is Nickelodeon, which is owned by Paramount, which is owned by Viacom. So I believe the way they first kind of arranged the rights, and this may have changed in the interim, was that Spidmaster got to keep the toy rights and the Canadian rights and Nickelodeon could have the merch rights that didn't involve toys, everything like bedsheets, stuff like that. But they all get a cut of each other's cut. So it's a mutually beneficial situation. It's all about the money. It's all about the money. It's all about the money.

We'll be right back. Okay, so Barry, here's one thing that I'm trying to puzzle out. So if Spin Master has this undisputed success with its toys and its television show, why make movies when they can be so expensive? Well, they can be expensive or they can be done very affordably. Pixar, for instance, just to name kind of, you know, the leader in children's entertainment when you think of quality, when you think of- Beautiful animation. Yeah, exactly. Beautiful animation, beautiful stories. They do all kinds of tinkering, which takes years and takes money.

These movies, Paw Patrol, they're made primarily by television producers who are used to working on very tight timelines, working with overlapping projects. And they're not throwing a lot of money at the wall with these. There are reports floating around out there that the sequel costs about $30 million to make. Whereas a Pixar movie, a big Disney movie, we're talking about $100 million, hundreds of million dollars. That's a big difference. Yes, it's a big difference. So why are they getting into the movie business? Because there's money to be made there.

Because it exposes the brand to that much of a wider audience. I mean, look, we're talking about it. Would we be talking about Paw Patrol if there wasn't a feature film element to it? Probably not. Probably not. Maybe you and I would talk about it on a park bench where all the children went crazy, but we wouldn't be talking about it in a national news organization, and people certainly wouldn't be talking about it the way they are after the box office results this week.

Also helping matters is that it expands and holds on to their target audience of children. The Paw Patrol movies are very cleverly crafted in that they appeal to the sensibility of the preschooler who knows the television show, knows those characters, knows those property, and also to their older siblings who remember it but want something a little bit more action-packed, a little bit more adrenaline-fueled. And that's what the movies really provide.

We have to really be careful about distinguishing between the television show and the movie because the movies are, all things considered, quite leveled up productions in all senses from the television show. Explain. So how so? Better animation. It's all created from scratch for the movie. Nothing was taken from the television show.

Oh, that's interesting. They built it differently. It looks better. And the stories are, you know, it's not an 11-minute thing. It's, you know, an 80- to 90-minute narrative with a three-act structure. You know, this new one plays on the superhero kind of movies that, you know, children see their older siblings consuming and are very interested in. So the stakes are a little bit higher.

The action is more frequent and more impressive. There are original songs made by, you know, big pop stars. I will say this as a personal anecdote. You know, I have three children, ages nine, three and a half, and two. And all three of them sat in front of this movie completely engaged. And as you said, this is not the first Paw Patrol movie. There was one back in 2021, and then there was also a shorter one in 2019. But this iteration is much more

successful. Why is that? Well, the 2019 version was really just like a 45 minute, 50 minute stretched out version of the television show. The 2021 movie was something different, something much bigger, though it happened to come out just at the tail end of pandemic restrictions. So theatrical audience wasn't really quite there. And also in the States, because of that same situation, it was released the same day in theaters as it was on Paramount Plus to stream. So that's why partly the box office for the sequel is so much greater than the box office for the first film. Is it also, is it more like widely released in theaters?

Yeah. I mean, it's got a huge theatrical release in North America. In Canada, I believe it was on about 435 screens, which is the largest number of screens for a Canadian release in Canada, like a Canadian film being released in Canada since 2011 when Goon was released. And, you know, this isn't the end of the Paw Patrol movie franchise because a few days before the second movie opened, they announced that they had greenlit a third film, which will be coming in 2026 and which work has already commenced

on. So, you know, there's kind of secret genius to these films as well, is that they're making the next one even before the first one is out the door. What does Paw Patrol's success here tell us about the kids' movie market? It tells us that kids,

particularly the parents who buy the tickets for the children, are kind of starved for content. I hate using that word content. Let's say releases. Because really you have maybe one children's movie that comes out now every, let's say, once every three months. And sometimes it's a big hit, like Super Mario Brothers. Sometimes it gets lost in the shuffle, like that Ruby Gilman Teenage Kraken movie, which nobody believes exists.

But trust me, it exists. It came out in the spring. Just nobody paid attention. Spin and Paramount were very selective about this theatrical release date because they sensed that absence in the market and that hole in the market that was not going to be filled for several weeks.

And this weekend, this past weekend, was really big for the movie. I think this upcoming weekend is going to be just as big. So already I've seen my Facebook parents' groups going, when can I see the Paw Patrol playing at the Yorkdale Cinema? I have my kid tomorrow. I don't know what to do with them. So it's going to have a long tail.

And then looking at this from the context of Canada's film sector, what should we make of the fact that one of the most successful Canadian movies in the last decade is Paw Patrol? Let's take our successes where we can find them.

Okay. I mean, there's always kind of the perennial complaint when it comes to Canadian film is that they're never making movies that I want to see. And then when there's a Canadian film that's successful, but doesn't look Canadian, quote unquote, it's like, oh, this is a Canadian movie. This is the story we're supposed to be telling. So which is it, guy? What do you want? I would say it is bursting with Canadian values of helping community and being kind to

one another. There's nothing particularly culturally specific about it either, which is very important in children's entertainment because that means you can sell it around the world. It's keeping Canadians gainfully employed, Canadian artists. It's boosting our animation industry, which is world-renowned. Let's celebrate it. That's a good point to bring out. Yeah. Okay, Barry, just to end, I think I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you this. Since you do review films, out of five paws, how many paws would you give this movie?

Well, this is a controversial topic because we got rid of star ratings, as you may know, in film reviews. But we didn't get rid of paws. We didn't get rid of paws. Good point. I would give this a solid three paws out of five. Wow. And importantly, what would your kids give it? Oh, they've demanded to watch it many, many times over.

They'd give it 10 paws out of five. They'd give it an infinite amount of paws. Infinity plus one. That sounds about right. So is the moral of the story is that I should lighten up as a mom and legalize Paw Patrol in my house? Yeah, I think you should end the PAW Patrol prohibition, the PAW-hibition in your household, because at least for the movies, let's say this, maybe not the television show, but if you ever need, you know, a solid like half hour

to do something, then you could find a whole lot worse than the PAW Patrol movies. Barry, thank you so much. It's been really fun and truly enlightening. I'm learning some stuff you could find a whole lot worse than the Paw Patrol movies. Barry, thank you so much. It's been really fun and truly enlightening. I'm learning some stuff about how to be a mom. Oh, good. So we can start a parenting podcast after this. Thanks so much, Barry.

Thanks for having me. That's it for today. I'm Cheryl Sutherland. A special thanks to my daughter. You're welcome. Our producers are Madeline White and Rachel Levy-McLaughlin. David Crosby edits the show. Adrian Chung is our senior producer and Angela Pachenza is our executive editor. Thanks so much for listening and have a great long weekend.