Paw Patrol just might be Canada’s most successful cultural export

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At this very moment, a small army of Canadian trade negotiators are in Washington, locked deep in battle with the Trump administration to save the future of cross-border commerce. With all due confidence in Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and his team, perhaps Ottawa should have also considered sending along Canada’s truly most successful and resourceful rescue-mission experts. I speak, of course, about the Paw Patrol.

After 600-plus episodes of television and two feature films (which together grossed more than $345-million at the global box office), the Canadian pups are back this weekend for a new big-screen adventure, Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie. In all likelihood, the film – produced by Toronto-based Spin Master Entertainment and distributed by homegrown industry heavyweight company Elevation Pictures – will be the biggest Canadian movie of the year at the box office, once again extending the worldwide influence of this country’s most robust cultural export.

From the archives: The Decibel: How Canadian-made PAW Patrol took over kids’ entertainment

Before Prime Minister Mark Carney gets wise to the power of Marshall, Chase, Rocky, Zuma, Skye and Rubble, The Globe and Mail sat down with The Dino Movie director Cal Brunker (back for his third Paw Patrol feature) and Spin Master vice-president Toni Stevens to talk about Canadian culture’s somewhat secret success story.

There was a tight turnaround between the first film and the second, just 26 months. This one, it’s a little longer – nearly three years – but relatively compressed compared with other major animated franchises. How did the team manage that in terms of production?

Toni Stevens: Our schedules and our budgets are just tighter than our friends in different companies. So, we tend to have to be a little bit, I don’t want to say smarter, but more clever in how we produce our movies in the timelines that we have.

Cal Brunker: The movie was better for the extra time that we had – we were able to do some more ambitious set pieces than previously. And we also had to design a whole new world for this film and make the dinosaurs inside of that world look right. It wasn’t quite trial and error, but there were a lot of new discoveries along the way, which added extra time to the schedule.

Whenever we talk about properties such as Paw Patrol, I can’t help but get into a chicken and egg scenario. As in, what comes first here: Developing the toys that the movie will feature, or developing the feature and seeing what toys can be extracted from that?

Stevens: We are always story-first. We know we’re going to end up having the luxury of supporting our movie with toys at the end, but there is a lot of conversation around how that is going to look like in the story. I mean, dinosaurs obviously resonate with everybody, in particular kids ...

Brunker: After the first year of writing, we start working with the toy team and meet on a weekly basis. They’re pitching us new inventions for inclusion in the movie, new vehicles, that kind of thing. And then we’re asked if we think it would work. Or we’re asking them, “hey, we have this sequence, is there something involved in it that you can figure out and use for your end?” When you’re making a movie like this, a kids action movie, it’s like playing with toys in your mind anyway, right?

Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie grows from its Canadian roots to aim for world domination

Cal, you’ve now gone through the process of three Paw Patrol films with your fellow Torontonian, co-writer Bob Barlen. How has the process evolved for you?

Brunker: We’ve maybe got it down over time to finding a theme that can really resonate with both the youngest audiences and hopefully the grown-ups who are taking them to the theatres. This movie is about the power of perseverance, about embracing mistakes as part of the learning process. Writing these films, I always think about what I would love my own kids to learn, and it works well if it’s also a message that I probably need to be reminded of, too.

Do you feel that audiences, both here and abroad, are aware of just how much of a made-in-Canada story the Paw Patrol franchise is?

Brunker: I don’t think so. I’m biased for sure, but there’s so much pride on our team with this. It’s written by Canadians; Spin Master is Canadian. We do the animation at Mikros in Montreal. We have artists spread all over the country. It really is a Canadian success story, and one that appeals to the rest of the world. We should lean into that as a source of pride.

Stevens: I wish that Canadians really understood how proudly Canadian we are, and how much we’ve tried to protect Paw Patrol, to keep it Canadian. And while we work with Mikros on the feature film, we work with other Canadian animation studios on the series, too.

Brunker: Hundreds and hundreds of artists for multiple years have jobs in this country because of these movies. So, to keep the animation industry in this country thriving is a real point of pride.

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One thing that is noticeable during this film is representation. Rex is a new pup who uses a wheelchair. Many characters are people of colour. It seems to be a more intentional than other mainstream animated fare.

Brunker: It’s a hugely important thing to all of us. We believe that everyone should be able to see themselves on screen. And it’s something that we think about from very early in the process, both on and off the screen. It was important for the character of Rex, for instance, who is voiced by Hayden Chamberlain, and who uses a wheelchair in real life. We want audiences to feel well represented.

Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie opens in theatres Aug. 14.

This interview has been condensed and edited.