Skye has felt unappreciated by her friends. In order to prove that she can be an asset to the team, she finally gets her chance when a meteor falls into Adventure City, giving the pups superpowers and transforming them into the Mighty Pups. Mayor Humdinger escapes from prison and returns for more vengeance against the pups, teaming up with a meteor expert named Victoria Vance to steal their crystals. Now, it's up to the Mighty Pups to prevent supervillains Humdinger and Vance from wreaking havoc with their meteor powers against Adventure City (once again) before its too late.
Plans for a sequel to PAW Patrol: The Movie began in August 2021, when Brunker stated that he was interested in making a sequel after the success of its predecessor. It was officially greenlit by Spin Master Entertainment in November 2021 with a planned release date of October 13, 2023, with Brunker returning to direct. However, the date was changed to September 29, 2023 and it plans to be released in theaters. It was accompanied by a Dora short film meant to introduce the upcoming CGI reboot show which would air on Paramount+.
A third film was greenlit and is currently scheduled to be released in 2026.
Previews: Official Trailer
This film contains examples of:
- 11th-Hour Superpower: Liberty spends a majority of the film trying to find out what her superpower is. She finally gets it (elasticity) when she saves herself and Chase from falling off a cliff.
- Adapted Out: Downplayed. Everest and Tracker don't physically appear in this film, but they do make a cameo as pictures on Ryder's (second) pajama set.
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In the series, Skye was never really bothered by the fact that she was the smallest of the pups. Here, it's shown to weigh on her, and she is said to have been the smallest pup in her litter as well.
- Adaptational Superpower Change:
- In the episode (Mighty Pups, Super Paws: Pups Save a Mega Mayor) when Mayor Humdinger gets super powers he turns into a dumb purple Expy of The Incredible Hulk. Here his power is turning into a giant who rampages across the city to stop the Paw Patrol and is fully aware of it.
- Zuma is seen really Making a Splash by turning into water rather than just firing it from his paws. He never displayed this power in the cartoon.
- Rubble appears to have his secondary charged-up wrecking ball powers as opposed to his primary Super-Strength from the series.
- Rocky had a tool-oriented Hard Light constructs in the series, but he has Magnetism Manipulation (in the form of Mind over Matter) in the movie.
- Skye’s flight powers are less whirlwind oriented and more of a Flying Brick in the movie.
- Adaptational Wimp: Downplayed. Ryder's supersuit in this film lacks a Jet Pack, unlike the series where any rescue involved the Mighty Pups. But, he's shown to be capable of dodging Victora's lightning bolts.
- All Your Powers Combined: Skye takes all of the other pups’ Power Crystals to take on Victoria Vance herself. Later on, the pups give her their crystals to help her take on the incoming meteors.
- Answer Cut: When Ryder wonders who would want to steal a giant magnet, we see Victoria Vance attaching said magnet to a giant device in her Establishing Character Moment.
- Attention Whore: A Fatal Flaw for both Victoria and Humdinger that causes problems for them at different points:
- Victoria gets herself arrested early on in the movie because, while using the her Meteor Magnet to try and draw a meteor closer to earth, she filmed herself during the whole thing and provided evidence of her actions when it inevitably crashed into the town and destroyed the PAW Patrol Adventure City base. In fact, Victoria rants to a captured Skye that the whole reason she wants to use her machine to send meteors into the city is because she is sick of people always brushing her aside and calling her a "mad scientist".
- As soon as he and Victoria have escaped from prison, Mayor Humdinger has the brilliant idea to immediately address the city about his return, which not only get him a noticeably but very understandably negative reception, but alerts everyone to the fact that he has escaped from prison. His superpower is also based off of this trope, as it turns him into a 50 foot tall Mayor Monster that rampages through the City.
- Avoid the Dreaded G Rating: The movie is rated PG for "mild action and peril" marking the first time EVER that a movie based on a preschool show has gotten that rating. note
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Mayor Humdinger gets ahold of one of the Power Crystals, making him grow into a giant.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Marshall, who is a Nice Guy in general and has a desire to help others, has no problem burning a giant Humdinger (though it's Justified since he captured him) and attacking Victoria with fireballs.
- Big Damn Heroes: The Junior Patrollers in the crucial takedown of giant Mayor Humdinger, thanks to the Training from Hell that Liberty put them through.
- Big "NO!": Victoria gets two when Zuma takes her crystal necklace and when Rubble destroys her meteor magnet.
- Big "WHAT?!": This is Ryder's response when Chase tells him that Skye took the remaining crystals and goes off to face Victoria.
- Blowing a Raspberry: One of Humdinger’s kittens (specifically Kitten Chase) blows one at Skye before leaving her Depowered on a plane that’s about to crash.
- Bond One-Liner: "If you mess with a fire pup, you're gonna get burned!"
- Call-Back: Victoria tries to pull a supernatural meteor to the earth and claim it for herself. Looks like she got that idea from The Copycat.
- Calling Your Attacks: During the final battle with Victoria, Ryder calls out the names of the Paw Patrol one by one, so that Chase can use his Super-Speed to pass around a crystal to each teammate, thus allowing the entire team to use their powers against Victoria.
- Can't Catch Up: This happens to Liberty; when the pups all acquire superpowers from the crystals, she appears to be the only one that doesn't. She spends much of the movie trying to compensate for this. Turns out that she does have one: she can elasticate her body to enormous length, but this only becomes clear by a lucky accident. After that she uses it enthusiastically.
- Citywide Evacuation:
- When the first meteor is about to hit Adventure City in the beginning, Ryder and the Paw Patrol tell the citizens to go inside the nearest buildings and get out of the streets so they're not in its path, and the pups spend several minutes personally making sure that every citizen near them is able to make it inside a building.
- When Skye needs to land a plane that's about to crash, the longest street is also the busiest, so before they can turn it into a runway, the pups tell the citizens to evacuate the streets, with Marshall saying, "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here!"
- Finally, when a meteor shower is about to hit the city, and it's not certain yet whether or not Skye can destroy the meteors, the Paw Patrol tells the citizens to evacuate the city entirely, so the citizens have to get to nearby docks or beaches.
- The Chains of Commanding: A subtle example, as Ryder isn't the focus of this movie like Skye is, but this movie shows the difficulties Ryder has as a leader, as he ends up having to make some "unpopular decisions". Since Liberty (apparently) doesn't have a superpower like the others, Ryder has to ask her to stay behind and look after the Junior Patrollers. Later, after Skye's crystal is stolen, Ryder has to (temporarily) cancel the Junior Patroller program and ask Skye to stay behind from the crystal retrieval mission, all for the sake of their own safety. Unfortunately, Skye mistakenly assumes that Ryder has lost faith in her, so she tries to get her crystal back all by herself.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: When the Paw Patrol get superpowers from the meteor crystals, they get new suits with a different theme color for each of them:
- Marshall—Red
- Zuma and Liberty—Orange
- Rubble—Yellow
- Rocky—Green
- Chase—Blue
- Skye—Pink
- As for the Junior Patrollers, Nano wears a blue uniform, Mini wears yellow and Tot wears red.
- Continuity Nod:
- In the previous film, Skye's copter/plane gets mangled after ramming it into the Cloud Catcher, and wonders if Ryder has any insurance to fix it. It looks like he does have some and managed to repair it since Skye is seen piloting it at the beginning of the film during a rescue at a junkyard.
- After escaping jail, some of the citizens spot Humdinger and remind him of his controversial actions in the first film.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Like Chase in the first film, Skye confronts her fears and doubts caused by her Dark and Troubled Past, but the pups respond in opposite ways. In the first movie, Chase's inner demons left him paralyzed with fear and unable to act when he was needed; here, Skye's inner demons make her reckless and desperate to prove herself by taking actions that put herself and others in danger.
- Cool Car: As Janet from J&H Scrapyard explains to her goldfish Bruno at the beginning, the Paw Patrol are "cute little puppies who drive around in cars!" She says she realizes that sounds a little weird, but she asks Bruno to just go with it. However, the Paw Patrol has a wide variety of vehicles, in addition to cars:
- Marshall—Fire truck
- Zuma—Boat/Car hybrid
- Liberty—Motorcycle
- Rubble—Construction vehicle
- Rocky—Recycling truck
- Chase—Police car
- Skye—Plane
- Cue the Flying Pigs: When Ryder tells Liberty that they have to (temporarily) end the Junior Patrollers Program, he asks "Do you want to tell them, or should I?", and that's when the JPs approach the two, leading to Ryder telling them himself.
- Darker and Edgier: There's a reason the movie got a PG rating. It's even darker than the original, with Skye nearly dying before Ryder makes her part of the crew during her backstory, Victoria Vance being one of the most diabolical and dangerous villains in the franchise's 10 year history, the climax involving an enormous meteor shower that could’ve taken out the entirety of Adventure City and all of the people inside of it if it had not been able to have been stopped in time and Skye nearly dying again when she rams into a giant meteor, causing a massive explosion, causing her to lose consciousness, fall into the ocean and nearly drown. Luckily the power of all seven crystals manages to save her from drowning and empower her to fly out of the ocean unharmed.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Skye's backstory is even sadder than Chase's. She was born on a farm, where she was The Runt at the End of a litter. She was the last to get any food and to get picked for adoption (or in some cases not picked at all). When she saw Ryder for the first time, she decided to take matters into her own paws and chase after him. In the cold blizzard, and nearly dies of hypothermia when Ryder finds her.
- David Versus Goliath: When a giant Humdinger corners Ryder and the Pups at a construction site, the Junior Patrollers come to their rescue, with Tot operating a nearby crane and Mini and Nano being the distraction and making Humdinger sneeze, stunning him temporarily, long enough for Marshall to grab the crystal.
- Deer in the Headlights: Skye freezes on the spot when she sees the meteor heading towards her path before Ryder manages to get her out of the way.
- Depower: Victoria creates a false rescue so she can take Skye’s crystal, leaving her powerless. On a plane that’s about to crash. Later on, Skye takes the pups’ crystals to take on the Mad Scientist, which left them powerless for a good while.
- Determinator: When a younger Skye sees Ryder for the first time, she decides to go after him, during a snowstorm. She still kept on pushing through despite the freezing temperature and her small size. Her determination is the reason why Ryder started his "No job's too big, no pup's too small" Catchphrase.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Liberty becomes a more "family-friendly" version of this when training Nano, Mini, and Tot; she doesn't insult them, but she does make them do a lot of exercise while giving them orders through a megaphone. It actually pays off, as the pups develop from "messing up their training exercises" to "successfully extinguishing a fire" and even "refusing to take breaks in favor of more exercise", and they later prove useful in the battle against Humdinger.
- Elemental Shapeshifter: Other than blasting water from his paws, Zuma can turn into water, which proves to be very versatile in the climax.
- Enemy Rising Behind: A rare heroic example. Zuma rises behind Victoria on a water vortex before overwhelming her long enough to take her necklace.
- Ensemble Cast: Skye receives the most focus in this movie, just as Chase received the most focus in the previous film. However, this movie does make sure to give the rest of the Paw Patrol important heroic tasks to accomplish:
- Marshall puts out the fire in the junkyard at the beginning, and he's responsible for retrieving Humdinger's crystal and capturing him so he can be sent back to jail.
- Zuma sneaks into Victoria Vance's hideout and busts out Skye by giving her Humdinger's crystal, and Zuma is also responsible for retrieving the rest of the crystals, as he's able to overwhelm Victoria Vance with a water field long enough to take her crystal necklace.
- Rubble destroys Victoria Vance's Meteor Magnet so it can't summon any more meteors than it has already.
- Rocky takes off the padlock keeping the junkyard owners trapped in their trailer, saves Ryder and Chase when Victoria Vance throws Marshall's fire truck at them and saves Chase from being crushed by Humdinger.
- Chase uses police markings to turn a busy street into a makeshift runway so Skye can land a plane safely, and during the battle with Victoria Vance, because of his Super-Speed, Chase can pass around a crystal quickly enough for the entire team to use their powers against Victoria.
- Liberty saves Chase's life when Victoria launches him over a cliff, discovering her elasticity powers in the process, and is the one who finally defeats and captures Victoria by using her elasticity-powered body to restrain her.
- The Junior Paw Patrollers distract Humdinger long enough for Marshall to take his crystal, and also distract Victoria Vance long enough for Zuma to sneak in and bust out Skye.
- Epic Fail: Liberty tries to unlock her power at the beginning of the film. She tries flight, but she falls. She tries magnetism, but nothing happens. And then she tries to do a Rolling Attack. She ends up somersaulting into a stack of crates.
- Establishing Character Moment: For newcomers to the Paw Patrol franchise, this movie begins with the junkyard owners Janet and Hank calling for help because Victoria Vance locked them inside their trailer, and we see the Paw Patrol launch into action to put out the junkyard fire and free the owners, introducing us to who the Paw Patrol are and what they do for a living.
- Even Evil Has Standards: While Humdinger is an enemy to the PAW Patrol and gets Victoria Vance to work alongside him, he visibly freaks out when Victoria starts to destroy the engine of his plane, even if it means it'll get the PAW Patrol lured into a trap.Humdinger: (to Victoria) THAT WAS YOUR PLAN?!?!
- However, this is zig-zagged, as while Humdinger has enough standards to be against his plane's engine being destroyed, he does not have enough standards to be against leaving a de-powered Skye on the plane to potentially die in a crash; he even taunts Skye by saying "Thank you for flying Air Humdinger!" before parachuting away from the plane, and one of his kitties blows a raspberry at her.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: After Rubble spots the meteor Victoria pulled into the atmosphere:Skye: I didn't think it would be so bright.Chase: It looks like it's heading straight for us.(Ryder's wrist device goes off)Ryder: That's because... IT IS!!!
- Foreshadowing:
- Earlier, when the pups are going to sleep, Skye finds a pink handkerchief among her belongings. Turns out it's a Tragic Keepsake of her Dark and Troubled Past.
- During the film, Liberty states that she wants to be a little more flexible. Later on, she gets elasticity powers.
- When Chase comforts Skye after Victoria steals her crystal, Skye ends by saying, "I would do anything to get my crystal back." Skye later steals all the other pups' crystals (planning to return them before anyone notices they're gone) in hopes of retrieving her crystal by herself.
- For Your Own Good: In the latter half of the movie, after Victoria Vance steals Skye's crystal and leaves her powerless, Ryder makes two decisions for his team's own safety: first, he decides to (temporarily) end the Junior Paw Patrol program so he can keep the little pups safe. Second, he asks Skye to stay behind from the mission to retrieve her crystal, hoping to keep her safe. Unfortunately, Skye misunderstands and thinks Ryder doesn't believe in her anymore, so she tries to get the crystal back all by herself.
- Four Is Death: Skye has four Near Death Experiences in the film. The first time is when she was really young and tried to go after Ryder during a snowstorm, second time is when she was a Deer in the Headlights when the meteor is about to strike her before Ryder managed to get her out of the path, third time was when Victoria Depowers her and leaves her stranded in a plane that's about to crash and the fourth was when she rams into a giant meteor, which the impact knocks her out, causing her to fall into the ocean and drown. Luckily the power of the crystals manages to empower her so that she can fly out of the ocean unharmed.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- On Victoria Vance's video (which was projected onto the news), the title of her video is called MeteorMagnetV12final_final.mov, the channel that the video was posted on is called CrayCrayVidz, and the video itself has one like (possibly liked by herself) and 713 dislikes.
- Ryder's sleepwear has the main pups' pictures on one PJ set and the faces of the pups (including Everest and Tracker) on another.
- During Skye's flashback, while a younger Skye chases Ryder through a snowstorm, you can faintly see an outline of a mountain when she she trips and loses sight of him.
- Fully-Embraced Fiend: After revealing that a whole swarm of meteors are about to fall on Adventure City, Victoria Vance smugly admits that she really is a mad scientist after all.
- Funny Background Event: While Liberty tries to find what her powers are (for a second time) The Junior Patrollers are seen watching the news, in particular, Rocky is seen scaling up a building a là Spider-Man.
- Futile Hand Reach: Ryder does this when Chase and Liberty fall over a cliff. But, thanks to her elasticity, they make it out alive.
- Godzilla Threshold: To save Adventure City from a giant meteor, Skye resorts to ramming right through it, even if it means that it could kill her.
- "Harmful to Pets" Reminder: While the Junior Patrollers distract Victoria by pretending to sell cookies, Nano, at some point, mentions that they can't have any chocolate since they're dogs, which is poison to them.
- Harmless Electrocution: Victoria uses lighting to lift Marshall's firetruck, while he's still inside. His vehicle is metal, which is a conductor of electricity, which would've zapped him too, but somehow isn't harmed.
- I Gave My Word: When Victoria and Humdinger are "roomies" in jail, Humdinger promises to include Victoria in his escape plan, on the condition that Victoria share superpowers with him. Since Victoria doesn't have a lot of options, she agrees. After she steals Skye's crystal, she keeps superpowers for herself, but after she steals the rest of the crystals, she says "a deal is a deal" and gives Humdinger superpowers like she agreed to.
- I Heard That: Said by Victoria when she hears a guard mutter that she's not the greatest, but rather, the maddest scientist in the world, after locking her in jail.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: As Skye is attempting to land a plane safely, we see a fitness instructor advise her class to listen to the pleasant sound of her voice. But the plane goes by right outside her window, causing her to let out a scream instead.
- Impairment Shot: We're treated to one when during Skye's backstory, when a younger Skye slowly succumbs to the cold and sees Ryder take her in his arms.
- Ironic Echo:
- When Skye steals the other pups' crystals, she rationalizes it by saying that if she's going to get her crystal back from Victoria, "I'm going to need all the power I can get". Near the end, when Skye needs to destroy the meteors heading for Adventure City, this time her teammates freely offer her their crystals, and Chase tells her that if she's going to stop all those meteors, "You're going to need all the power you can get."
- Skye takes all six crystals thinking she'll be more powerful than Victoria since she only has one, but the latter easily overpowers her using wits. Later, the roles are reversed; Victoria is the one now having six crystals and the Mighty Pups only have one. They manage to beat her using teamwork and wits to get back the crystals.
- It's All My Fault:
- After the plane mission turns out to be a trap by Victoria to steal Skye's crystal, Skye apologizes to Ryder. Ryder comforts Skye by saying it wasn't her fault; he blames himself, as he shouldn't have sent her on that mission alone in the first place.
- After Skye's plan to retrieve her crystal from Victoria goes wrong and Victoria steals all the other crystals as well, Skye compares herself to Victoria, saying she knows what it's like to want to prove yourself by taking matters into your own hands or paws, but Skye just made things worse.
- Lack of Empathy: Victoria Vance cares little about the idea of people getting hurt by her schemes.
- Large Ham: Victoria Vance.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: After the pups rebrand themselves as "The Mighty Pups", merchandise of them as superheroes starts coming out. Reporter Sam Springer addresses the viewers (as in, the ones in universe as well as the ones watching the movie) by saying, "Parents, if you're seeing this...I'm sorry!"
- Mad Scientist: Victoria Vance, who fervently insists in her introduction that she isn't one. Played for laughs since she clearly is.
- Make My Monster Grow: At one point in the trailer, the pups face off against a giant Mayor Humdinger.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": Happens five times:
- When the team find out that a meteor is heading towards Adventure City.
- When they find out that Skye has literally taken off with the other crystals to fight Victoria.
- How the team reacts when a giant Mayor Humdinger captures Marshall.
- When the team witness Chase and Liberty go over a cliff after Victoria zapped the former and the latter tries to save him.
- The team's reaction to the the giant meteor explosion after Skye rams through it and when they desperately try to find her.
- Mythology Gag: Ryder's supersuit in this film looks a little similar to the suit in the series, only it lacks a Jetpack and is black with red and blue accents.
- Near-Death Experience: This has happen several times in the movie, not just to Skye, but to the other pups:
- For Skye, see Four Is Death.
- Humdinger tries to stomp on the PAW Patrol, but the ones who nearly came close to getting stomped on are Chase and Liberty.
- Marshall nearly gets crushed by Humdinger when he manages to get the crystal. Luckily he used his fire powers to break free.
- Chase and Liberty again, when Victoria manages to land a hit on the former and the latter tries to save him, resulting in both of them falling over a cliff, which causes Liberty's elasticity powers to activate and they both make it out alive.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: After having her power crystal stolen by Victoria Vance and desperate not to go back to being the "runt of the litter", Skye steals all of the other pups' power crystals to make herself even more powerful and take Victoria down all by herself. Not only does this result in Victoria taking all of those crystals too, leaving the pups without their superpowers, but even after Victoria was captured, she had summoned enough meteors to do serious damage to Adventure City.
- No Prison Segregation: Adventure City's authorities seem to believe in this; after being arrested for bringing down the meteor, Victoria Vance is placed in the same cell as Humdinger.
- "No Talking or Phones" Warning: At the end of the "Down Like That" music video that plays before the Dora short, there's a voice-over from Skye and Chase instructing the audience on "how to be mighty at the movies". The instructions include making sure to be quiet in the theatre and either silence or turn off all their "super-tech" (meaning cell phones). The audience is then invited to "get all our barks out" before the show starts, letting out barks like the Paw Patrol to get it out of their system.
- Not Helping Your Case: Victoria Vance spends the movie insisting that she is not a "mad scientist". The way she tries to prove this involves bringing down meteors on Adventure City (and thus putting innocent civilians at risk), stranding a powerless Skye on a plane that's about to crash and later capturing her and locking her up, and attacking the pups and Ryder with lightning. At one point, fed up with Victoria's maniacal laughter, Humdinger even tells her that for someone insisting she's not a mad scientist, "You are not helping your image!"
- "Not So Different" Remark: When she got captured, Skye overhears Victoria saying that she never gotten taken seriously by other people and that she would do anything to get noticed. Skye tells her that she feels the same way, having been raised as The Runt at the End and trying to take matters into her own paws. Unfortunately, her empathy falls on deaf ears, since Victoria is convinced Skye's just trying to get her guard down.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
- The members of the Paw Patrol meeting for the first time is not shown.
- Humdinger and his kittens somehow managed to dig through a toilet and into the sewers to escape the Adventure City Prison.
- "Oh, Crap!" Smile: Marshall has this reaction after setting a computer on fire.
- Oh, No... Not Again!: When the Mighty Pups incapacitate Mayor Humdinger:Chase: Humdinger. You're going back to jail.
Humdinger: Ohhhh, not again! - One-Woman Army: In the climax, Skye manages to take out an entire meteor shower; first with her jet, then with her bare paws, and lastly, by ramming through a giant meteor.
- Personality Powers: As Chase puts it, the crystals amplify the power of whatever makes a pup unique.
- Marshall's a fire pup, so he gets the ability to create fireballs.
- Zuma, the aquatic pup of the team, can turn into water and also manipulate it.
- Rocky gets magnetism since he's the team's fixit and recycling pup.
- Skye can fly since she's the Token Flier of the team.
- Chase gets Super-Speed because his name is referred to as a "High-Speed Chase".
- Rubble can turn into a living wrecking ball and a wrecking ball is what you might find on a construction vehicle.
- Liberty gets elasticity and she's shown to be very adaptable. She's also a dachshund or "wiener-dog".
- Victoria Vance gets electricity powers which reflects her Mad Scientist personality.
- Humdinger grows into a giant, true to his oversized ego.
- Playing with Fire: Marshall can shoot fireballs with his paws.
- Police Are Useless: While Chase is a police pup, Adventure City is shown to have some law enforcement, as seen with the Adventure City Prison Victoria was put into at the beginning. But when she and Humdinger break out, the guards don't seem to notice.
- Power Crystal: Unlike the series, whereas the Mighty Pups' power source comes from the meteor itself, here in the film, the Pups' power source comes from small crystals that came from the meteor.
- Power Glows: The pups' paws glow when they use their powers.
- Riddle for the Ages: Who is the current mayor of Adventure City since Humdinger's arrest?
- Say My Name: Ryder and the pups call out to Skye after after they witness her ram through a giant meteor and try to find her after she falls into the ocean.
- Skewed Priorities: During the Chase Scene with a giant Humdinger, he crushes an ice cream truck, which upsets Rubble, thinking that's the bigger issue rather than getting stomped on.
- Shout-Out: A female heroine performing a Heroic Sacrifice using her friends' power crystals, destroying a celestial object, resulting in a Disney Death. Where have I seen that before?
- Stop Hitting Yourself: When the Junior Patrollers come to rescue the rest of the Mighty Pups, Nano and Mini grab onto Humdinger's mustache, causing him to slap himself repeatedly.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- When Humdinger and Victoria escape from prison, the first thing he does is to address citizens about his return. There are two problems with that. One: both he and Victoria are fugitives and two: the citizens remember him in a very unflattering light because of his actions in the first film.
- In the latter half of the movie, Skye steals all the other pups' crystals, reasoning that six crystals will make her significantly more powerful than Victoria, who only has one. While this is true, Victoria is still far more crafty, sneaky, and intelligent than Skye, so despite the power gap, she's able to out-think her by hiding behind cloud cover so she can trap Skye in a force field and steal her crystals.
- Symbolism:
- During the "Learning to Fly" music video, one of the lyric verses in the song are "Your dreams are meant for chasing far and wide", and in Skye's flashback we see a younger Skye chase Ryder, in hopes of getting adopted by him. She's literally chasing her dream of getting adopted after being rejected by many potential owners.
- Skye has been holding on to a pink handkerchief bandana she wore when she was a little pup, symbolizing how she is still affected from being the smallest pup in her litter. Her letting it fly off into the ocean at the end of the movie shows how she's finally let go of that pain.
- Tagalong Kid: At first, Nano, Mini, and Tot simply look up to the Paw Patrol, and don't actually go on missions because the Junior Patroller Program is "just for fun", in Ryder's words. However, as Liberty is babysitting them, she puts them through a strict training regimen and they end up contributing to saving the day twice: they distract Humdinger long enough for Marshall to take his crystal and capture him, and they distract Victoria Vance long enough for Zuma to sneak into the building and bust out Skye.
- Theme Tuneless Episode: Unlike the previous movie, this film doesn't use the PAW Patrol theme song.
- They Called Me Mad!: Victoria Vance's behavior is motivated by her resentment that others didn't take her seriously, calling her a "mad scientist" (though as Humdinger points out, for someone who hates being called a mad scientist, her present-day behavior "does not help your image").
- Took a Level in Badass: All of the pups become much more powerful when the crystals give them superpowers, but thanks to Liberty's training regimen, the Junior Paw Patrollers also manage to contribute to heroics, saving the Paw Patrol from being crushed by Humdinger and distracting Victoria long enough for Zuma to bust out Skye.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: In the series, Humdinger's misdeeds consisted primarily of cheating in contests and attempting to steal artifacts, so he was mostly guilty of sabotage and theft. In this movie, he escalates to attempted murder, as after he becomes a giant, he attempts to personally stomp on and crush the rest of the Paw Patrol.
- Training from Hell: Since Liberty hasn't unlocked her power, Ryder leaves her to babysit the Junior Patrollers, who she decides to put through a tough exercise regime. Later, Ryder comments that Liberty's training with the JPs is getting a bit harsh and suggests that they take a break.
- Training Montage: When Liberty trains the pups, we see them repeatedly messing up training exercises like extinguishing a fire or running on a treadmill, but later they successfully start completing these tasks, and even start refusing to take breaks in favor of exercising more.
- Tragic Keepsake: Skye keeps a pink handkerchief bandana as a reminder of her Dark And Troubled past as The Runt at the End. At the end of the movie, she lets it fly away in the wind, now coming to terms with her small size.
- Trash the Set: The path of the meteor takes it right through the upper half of the Paw Patrol's Adventure City HQ, destroying at least the upper globe and deployment area.
- Tron Lines: The pups' suits get these. They disappear when the pups are de-powered in the climax.
- Truth in Television: Skye was the runt of a little when she was younger. She barely got her share of food and was rarely picked for adoption. This has happened to a lot of dog litters where there's always The Runt at the End.
- Uplifted Animal: One of Humdinger's cats gets a power crystal and- very briefly- is given the ability to talk.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: When Skye's crystal is stolen and she's left powerless, Ryder asks her to stay behind from the mission to retrieve it, hoping to keep her safe. Unfortunately, Skye misunderstands and thinks Ryder has lost faith in her, so she steals all the other pups' crystals (planning to put them back before anyone notices they're gone) so she can fight Victoria Vance and take the crystal back by herself. This backfires, because Victoria just steals all the other crystals as well.
- Whack-a-Monster: Or in this case, Whack-A-Pup. Zuma dodges Victoria's lightning blasts by turning into water to escape into the sewer grates and then pop up behind her. He doesn't attack her, but does taunt her a bit.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Humdinger's kittens are last seen fleeing in terror as their owner grows into a giant.
- Who's Laughing Now?: Victoria is motivated to bring down meteors and give herself superpowers because other people used to not take her seriously, calling her a "mad scientist". She even gets herself arrested very early in the movie because after bringing down a meteor, she uploads a video of herself proudly boasting that she's the one who did it.
- Would Hurt a Child: Victoria and Humdinger have no qualms about hurting Ryder and the pups. Victoria leaves Skye in a plane about to crash, tries to blast the Mighty Pups (Ryder included) with her lightning bolts, throws Marshall's vehicle at Ryder and Chase, and nearly causes Chase to fall to his death. As for Humdinger, as a giant, he tries to stomp on Chase, then Liberty and nearly crushes Marshall when he captures him.
- Worst. Whatever. Ever!: Two random Adventure City citizens tell Humdinger that he was the worst mayor they ever had.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: When the meteors are closing in on Adventure City in the climax, Ryder inspires Skye to take the crystals and fly up to destroy them, though she is feeling guilty and useless because her actions unintentionally helped cause the disaster in the first place. What's more, he does this by revealing that his "No job is too big, no pup is too small" catchphrase was inspired by Skye's determination to power through a snowstorm despite her small size when they first met.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!:
- After Humdinger and Victoria shake hands on a deal for Humdinger to spring Victoria out of jail in exchange for Victoria sharing superpowers with him, Humdinger insists that Victoria also has to shake paws with the kitties. Victoria scoffs, "Are you kidding me?" but reluctantly complies.
- During the city battle, Dolores comes out of a salon, but sees a giant Humdinger coming towards her while he's attempting to stomp on and crush Liberty, and she groans, "You have got to be kidding me."
